50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 214 Troop Training
Due to staff shortage, Sun Zhiwei has demonstrated outstanding ability in text translation.

Therefore, the translation training every morning turned into him teaching a few little girls.

Seeing that the old comrades in the group were busy and were constantly being sent out to accompany the group as interpreters, Sun Zhiwei couldn't refuse.

But he was really dissatisfied with the current teaching materials. They were purely cramming tactics without any skills at all. It would be considered good if he could train a qualified translator in three months.

But he also knew that this was already the best translation textbook in the country.

He thought, since he was asked to attend the class, then he would naturally teach it his way.

So, he first taught his own translation experience to a few young girls.

For example, he taught them the diplomatic rhetoric table, the classic format table, and the three checks and two pairs, and asked them to memorize them before translating the documents.

This is equivalent to memorizing the formulas first and then doing the questions, and then checking the answers after finishing the questions. This is extremely efficient.

In just seven days, the five girls he taught were able to translate diplomatic English documents independently. Their future progress depends on their own efforts.

He also made it clear that his method was only suitable for quick elementary translation and could only achieve the three realms of translation: faithfulness and expressiveness among the three levels of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance".

However, the "elegance" that is required for advanced oral translation cannot be achieved through this quick-learning method.

The five girls were not ungrateful and did not care about this shortcoming. Instead, they were very grateful to Sun Zhiwei for sharing his translation experience.

After all, according to the original tutorial, it would take them at least one or two months to complete the independent translation.

Now it only takes a few days to achieve the standard, so what else do they have to be dissatisfied with?

Therefore, from then on, Sun Zhiwei changed the 4-hour translation training every morning into 1-hour translation practice, and the rest of the time was used to strengthen oral translation.

This has in effect accelerated their "simultaneous interpretation" practice progress a lot.

In the evening, when Sun Zhiwei practiced "consecutive interpretation" by watching conference videos, his progress was much faster than that of the other girls.

This is because his memory is much better than those of several girls.

He had no way of teaching them in this regard, so he could only share with them some shorthand methods based on his memories of his previous life.

He introduced everything he could think of, such as the association method, the copying and reciting method, the drawing method, the induction method, the outline method, the anchoring method, etc., to the girls.

Anyone who is selected to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an elite. These girls are elites selected from all over the country and have strong learning abilities.

Although Sun Zhiwei could not help them remember, the various memory methods he provided, which have been passed down to later generations, are all good methods summarized over many years.

These mnemonics have greatly helped the little girls in their shorthand practice.

Just like that, in just half a month, Sun Zhiwei and the five little girls all made great progress.

Sun Zhiwei felt that it was time for actual practice, because translation work also requires the training of strong psychological qualities, and training on paper alone is not enough.

He had heard that Sister Tang, who was now famous, almost fainted when she first performed on stage.

If the meeting had not been cancelled at the last minute, she might have made a fool of herself on the spot, and it would be uncertain whether the five golden flowers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would still exist.

Sun Zhiwei doesn't want the girls with him to repeat the same mistakes.

So, he took the initiative to ask the team leader in charge to observe the real-time translation. The team leader of the interpretation team was very surprised to hear his request and sent someone to check their learning progress, only to discover their abnormality.

The learning progress of Sun Zhiwei and the other six people is much faster than that of previous trainees, and they have already caught up with the progress of normal three months of training.

Finally, after explanation from Sun Zhiwei and the five girls, the team leader understood the reason for their fast progress.

So, the handouts that Sun Zhiwei gave to the little girls were collected immediately.

Two days later, on February 2, an international economic and trade conference was held in Beijing, and the team leader agreed to take them to see it for themselves.

The meeting was held at the Beijing Hotel and there were a large number of participants. After the meeting started, they were arranged in the corner of the conference room as spectators.

This was the first time they saw what simultaneous interpretation was.

Several colleagues at the conference were on hand, translating the speeches of those speaking at the venue in real time at a rate of 3 seconds.

The tone was gentle and calm throughout, with ups and downs. They came to watch and learned to translate in real time, and then compared the translation with that of their colleagues on the scene to improve themselves.

The entire meeting lasted more than an hour, and Sun Zhiwei and others benefited a lot. This kind of practical training was much more effective than practicing by watching videos at home.

Especially for a few girls, it was difficult for them to follow the speaker's translation because he spoke very fast.

But none of them gave up. They were taking notes in shorthand, muttering to themselves, their brains working at full speed, and sweat began to appear on everyone's forehead.

You have to know that it is only February and the weather outside has not thawed yet. Although there is heating indoors, the temperature is not very high. This is obviously caused by using the brain at full capacity.

Sun Zhiwei saw this and admired their hard work, so he did not stop them.

This is a rare opportunity to gain experience, which is not common for intern translators.

If it weren't for the team leader, they wouldn't be able to enter the venue at all and could only go back and watch the video later, and the atmosphere on the scene would be very different.

The meeting was suspended at 10 o'clock, and Sun Zhiwei left the venue through the staff passage with five girls.

On the way, the girls' faces were all red and their hair on their foreheads were wet, but they looked very excited and were chattering with each other.

As soon as they walked into the aisle, Qi Miaomiao, the youngest at 19 years old, suddenly stopped talking and slowly fell backwards.

The others didn't react in time, only Sun Zhiwei, who had been watching them, stretched out his right hand in time, grabbed Qi Miaomiao's arm and stabilized her.

At this time, the other four people reacted and helped Qi Miaomiao to hold her up.

Sun Zhiwei let go of her hand after seeing that she had calmed down, and then asked seriously, "Did she not have breakfast?"

The other four looked at each other, and then the eldest, 24-year-old Ren Dongmei, replied: "We didn't see Miaomiao when we went to the cafeteria to eat today."

"That's really nonsense. Go find a place for her to sit up front while I go find something to eat."

After saying that, Sun Zhiwei walked to the other end of the passage. When he came back after a while, he was holding a pot of warm water and a paper box in his hands.

At this time, Qi Miaomiao had already woken up and was sitting there with a blushing face. She was scolded by her elder sister Ren Dongmei and dared not speak.

(End of this chapter)