Our Experience

One of the definitions of the word “culture” given in the dictionaries goes as follows: “culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts”[1]. Indeed, every nation conceives the world form different perspective. In our daily life we follow certain rules while we socialize, behave ourselves and even when we eat. These “invisible” rules vary from nation to nation. These rules are not made up within a year or a decade, it took centuries to form up and to become an ineluctable part of our life.

Considering culture in the framework of interpreting we come to the conclusion that any speaker consequently, led by human nature, is driven by the culture. The impact of the latest can be seen in behaviour, gestures, the way of speech delivery and the language.

As we know culture is also reflected in the language. When addressing speeches to the audience orators not only convince listeners of what they deliver but also represent their culture, proven experience gathered through centuries. We may easily come across in any speech at least a small tint of culture to which the orator belongs.

If you listen to a Russian speaker, you can notice that the speech is full of patriotic feelings and commitments, if you listen to an Uzbek speaker’s statements then you may find out the huge respect to ancestors’ achievements.

In this speech we would like to dwell on Russian and Uzbek speakers in the light of common behaviour of the speakers.

The behavior of Uzbek orator changes according to the styles of speech. For instance, if there is a congratulatory speech you might hear the common clichés like “Sizga sihat-salomatlik, oilaviy baxt, ishingizga rivoj va muvaffaqiyatlar tilayman!”. Clichés of this sort sometimes may cause interpreter to get distracted from the main idea. However, we should not forget that interpreters’ main target is the “idea” of any statement which must be delivered distinctly. Furthermore, Uzbek speakers seem to inadvertently make their speech long using ornate expressions, long and convoluted sentences whereas they could have conveyed the essence of their message through pair of short sentences. Of course we do not want to restrict them to express themselves in an impressive way. It is their discretion to decide how to write and deliver speech as they are orators whose aim is, as was mentioned above, to convince the audience.

As for the behavior of Russian speakers they tend to be serious from the very outset and try first to pay tribute to “ceremonial functions”. Still in the middle of their speeches very often a frivolous joke or funny saying can clear the air. They also like to address the acquaintances during the speeches with phrases like “Ну вот, Иван Петрович подтвердит…”, “Мы с Лидией Васильевной прошли огонь, воду и медные трубы…она не обманет”.

Russian speakers usually feel free to use critical comments, but having learnt well the experience of Russian poets and novelists of the past consciously or not try to use masked hints, comparisons as in fables and so on.

Usually, when an Uzbek orator criticizes something in his speech he is not straightforward as western speakers, instead you hear subtle criticism in the form of proverbs, metaphors, sarcasm, irony etc. for instance: “Qarang-a, oramizda shunday “aqilli” insonlar bor ekanda”, or “Bir balosi bo‘lmasa shudgorda quyruq na qilur”. It is of greatest importance for the interpreter to be able to feel this kind of wrapped criticism and get the gist of it across to the audience without doing violence to the meaning.

Gestures as we know can give us up to 30% of the information the person wants to share. In the framework of usual conversation people listen to the words and sentences which are subject to be subconsciously analyzed by the interlocutors.  Intonation, pauses, emotions and facial expression provide them with additional information. As for interpreters, they do it consciously and try to get as much information as they can from any auxiliary source. The Russians do not use gestures much. (The biggest exception is Vladimir Zhirinovsky).

The last point to be thoroughly considered is the language and the way of its delivery.

It is a rare thing to see an Uzbek orator to be excessively emotional. “Evenly-tempered”, “serious” this is the common definition given to most of them. Another feature to be mentioned here is deviation from the speech structure which consequently make this type of delivery long and excessive. For instance, they might use an example to leave an indelible impression but then they tend to focus on that too much which can cause listeners to get confused.

The Russians use proverbs, sayings and phrases from novels, fables, popular Russian films, poetry, sweeping comparisons etc. Interpreter should be ready to interpret combinations of the following kind: “Никогда не зарекайся” or «Сначала деньги, потом стулья»

For example, a couple of months ago I had been engaged into simultaneous interpreting of a serious international round-table held in Tashkent. There were experts and specialists from a big number of different countries. There were several specialists from the Russian Federation. While interpreting them I stumbled across some difficulties connected with their way of expressing themselves. One of the Russian experts suddenly while delivering the speech decided to compare using the phrase: “Вот попробуйте сломать карандаш о колено? Ну, вот так же и в данной ситуации”. It was difficult to understand whether he meant easiness or a complication of the process. Of course, in this case a great help comes from the background knowledge and the context which accompany a statement of this sort.

