50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 213 Entering the Interpretation Team

A newcomer who has never been involved in diplomatic translation work can start independent translation with reference to hundreds of old manuscripts? (Continued from the previous chapter, free of charge)
If someone else said this to Su Yongan, he would definitely scoff, but reality is more magical than stories. The impossible happened right before his eyes, and he couldn't help but believe it.

"Comrade Sun Zhiwei, I've read both of your manuscripts and they're very good. I also have a manuscript for an external note that's urgently needed. Could you please translate it for me on the spot?"

Su Yongan still wanted to struggle one last time and witness the impossible with his own eyes.

Sun Zhiwei did not refuse. Since he wanted to demonstrate the value, he should demonstrate it more comprehensively.

He didn't want to spend several months on internship as the translation department might not be the one he would be assigned to in the future.

Holding the manuscript, he sat down directly opposite Su Yongan, took a blank piece of manuscript paper and began to translate on the spot.

It took him only five or six minutes to translate a one-page external notice of more than 300 words. After three checks and two comparisons, he finished the manuscript in less than ten minutes.

Su Yongan watched him translate, and after the manuscript was finished, he took it in his hands and started checking it.

After reading the translation from beginning to end, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s not that there was an error in Sun Zhiwei’s translation, but because this external note was sent to all diplomatic countries.

So if the same manuscript with the same meaning is sent to different countries, the tone and wording in the translated manuscript will be different due to the closeness of the relationship.

However, Sun Zhiwei's translation is only suitable for countries with which the country has normal relations. For countries with closer or less favorable relations, the wording needs to be revised.

Su Yongan breathed a sigh of relief, but it was not because he was jealous of others' success, but because he finally realized that the new colleague sitting opposite him was not born with knowledge, but just had a strong learning ability.

This is still within the scope of materialism, so he doesn't have to worry. Otherwise, the psychological pressure would be really great.

He immediately placed the manuscript horizontally on the table and carefully explained the question to Sun Zhiwei.

Then he showed Sun Zhiwei on the spot what words to use for close countries, how to polish them for countries with average relations, and how to revise them for hostile countries.

When Sun Zhiwei realized that it was not a translation error on his part, but a problem beyond his understanding, he quickly studied and absorbed it seriously.

After confirming that Sun Zhiwei had learned it, Su Yongan smiled and said, "Comrade Sun Zhiwei, your ability is really amazing. Our department needs talents like you."

"Why don't you just stay in our translation office after your internship? I'll ask the director to make you a regular employee early."

Sun Zhiwei smiled noncommittally and replied, "I've only just arrived and still need a lot of learning. It's not as exaggerated as you say."

"Besides, I can't pick and choose where I'm assigned. I can only say that I'm a brick in the revolution, and I'll be wherever I'm needed."

"Of course you need to learn. Written translation is only the foundation of our translation work. Once you are familiar with written translation, you still need to learn spoken translation, which is difficult."

"The most talented people in our translation department are all in the oral translation group."

"Once you're familiar with our work, you'll definitely want to intern in the translation team. Then you'll understand what difficulty is and what it means to be a talented person."

Oral translation is the most difficult part of translation. How could Sun Zhiwei not know this? In his previous life, he had witnessed the elegant style of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' "simultaneous interpretation" at international conferences.

However, he also had his own advantage: a photographic memory. This would help him overcome the difficult task of navigating the language barrier. Sun Zhiwei received recognition from team leader Su Yongan and immediately began participating in the English translation work.

In the first week, Su Yongan gave him the translation of a large number of not very important documents.

Sun Zhiwei has always been very efficient in his work. He classified the manuscripts and translated similar documents every day, increasing his speed to the highest level. He could translate at least 20,000 to 30,000 words a day.

After he became familiar with diplomatic vocabulary, he began to translate directly on the typewriter, and increased the translation speed by two times.

Fortunately, today's typewriters use standard keyboards, so he has regained the typing speed of his previous life's computer.

So, in just half a month, he had translated all the manuscripts accumulated by the English group. While other groups were busy, the English group was free to drink tea.

The key point is that team leader Su Yongan even sipped tea while making sarcastic remarks: "There's nothing we can do. Who told us to have another 'Sun Kuaishou' in our team? Let the leader find one for you too."

As a result, I don't know who reported the matter.

The leader sent Sun Zhiwei down to study, and it was impossible for him to have nothing but tea, so Sun Zhiwei was transferred to the interpretation team.

The interpretation team at that time could be said to be at its peak, with the five golden flowers of the diplomatic field emerging, so there was a bit of a female dominance.

When Sun Zhiwei came in and saw a room full of female comrades, he could only pretend to be dumb, doing more things and talking less.

Because of the importance of oral translation, although he has not yet figured it out, Sun Zhiwei found some relevant knowledge from his past life memories.

Interpretation is the nightmare of every student majoring in English. Even if one has strong English skills, he or she cannot take on interpreting work. Being an interpreter in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the difficulty to another peak.

After all, dialogue between countries cannot tolerate any carelessness, and the pressure is obvious.

For example, "simultaneous interpretation" means that the interpreter translates while listening, which is characterized by high efficiency. The average interval between the original text and the translated text is three to four seconds, and the maximum is more than ten seconds.

Anyway, Sun Zhiwei felt that this thing was a bit like the technique of multitasking, fighting with both hands at the same time. Anyway, it was very magical.

The other is "consecutive interpretation", which involves waiting for the other party to finish speaking before interpreting. It requires shorthand skills, and the ability to digest and reorganize the content.

Picture: The shorthand transcript of a senior translator. Can you tell what is written in it? I can’t figure it out anyway. It is said that even the author himself couldn’t figure it out afterwards.

The ceiling of "consecutive interpretation" is Sister Zhang's 21 minutes of consecutive interpretation in the st China-US high-level strategic dialogue.

Compared with "simultaneous interpretation", "consecutive interpretation" is more difficult and has stricter requirements for accuracy.

The two most important points can be summarized as: calm mental quality and strong short-term memory ability.

Fortunately, he has both of these qualities, and all that remains is to strengthen his exercise.

After Sun Zhiwei came to the interpretation team, he still had to go through pre-job training, but this time it was not so easy.

He will practice speaking with several other young girls who are also preparing to join the import translation team. They will do text translation in the morning, group conversations in the afternoon, and role-playing games using records of previous international conferences in the evening.

(End of this chapter)