This report presents findings from an online survey of 140 English/Chinese conference interpreters, conducted as a follow-up of an exploratory diary study (Han 2015), to provide a detailed account of real-life interpreting practice in China. Three main tendencies are identified: a) conference-related materials (mainly programmes and speakers’ scripts/notes) are often received late, leaving little preparation time; b) interpreters do a much wider variety of simultaneous interpreting tasks than previously thought, albeit with varying degrees of frequency; c) difficulties are felt to arise mainly from technical subject matter and terminology, speakers’ delivery (strong accent, speed), and lack of preparation. These findings largely support the diary study results and previous scholarly descriptions.
Campbell, S. & Hale, S. (2003). Translation and interpreting assessment in the context of educational measurement. In G. Anderman & M. Rogers (Eds.), Translation today: Trends and perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 205–224.
Han, C. (2015). Lacunae, myths and legends about conference interpreters: A diary study to explore conference interpreting practice in China. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 23 (3), 440–457.
Huang, M. (2005). 谈口译资格认证考试的规范化设计.《中国翻译》. Toward a more standardized large-scale accreditation test for interpreters. Chinese Translator Journal 61, 62–65.
Pan, J., Sun, Z.X. & Wang, H.H. (2009). 潘珺等. 口译的职业化与职业化发展 – 上海及江苏地区口译现状调查研究. 《解放军外国语学院学报》. Professionalization in interpreting: Current development of interpreting in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages 61, 81–85.
STTACAS (Science and Technology Translators Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) & TRANSN. (2007). 中国科院科技翻译协会 & 传神联合信息技术有限公司.中国地区译员生存状况调查报告 [An investigation into working and living conditions of translators and interpreters in China: A report]. [URL] (accessed 15 March 2012).
Wan, H.Y. (2004). 万宏瑜. 解读图表:另一项重要的口译技能.《中国翻译》 [Interpreting graphics: An important skill for interpreters]. Chinese Translators Journal 21, 83–86.
Wang, E.M. (2005). 王恩冕.口译在中国 调查报告.《中国翻译》 [Interpretation as a profession in China: A survey]. Chinese Translators Journal 21, 212–159.
Wang, L. & Lin, W. (2006). Interpretation training: SI with text. In M.J. Chai & A.L. Zhang (Eds.), Professionalization in interpreting: International experience and developments in China. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 237–244.
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Chou, Isabelle, Jiehui Hu, Edinson Muñoz & Adolfo M. García
2021. Discourse-Level Information Recall in Early and Late Bilinguals: Evidence From Single-Language and Cross-Linguistic Tasks. Frontiers in Psychology 12
Han, Chao & Kerui An
2021. Using unfilled pauses to measure (dis)fluency in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting: in search of an optimal pause threshold(s). Perspectives 29:6 ► pp. 917 ff.
Abdel Latif, Muhammad M. M.
2020. Researching Professional Translator/Interpreter Experiences and Roles. In Translator and Interpreter Education Research [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 125 ff.
Han, Chao & Mehdi Riazi
2018. The accuracy of student self-assessments of English-Chinese bidirectional interpretation: a longitudinal quantitative study. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 43:3 ► pp. 386 ff.
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