Proverbs, quotes of the greatest poets of the East are widely used by Uzbek orators as a tool for easy delivery of the content of the speech. Proverbs are not only used in speeches but also in everyday life: “Bu masalani hal qilishdan oldin yetti o‘lchab bir kesish kerak”, “Yugurganniki emas, buyurganniki”.

We would like to reiterate that cultural awareness paves the way for the successful interpretation. It helps to discharge the duty of the interpreter as a bridge between cultures.

Maybe Culture is not seen but is very well felt. Not knowing the cultural intricacies means to become vulnerable to the unexpected outcomes during the interpretation.

Thus continuous enrichment of cultural background, doing justice to cultural values provides the desired accomplishment of interpreters’ job.

Norkuvatov Sanjar

Raximova Sitora

[1]Source: www.livescience.com

Every language is unique in itself and requires a specific approach while processing speeches for interpreting. Uzbek has been developing through centuries enriching its vocabulary by borrowing as well as contributing to the glossaries of other languages. It goes without saying that the whole structure of the Uzbek language is based on the experience, history and culture of the nation. Latest developments in Uzbekistan, its achievements and present position in the world have turned simultaneous interpreting from Uzbek into English into a topical issue.

Through years Training Center for Interpreters of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy has been training interpreters most of whom were oriented to translate from English into Russian or from Russian into English. It was done not only due to certain traditional acceptations, there were a number of other reasons influencing this state of affairs. A common stereotype, a myth which reigned supreme within that period of time consisted in the idea which claimed that interpreting from Uzbek into English in simultaneous mode presented an insurmountable difficulty. It was considered that the main reason for this issue was Uzbek language sentence structure, its syntax. As we all know very well, a verb in Uzbek language comes at the end of the sentence and has a fixed position, whereas in English it directly comes after the subject as you can see it in the following example:

“Men kecha maktabga bordim” while in English the verb comes right after the subject: “I went to school yesterday”.

It’s clear that to interpret a speech delivered in Uzbek and keep an appropriate pace seems to be rather difficult.  We should also take into account the fact that Uzbek speakers not rarely tend to switch into longish ornamental expression of ideas which also requires certain processing to make it clear to the English speaking people.

We have tried different approaches to overcome the problem under investigation. Not once we experienced setbacks while trying to interpret from Uzbek into English. The main drawback we used to encounter was the fact that the interpreter had to wait till the end of the sentence to hear the verb. It would require him to make a long pause so that he could give the correct translation. However, while working in simultaneous mode there is no time to wait for the end of the sentence as there is a threat that you can seriously leg behind the orator and miss his other ideas. At the same time, falling behind the orator exerts strong pressure on the interpreter and he can enter into race with him and that can result in mechanical translation which makes interpreting loose and inconvenient to listen to.

Continuous discussions of this problem in the course of our classes, seminars and roundtables brought us to the following solution: we had to find the way to be able to bridge the gap between the verb we had been pending for and the pause which inevitably aroused in this situation. In the hope to tackle this problem, we tried to apply various approaches while experimenting and exercising in the booth. In order to avoid pauses we started slipping in neutral words and sentences into speeches under interpreting. As for the standard interpretation tools, like reformulation, generalization compression and others, we tried to as much as possible adapt them to our needs. One of the methods which helped us a lot was application of anticipation. We’ll try to demonstrate our approach in the following example.

“Mamlakatimizning barcha hududi kabi poytaxtimizda ham sanoatni jadal rivojlantirish, kichik biznes va xususiy tadbirkorlikni qo‘llab-quvvatlash borasida keng ko‘lamli ishlar amalga oshirilmoqda”

If we had not heard this sentence clearly or had to wait to listen to its final part, we would have used a neutral sentence at the beginning of it so that we could have extra time to listen to the remaining part of the sentence to reformulate it. Here is the translated version:

“It goes without saying (neutral sentence) entrepreneurship and small businesses are steadily developing all over the country (reformulated sentence)”.

