grad school life – Liz Essary

In my grad school training, one of the techniques we learned was called “the salami”. If you ask an interpreter trainer about it, you might hear some why-do-we-call-it-salami-when-we-already-have-a-perfectly-good-name-for-it-which-is-segmentation grumbling. The salami technique, or the technique formerly known as segmentation, is tough to articulate.

Here I present to you some specific, language-neutral examples that bring the salami technique (including the rhetorical question) to life. Continue reading “The Interpreter and the Salami” →

conference interpreter training, grad school, grad school life, Interpreter Training, new interpreters, self discovery for interpreters

Yes, conference interpreting is a thing

April 6, 2018August 3, 2021 thatinterpreter

During grad school, when I was living in Toronto and constantly traveling back and forth between the US and Canada, I got used to this question as the customs agent saw the student visa in my passport: What are you studying? It took me a while to come up with a short answer, because when I said, “conference interpreting”, I was just met with more questions about what conference interpreting actually is, as if I’d made it up. Continue reading “Yes, conference interpreting is a thing” →

change, conference interpreter training, grad school, grad school life, Personal

Back to the Booth

April 22, 2016August 3, 2021 thatinterpreter

A trainer recently said about interpreting practice: You practice. And then you do it again. And again, and again, and again. And when you’re tired of it, you do it some more.

When I first arrived to our interpreting lab in Toronto, I was in awe. Fourteen brand-spankin’-new booths! I could practice again and again, and then some more when I got tired of it! All booths, all the time!

It didn’t take long for me to change my mind about the booth. Continue reading “Back to the Booth” →