Home / Blog
In actual interpreting, the speaker sometimes takes two to three minutes or even longer to stop and let the translator interpret.
In the NAATI CCL Test, although long sentences generally do not exceed 35 words, many details are often missed by relying solely on brain memory. Moreover, there will be situations where the brain suddenly goes blank which could be a disaster for the candidates and finally lead to a fail. Therefore, interpreting notes are necessary.
Interpreting notes is not just how to take notes, but how to use notes, and how to combine notes and mind notes? Some students may spend a lot of time learning how to take notes, but interpreting notes are just an aid of mind-taking. Good note-taking skills can help you to sort out your memory, concentrate, and remind your memory. Therefore, in the process of interpreting, it is important to combine both brain writing and note-taking.
In the process of interpreting, comprehension, memorization and notes are required. If these three parts cooperate well, the translation will go smoothly. If they do not cooperate well, they will interfere with each other. People who are new to interpreting often feel "hesitating" and "distracted" when taking notes. If they understand the meaning of the audio carefully, they cannot record it. If it is recorded, it is impossible to understand the central idea of the content. This is because they haven’t learned how to switch between listening and memorizing, brain memorizing and taking notes. In the interpreting process, the interpreter should first focuses on the understanding, and at the same time, writes down the main points of their comprehension in words and symbols. Candidates should constantly sort out the speaker’s thoughts and opinions while listening, and then reflect them in their notes.
1. Remember the main meaning
Candidates need to record one or two words or symbols on the notes to help memorize the relevant meaning and remind the connection between a series of content. To remember the meaning generally means to remember "Keywords", which is generally the subject, predicate and object.
2. Details that must be recorded
Some details should not only be memorized by the brain, such as numbers, specific nouns (XX institutions, names, place names, etc.), and some unfamiliar terms. Because it is easy to miss, so this requires note-taking. There is a situation that candidates will encounter a great number of specific terms and it is difficult for them to write down or remember. What should they do? In fact, interpreting needs to expand students' vocabulary and knowledge. So this is why participating in the course is necessary and useful. The teacher will sort out the relevant key vocabulary for everyone.
There is another situation where you need to take notes, which is examples giving. For example, "We have trade relations with many countries, such as India, China, Singapore, New Zealand, etc.". In this case, you must take notes, otherwise one or two key words may be missed.
3. How to take notes?
Typical notes include "keywords" and "road signs" which indicate the content of the information and the speaker's thoughts. For example, candidates can use country abbreviations and emoticons for positive and negative opinions. Keep your notes clear and precise. If your writing is too sloppy, you will be easily misled and even cause unnecessary hesitation.