If we happen to interpret a speaker whose rate of delivery is too high, we can use generalization and compression. Changing the sentences from active voice into passive – is also helpful when interpreting from Uzbek into English.

As we have mentioned above, anticipation, as a tool, proved to be rather efficient too. While anticipating we pronounce a verb before we actually hear it relying on our background knowledge and overall meaning of the sentence. In the following example we’ll try to show how we use anticipation to help us interpret from Uzbek into English.

“2017-2021-yillarda mamlakatimizning iqtisodiy, siyosiy, ijtimoiy barqarorligini, fuqarolik jamiyatining har bir bo‘g‘inini, avvalombor, oila institutini, shuningdek, yoshlarga oid davlat siyosatini…(Notice,  we haven’t heard the verb yet)”

“During 2017-2021 we should reinforce (anticipated verb) our policy to provide economic, political and social development of the country. At the same time, we should fuel growth into social institutions such as family institution and provide a good youth policy. (reformulated passage)

As you can see, it is possible to anticipate the verb with the help of background knowledge or making conclusion from the key words of the source language sentence such as “iqtisodiy, siyosiy, ijtimoiy barqarorlik”, “davlat siyosati”. What usually comes to our minds when we hear the word “policy”? We usually say “reinforce policy”, “implement or carry out policy” etc. If we keep abreast of the recent developments, we should be aware of the fact that in 2017-2021 the government of Uzbekistan is planning to “Reinforcing its policy” in different areas. So, in this sentence the word “Reinforce” seems to be appropriate to use.

Now that we have acquired a thorough grasp of what Uzbek-English interpreting is, we are looking for the ways to upgrade it. While practicing simultaneous interpreting we face many challenges and issues to be taken into account. We’d like to mention a few of them. These are the problems of pat phrases, terms and idioms usage. In our humble experience we have encountered these problems quite frequently. There is a great possibility that while working in simultaneous mode you can come to a deadlock, e.g. trying to translate an unknown term or an idiom. Due to this reason, continuous study of high frequency terms, idioms and pat phrases, especially in the fields of politics, business, law and others have become a serious part of our classes at TCI UWED. Now we know the rule to be followed by conference-interpreters: careful preparation for a given event saves you from undesirable flops.

Interpreting from Uzbek into English is different as compared to English-Russian interpreting. It requires specific approaches and ability to effectively use interpreting tools. Regular exercises at home and in the classroom help a lot to improve simultaneous interpreting from Uzbek into English. We hope that TCI UWED recommendations and hints adduced here will fuel growth in the number of students who are willing to try Uzbek- English simultaneous interpreting and develop their interpreting skills.

Sherzod Toshpulatov, Sanjar Norkuvatov

Maksud Mirjanov and Nadira Abdurakhmannova

It goes without saying that operational memory able to keep a good amount of information is indispensable for consecutive interpreters.  Different mnemonic exercises regularly practiced during our classes at TCI UWED help us train ourselves to expand the capacity of this faculty. One of the most efficient and interesting mnemonic exercises, in our view, is so called Growing Snowball (GSB).  We’d like to share with you the way we do it.

GSB is best to do by a group of 6-9 students. One of the students reads a handpicked English text sentence by sentence to the rest of the group.  One by one students interpret sentences separately allotted to every member of the group, without taking notes, of course . Before interpreting a sentence given by a presenter to a student s/he has to repeat  sentences previously translated by his/her classmates. Thus, if the number of practicing students is equal to nine, it means that each interpreted sentence is repeated eight times. It is only natural that each student repeating the ideas of previously translated sentences tries to improve the quality of the text under interpreting.  As you see, the size of the interpreted text gradually grows like a snowball rolling down the slope covered by snow.

