Lecture 3 篇章数字口译在线视频

Hi everyone

welcome to the online course

Interpreting: Theory and Practice

I’m your lecturer Catherine

In previous two lectures

we learned the rules of converting figures

between English and Chinese

and four types of common expressions for figures

In this lecture

we put figures in texts

and learn how to interpret them

When figures appear in specific texts

they’re no longer independent components

Rather

they’re connected closely with other relevant information

Figures are usually used to reflect quantity

price

area

volume

population

percentage

multiples etc

When converting figures in interpreting

we should pay attention to what they actually refer to

For example

该城市是一个国际大都市

人口约有1200万

面积达2000多平方公里

In this sentence

there are two figures: “1200万” and “2000”

The former refers to the population while the latter area

In converting the second figure

the unit “平方公里” should not be omitted

otherwise

the figure makes no sense

Interpreters also face greater challenges

when numbers are involved

because they have to be highly concentrated

while taking notes

for fear that they may make mistakes in numbers

You won’t feel stressed out

when there are only a few numbers

let’s say two or three

For instance

A 40-year-old male who is in good health

is going to pay about $35 a month

for a $500,000 life insurance policy

But when numbers keep coming up

you’ll probably be overwhelmed

like this one

今年全省国内生产总值达5,395.91亿元

按可比价格计算

比上年增长9.3%

全省预算收入259.57亿元

全年财政支出为538.34亿元

比上年增长4.29%

其中农业和教育支出分别增长14%和7.9%

In this example

there are seven numbers

To cover all the critical information

including correct figures in your notes is really tricky

Chances are that you may get frustrated

and never want to try figures again

If you’ve got this idea in your mind right now

it’s time to give it up

The good news is that we do have some techniques

in training figures

It’s similar to source language recitation

mentioned in Unit 3: Memory in Interpreting

What you need to do is to start

from independent figures

as we did in previous two lectures

Then

shift to single sentences involving figures

listen to them and take notes

Check your figures to make sure

they’re as exact as the source language

Listen to it several times

until you can produce accurate figures with ease

Now let’s have some practice

Example 1

Here’s a short material about China-ASEAN relationship

in which several figures are mentioned

Take notes while you’re listening

then repeat in the source language

Remember to make your figures

as precise as possible

Have you got all the figures?

Here’re my notes

Altogether

ten numbers are mentioned in this short material

among which most of them refer to something different

4.5 million refers to an area

512 million refers to a population

23.5 billion and 13 billion

10.92 billion and 12.56 billion

reflect trade volume and exports respectively

When you take notes

make sure you don’t miss the unit for each one

4.5 million cannot be written as 4.5 billion

Likewise

it’s unforgivable to confuse

10.92 billion with 10.92 million

Change of the unit makes huge difference

This is my retelling

The ASEAN region

spans an area of some 4.5 million square kilometers

where 14 official languages are spoken

and about 7 religions are followed

Its population was estimated at 512 million in 2000

Economic and trade

science and technology cooperation

plays an essential part in China-ASEAN relations

The total trade volume has risen

to $23.5 billion from $13 billion in 1994

of which China’s exports

amounted to $10.92 billion and imports $12.56 billion

If you got all numbers correct

please try to interpret the source language into Chinese

by referring to your notes

Pay attention to the conversion of numbers

This is the suggested target language

东盟地区面积约为450万平方公里

有14种官方语言和大约7种宗教信仰

2000年

人口约5.12亿

在中国和东盟的关系中

经贸和科技发挥着重要作用

1994年

贸易总额从130亿美元增加至235亿美元

其中

中国出口额达109.2亿美元

进口额125.6亿美元

Sometimes

it’s difficult to keep up when the figures

are long and specific

like 10.92 billion or 12.56 billion

In such cases

you can omit the numbers behind the decimal point

For example

10.92 billion can be written as over 10 billion

and 12.56 billion as more than 12 billion

It saves you time and reduces stress

Let’s try another one

This audio is about

American’s and China’s defense expenditure

Listen to it and take notes

Pay special attention to figures

These are my notes

There are six numbers in this example

all of which are relatively easy to be taken down

because the source language is Chinese

In writing the numbers

you can either keep them in the source language

or convert them into the target language simultaneously

In my notes

“4,559亿” was converted to 455.9 billion

and “2,117亿” was converted to 211.7 billion

so that I don’t have to spend time

thinking about converting numbers again

when I deliver the target language

Of course

it depends on your personal

preference to finish the conversion

while you’re listening or while you’re interpreting

There are no fixed rules on that

This is my retelling

2004年

美国国防开支是4,559亿美元

占美国去年国内生产总值的3.9%

而中国的国防费用去年是2,117亿元人民币

占中国国内生产总值的1.6%

这就是说

美国国防开支是中国的17.8倍

Next lecture is a demonstration on interpreting figures

We’ll start from independent figures

and then move on to figures in texts

See you next time