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The whispered translation January 17th, 2016 by

New technologies do more than ease communication: they give rise to whole new ways of using the spoken language.

Simultaneous translation is difficult because as you interpret language A, your own voice drowns out the original speech, so you can’t hear the next line you are supposed to render into language B.

As David Bellos explains in his book on translation, simultaneous translation was invented for the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II. The accused, the court officials and the witnesses spoke several languages. They needed translation between English, German, Russian, French and other languages, all at the same time.

The translations were done by a host of talented interpreters. Many of them had spent their childhoods in more than one country, and spoke two or more languages equally well.

I have done simultaneous translations and I agree with Bellos that it is the most exhausting thing you can do with your brain. It requires total concentration. A stray thought will throw you off track. You must also be perfectly familiar with the topic, in both languages.

Simultaneous translation was made possible by the new radio technology of the 1940s. The interpreter sits in a booth wearing headphones which pipe in the original speech. The headphones allow the translator to hear, even over the sound of her own voice. She speaks into a microphone which carries her words live to the listeners.

7833 whispered translation 2There is another kind of low-tech, simultaneous translation, which Bellos calls the “whispered translation” or chuchotage. An aide sits behind an invited head of state at a banquet, for example, and softly translates into her ear. I have also done whispered translation, sometimes for a small group. Without the headset it is harder to concentrate and distracting for the people who are trying to listen to the original speech.

The whispered translation is also used now, writes Bellos, to translate American TV programs into Hungarian and some of the other languages of eastern and central Europe, where the speakers know some English, but not necessarily enough to follow the whole show. The Hungarian translation only partially covers the English original, which is still audible. This kind of translation, called “lectoring,” seems simultaneous to the audience, although the translators have the time to work up a script and read it out.

The international NGO Access Agriculture uses a version of lectoring to make farmer learning videos more accessible to rural people. When the farmer is speaking, the original language is still softly heard in the background, and the translation comes over it. Access Agriculture does this to avoid subtitles, since some people in the audience may not be able to read, but also because the original language conveys the speaker’s emotion, self-confidence, and lets the audience know that the farmer-experimenters are speaking from the heart.

7833 whispered translation 1One expert takes the time to do an accurate transcription and translation of the speech, which is then recorded by a professional broadcaster doing a neat voice-over. You can lector the original video into as many languages as you want, one version at a time, softly playing the original voice of the farmers, while allowing the audience to hear the translation in their own language. Access Agriculture collaborates with a network of over 200 communication professionals who do the lectoring. The farmer learning videos are then hosted on the Access Agriculture website, where you can choose the language you want on your computer screen. You can watch and download videos in more than 65 languages at www.accessagriculture.org.

Further reading

Bellos, David 2011 Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything. New York: Faber and Faber. 373 pp.

See also our related blog stories:

Salt and beans

The truth of local language

Translate to innovate

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