20201005 trans

Cao Runxin 曹润鑫

Modern Interpreting with Digital and Technical Aids

Challenges for Interpreting in the 21st Century

Martin Woesler, Hunan Normal University/China

Abstract

The world is growing in tandem with the Internet, freedom of travel and globalization. Inevitably translation and interpreting are in greater demand, especially online during the coronavirus pandemic. With the beginning of the 21st century, interpreting faces new technical and digital challenges requiring new methods of delivery. Technical developments in the course of digitization have been on the rise and are approaching real-time use simultaneous capability. The technology supporting the interpreter is becoming more and more effective, while an increasing number of systems, such as artificially intelligent programs, are competing with the human being. The interpreter must now be a technology organizer and adroitly adapt to technologically predefined interpreting situations, such as video conferences with augmented reality, tele-interpreting, etc.

Chang Huiyue 常慧月

The movements of migrants within the EU and the influx of refugees from crisis areas outside of it render community interpreting especially of rare languages in unprecedented demand, often resulting in the unsavory use of non-professional and sub-standard interpreters. Existential problems for the entire profession become apparent. Due to networking via the Internet, unqualified interpreters pour onto the market from low-wage countries: with dumping prices and low-quality services, they discredit the profession of the professional interpreter. Meanwhile remuneration practices have been declining, with payment of interpreting services often being delayed or payment defaulted. All these lead to a devaluation of the profession of the interpreter while digital technology throws into doubt the need for the role of the human as interpreter or translator.

Chen Han 陈涵

The positive side of technological advancement is that communication (including translation and interpretation) becomes digital and therefore can be enhanced with artificial intelligence. This enhancement takes interpreting and translation to a new quality level. Translation and interpretation theory needs to adapt to translation and interpretation in the age of artificial intelligence, the focus, which has moved with the functional approaches to the translator, now moves to the target text audience. The new way of interpreting is a human, but digital-technically determined hybrid form of human-machine interactive interpretation, with due respect for the human participation expressed in the form of professional remuneration.

Chen Hui 陈惠

Keywords

interpreting; artificial intelligence; simultaneous interpreting; real-time support; interpreting technology; digitalisation; interpreting software

1.Literature Review

In 2006, Honegger notes in a survey that most prospective interpreters do not use software in the interpreting booth, but work with paper glossaries which they have created with MS Word or MS Excel. Fantinuoli (2011, 50) states five years later that most interpreters still manage their terminology traditionally with MS Word or MS Excel. In 2015 20- to 30-year-old interpreting students state in a survey by Gacek that "software solutions are not sufficiently known among prospective interpreters and therefore are not used" (Gacek 2015, 82). The purpose of the present study is therefore to draw attention to the functionality of software for interpreting booths.

Chen Jiangning 陈江宁

The conference interpreter Anja Rütten (2007) presents valuable information in her information-rich overview, Information and Knowledge Management in Conference Interpreting, and in her numerous blogs in 2013 and 2014 about experiences with hardware and software in conference interpreting. In this paper, also lists of software and technology from Drechsel's interpreting practice in 2005, 2013 are used.

Standard works on the craft of interpreting (Pöchhacker 2004; Stoll 2009) also form the basis of the present study. Only their suggestions are taken up here and they ought to be reconsidered from the perspective of support by software and technology. In addition, current individual studies are evaluated, such as on distance interpreting (Kalina 2010) and explanations on the use of office programs (Fantinuoli 2011), on web corpora (Gurevych 2013), and on Qtrans (Scholz 2008; Gacek 2015). To compare it with the analogue age, the very early Braun 1999 study on video conferencing is used.

Chen Jiaxin 陈佳欣

Since software and technology are developing rapidly, a study inevitably becomes obsolete quickly. To arrive, nevertheless, at more generally valid statements, the present study focuses on developments and functionality, explaining concrete software and hardware only by way of example, with the knowledge that products are often replaced by others and that only a few can last for a long period of time. In order to get an overview of software and hardware, the current master's thesis by Gacek (2015) is used. However, it only refers to a small selection of products and does not come to generally valid conclusions. This study also addresses the polarizing discussion on how much technology and software the interpreter needs. While Spitzer provocatively speaks of the "digital dementia" of interpreters in 2012, Conway (2014) has taken a more balanced approach to the question of the cost-benefit ratio of the computer in the interpreting booth.

Chen Jingjing 陈静静

This paper will also introduce special aspects, like problems posed by trendy community interpreting (Andres 2009) and cheap competition for interpreters, as well as placing networked communication and work on texts in the context of the development of swarm intelligence and a collective consciousness. Finally, a new type of interpreting is called for, which expects at least technical competence from the interpreter, and at most a hybrid human-machine working method. In this paper, the thesis, already passionately advocated historically, that the computer or artificial intelligence could never replace the human being in certain functions such as language (Austermühl 2004), is no longer categorically excluded.