While doing this exercise it is important to memorize the right order of ideas and reproduce afore-coming messages with a good deal of accuracy. Students are supposed not only to memorize what had been interpreted by their classmates before them, but also develop their ability to build the logical chain of the discourse based on the right order of ideas. Multiple reiteration of the messages gives students a chance to iron down existing drawbacks like omissions, distortions and additions inherent to beginning interpreters. Presentation of individual versions of interpreted passages goes without breaking the train of delivery which helps us to control the overall fluency of interpreting.  It  means that practicing GSB improves our oratorical skills a lot: we learn to correctly use various elements of prosody like correct distribution of logical stress, keeping the pace of presentation, making pauses etc.

We have also noticed that regular practice of this exercise develops our ability to recall “in a flash” omitted parts of the text by getting only a small hint from a classmate: a word or even a gesture. We assume that perfection of this ability is important for us due to its certain connection with the quick uptake of the gist of an idea to be jot down to a writing pad in the course of note taking, i.e. it teaches us to define the rheme of the discourse which also helps interpreters to code essential parts of the speech to be decoded while reading back their notes.

In the course of interpreting local graduates of Russian schools have problems with Uzbek and vice versa. With a view to improve this situation, one of our classmates suggested to interpret the English text into Russian or Uzbek in accordance with the A language of the participant. Unexpectedly, this modification has turned out to be very interesting and useful for us. Now we have a chance not only to improve our command of English but also Uzbek and Russian languages which is so important for the job. It goes without saying that this exercise also helps students’ ability to quickly switch from one language into another.

It should also be mentioned that while selecting the texts for GSB we proceed from the assumption that the materials of the exercise should help expand our background knowledge too. The final part of GSB which falls on the shoulders of the last students in the queue becomes really difficult. Students have to reproduce the whole text switching several times from one language into another. When the exercise is finally finished we all feel s-o-o-o  high as if we achieved something unbelievable. And it is certainly  an achievement for it increases our confidence and helps us to adapt to challenges of the work of the conference interpreter.

Aziza Ganieva 

UWED  TCI , 2015

From the very beginning of our students’ life at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy we heard much about so called “pilot” English group where simultaneous interpreters were trained. Most of the senior year students who had a chance to be the part of this interpreters training group used to tell us that it was something desperately difficult. Those times I had very vague idea of what simultaneous interpreting was about though I was very excited about the upcoming opportunity to learn more. This opportunity was given us when we became third year students and I understood that those senior year students were not lying or exaggerating. Everything was exactly as they had described: totally unknown, hard and so time & effort consuming. Our trainer, Dr. Samadov, was not praising us just for mere ability  to express our opinion in simple English like other teachers used to. On the contrary he wanted us to improve in every possible way, made us work on our pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar of English, command of our mother tongue, logics, general understanding of politics, economy, and so on and so forth… It was the very moment when I realized that I was quite far from being fluent not only in English but in local Russian and Uzbek too. Read more

Shahnoza Erkabayeva 

UWED  TCI , 2015

What is note-taking? Probably, even a schoolboy can answer that it is a process of taking notes while somebody is delivering a speech. I thought that it meant writing abbreviated sentences down. But when I began attending interpreting classes at TCI, I realized that I had been completely wrong. It turned out that it was not only “writing something down”, but also the whole system of rules, symbols, abbreviations which one should know very well in order to be an interpreter.

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Kamila Halikova

                                                                                                                     UWED TCI, 2014

What’s Interpreting Business About?

Being an interpreter is a hard, but fascinating job. However it takes a lifetime and valiant efforts to become a good interpreter.  In my opinion the main thing that can help you in pursuing your dream is confidence and desire to learn. In order to introduce to you the general rules of interpreting, I would like to share with you my personal experience and also give you some advice, which I hope, will help you.

A lot of people consider the job of an interpreter as an ordinary one. However, basing on my experience at the course of study at the Training Centre for Interpreters (TCI) I found out that most of the time an interpreter plays the role of a reporter or an orator. That is why if you have chosen the profession of an interpreter, you have to follow the certain rules of  oratory.

First of all, an interpreter must be confident.  Nervousness and agitation can mar your impression before the audience. Leaning on my own experience, I can say that even coherent and fluent interpretation can sound for the audience not so well, if you are too strained. So, try to stay as calm and confident as you can, because your nervousness can spoil not only your image but the image of the speaker, whom you are interpreting for. Read more

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Maria  Butenko

 UWED TCI, 2014

What is interpreting?