Chen Sha 陈莎

2.Simultaneous Technology/Technology Working in Real Time

While in the past technology did not allow simultaneous work support, i.e. it was not possible for translators to work with simultaneous or consecutive interpreting, this disadvantage seems to have been largely overcome technically at the beginning of the 21st century, although there are still too few apps that make use of these new possibilities.

Arguments against the positive effects of advanced technology include references to over-coding, the abundance of information, etc. These phenomena appear to be a hindrance, especially in connection with the interpreting profession, which requires the highest level of concentration.

Chen Sunfu 谌孙福

Spitzer (2012) for example, poses the question of whether computer work causes a mental deterioration of society. Rütten (2014a), on the other hand, refers to Spitzer, pointing out the advantages of the computer, arguing that it has voice output, retrievability through full-text search, spell checking, sorting, categorization and transmission functions. She suggests as a compromise: "Talking about research, challenging one's own memory and always asking about what is meant and the context - if we take this to heart, we have a good chance of making the computer a valuable training tool and an excellent assistant.”

Chen Yongxiang 陈永相

2.1 Technology to Support the Interpreter

2.1.1 Preparation

Even if a consecutive interpreter is standing next to the speaker, armed with a stenographer's notepad and pencil, and interprets him or her in an apparently analogous manner, even he or she cannot do without technology these days.

Even during the preparation stage, his duty of care requires him to take into account the accessible sources, some of which are electronic.

Even more technical possibilities are offered if the interpreter asked to use his own initiative receives speech manuscripts beforehand. These can be scanned, transcribed and prepared, for example by automatic color coding of verbs and realities, which Stoll (2009, 84f.) also recommends for analogue preparation, as it improves anticipation and simplifies syntactic planning.

Cheng Yusi 成于思

In addition to the concrete preparation of the text to be interpreted, more general preparation can also be supported technically.

Drechsel (2005, 16f.) lists, for "preparation for the conference topic and the creation of glossaries, electronic tools such as search engines, web catalogues, topic portals, scientific websites, company or customer websites, library catalogues, online libraries, specialised services for e-publications, online magazines, newsgroups and others are used.”

Online comparison with existing acronyms/abbreviations (Stoll 2009, 85) is also helpful.

Deng Jinxia 邓锦霞

Of course, ad hoc knowledge acquisition (Gile 2009) prior to the conference also counts as preparation, such as requesting speech manuscripts and presentations, often in file form. Preparation does not only take place in the weeks before the assignment ("advance preparation", Gile 2009), but also on site a few minutes before the assignments ("last minute preparation", Gile 2009) and during the interpreting breaks ("in-conference preparation", Gile 2009). Stoll categorizes the areas of interpreting preparation as "general technical", "terminological" and "interpreting strategy" (Stoll 2009, 86).

Ding Daifeng 丁代凤

Here, search engines or electronic dictionaries are often faster than paper dictionaries. Moreover, if, for example, the conference program/list of speakers is updated on a website, the interpreter can adjust his or her planning by accessing the website without further consultation with the client.

In principle, all technical aids should meet the requirements of being user-friendly, having a fast or real-time response time and being manageable.

Fang Jieling 方洁玲

2.1.2 Speech to Text in Real-time with Low Error Rate

Every smartphone today has a mode or apps with which it records speech and converts it into text in real time with a now justifiably low number of errors. This simple function alone is valuable for the apparently analogue consecutive interpreter: He can put his shorthand pad in a folder in which, for example, the smartphone is inserted on the left and has written down the spoken text as text.

Gan Fengyu 甘奉玉

While he works with his notes in interpreting notation on the right, as he used to do on the right, and can insert the pen into a holder on the folder if necessary, the transcription on the left enables him to find his way back into the context at a glance or, at most, with a wiping movement in the event of a pause in his hesitation (colloquially known as a 'hang up') or even a 'blackout'.

Drechsel (2013) demonstrates the use of the following programs/websites on the Ipad (which helps him to concentrate on individual processes): Documents (manages documents and allows editing), Interplex, LookUp (terminology databases), Wikipedia, Google.

Gao Mingzhu 高明珠

Tablets like the Ipad have the following advantages over the conventional laptop, notebook or netbook in the cubicle: They are lighter, smaller, handier, the battery lasts longer, typing is silent, you can use apps, your work is not interrupted by updates or pop-ups, you can take notes by hand and record things in the background for archiving or follow-up. Of course, due to the data protection regulation, the consent of the client must be obtained before recording.