 To be honest, before entering the Training Centre for Interpreters, I could hardly answer this question. All I knew was the fact that a person striving to become an interpreter should speak English pretty well and have a rich vocabulary. I thought that almost everybody who knew  foreign languages well enough could automatically function as interpreters. And even while being the second-year student in the A-group of professor Samadov, this careless image of an interpreter was still on my mind. Moreover, I was so self-assured, that I sincerely considered my English to be almost perfect. I was surprised to find out that there was a whole world of things I had no idea about.

Today I can say with confidence that this noble profession should be considered as one of the hardest ever. One of my brightest impressions of the whole course of interpreting was my first attempt to interpret simultaneously a speech from Russian into English. I realized the whole meaning of the word “concentration” then. Your level of English may be pretty high, but if you do not posses special professional skills, you would have insurmountable difficulties and, most likely, fail. The fact is you have to listen and interpret, practically, at the same time. The task seems to be so unnatural. The worst thing which usually happens in the interpreting booth is that you start panicking for you aren’t able to do these two things at once. Moreover, while participating in the training course on consecutive interpreting we were taught not to translate mechanically, i.e. not to translate every word. Read more

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Gulirano Abdullajanova

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  UWED TCI, 2014

   Importance of Exercises in Interpretation Courses

The role of an interpreter in communicative process is not just simply converting one language into another. It goes much further. The role of an interpreter is to bridge the gap between the representatives of different languages, cultures and nationalities, to create mutual understanding of facts and what’s being communicated between the parties. An interpreter must understand much more than just a second language. And there are some special skills and techniques interpreter should acquire in order to succeed in this profession. I remember our first endeavor to interpret at TCI in the course of a class.  It was consecutive interpreting.  All our concepts and ideas about interpretation were ruined. We thought it was enough to know English  well to interpret, but when we tried it for the first time, it turned out so difficult, that some of us gave up. But the will and diligence can do a lot. Our dearest teacher and some famous books, authors of which became close to us, showed us the way to gain the skills an interpreter needs so much. Special exercises for interpreters are an important part of the training. Without them it’s very difficult to learn to interpret.  We took a lot of them. Most of them are ones recommended by famous interpreter M. Beloruchev. Here, I’ll tell you about some of them, which helped our students, including me, a lot. The aim of each exercise is different and I divide all the exercises into 4 groups:

1. Exercises devoted to text analysis and building vocabulary
2. Exercises aimed at developing memory
3. Exercises directed at advancing delivery skills
4. Practicing interpretation exercises.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Madinabonu Abdukarimova

                                                                                                                                                                                                      UWED TCI, 2014 

 Public speaking

My dear friends who dream about becoming an interpreter and who are taking their first steps towards the world of interpreting. I’d like to share with you my own impressions and personal experience of entering into an amazing and magical world of interpreting. Maybe you’ll wonder why I’m calling it magical. Believe me it is magical indeed and I have plenty of proofs of my view point.

First of all, this world has a lot of magic tricks. Once you enter this world, then you’ll never be the same, as before. Like a magician who with the help of his wand turns Cinderella from an ordinary girl into a beautiful princess, the world of interpreting takes one person and transforms him into several different kinds of people. When you’re taking your first step into the world of interpreting you, probably, won’t have any idea that you  are going to turn not only into an interpreter, but also into a politician, a diplomat, a linguist, a businessman, a historian, a geographer and a public speaker as well.

I should say that for me TCI UWED is that kind of magical world which opens its doors to students and invites them to the journey around the world of interpreting. Well, I stepped into TCI when I was the 2^nd year student of UWED and telling the truth this “wonder world” helped me a lot, I learned and continue learning lots of useful things during the classes we have.

I should tell you that in the course of our training at TCI UWED we have different kinds of small projects like pat phrases, the map, different glossaries which make our classes more interesting and fruitful. As for me, I am responsible for the small project which is called “Public speaking”. My task is to help my group mates and myself to learn and gain main skills of speaking in public. As the manager of this small project and as the student who has some experience in this field I would like to tell you about the importance of acquiring public speaking skills for interpreters.

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