FEATURE: JUGGLING A CACOPHONY OF TONGUES, UN INTERPRETERS AVERT LINGUISTIC DISASTER

From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 18 Oct 2013 18:00:00 -0400
Subject: FEATURE: JUGGLING A CACOPHONY OF TONGUES, UN INTERPRETERS
AVERT LINGUISTIC DISASTER
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

FEATURE: JUGGLING A CACOPHONY OF TONGUES, UN INTERPRETERS AVERT
LINGUISTIC DISASTER New York, Oct 18 2013 6:00 PM Out of potential
linguistic chaos, a corps of over 100 United Nations interpreters
brings order and comprehension as speaker after speaker from around
the planet takes the podium of the General Assembly to give their
annual speeches at the General Debate, discusses war and peace in the
Security Council, or delves into arcane details of administrative and
budgetary affairs in one of the Assembly's six specialized committees.

UN interpreters have even inspired Hollywood: the linguistic
specialists were featured in a 2005 political thriller starring Nicole
Kidman and Sean Penn. The Interpreter, the first movie to be shot
inside the world body's New York Headquarters, was directed by the
late Sydney Pollack, who said at the time: "You have tons and tons of
visitors but most of the people in the United States don't know what
the UN looks like and don't understand how the UN works and don't know
what its day-to-day business is."

Despite all the possibilities for "lost in translation" moments, the
UN Interpretation Service runs remarkably smoothly. "We've never
caused a problem, a slip of the tongue here, a slip of the tongue
there, perhaps," Interpretation Service Chief Hossam Fahr told the UN
News Centre in an interview.

But this does not mean the team has not at times found itself
inadvertently embroiled in burning disputes, compounded by the speed
at which some delegates speak, such as the issue of the name of the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

A UN-brokered accord in 1995 between FYROM and Greece committed the
two countries to negotiate on the name issue under UN auspices, with
the republic to be referred to provisionally as the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, pending a final solution. The accord obliges
both Athens and Skopje to continue negotiations under the auspices of
the Secretary-General to try to reach an agreement.


<div id="myCarousel" class="carousel slide">
<div class="carousel-inner">
<div class="item active">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-16-2013-interpreter4.jpg"
alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>United Nations interpreters at work during the opening
of the general debate of the General Assembly's sixty-seventh session.
(2012) UN Photo/JC McIlwaine</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="item">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-16-2013-interpreter2.jpg"
alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>Two UN interpreters at work in a glass-walled booth
above the Security Council Chamber. UN Photo/John Isaac</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="item">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-16-2013-interpreter5.jpg"
alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>A United Nations interpreter at work in the course of
the General Assembly's high-level meeting on the rule of law. (2012)
UN Photo/Jennifer S Altman</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="item">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-16-2013-interpreter6.jpg"
alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>United Nations interpreters provide simultaneous
interpretation for a Security Council meeting during its consideration
of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (13 November 2008) UN
Photo/Paulo Filgueiras</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="item">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-16-2013-interpreter7.jpg"
alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>In December 1957, an interpreter checks the Assignment
Board to find out which of the meetings he will be working with during
the day. UN Photo</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="item">
<img src="/News/dh/photos/large/2013/October/10-18-2013-Kidman.jpg" alt="">
<div class="carousel-caption">
<small>UN interpreters have inspired Hollywood - actress
Nicole Kidman starred in a 2005 thriller "The Interpreter."
UN Photo/Evan Schneider</small></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<a class="left carousel-control" href="#myCarousel" data-slide="prev">&#8249;
<a class="right carousel-control" href="#myCarousel" data-slide="next">&#8250;
</div>


That's where a pitfall opened up for one interpreter, exacerbated by
the speaker's warp speed delivery.

As Mr. Fahr took up the story: "Once, I think in the General Assembly,
somebody was speaking at an incredible speed and one of the things he
said was the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the
interpreter, pressed for time, just said Macedonia.

"Greece was up in arms, very, very angry, and I just literally ran to
the General Assembly hall and I sat behind the representative of
Greece and I apologized profusely on behalf of the interpretation
service for this terrible and unforgivable mistake.

"And, [I told the representative] 'you know, it has to be taken into
account that the person was speaking at a very high speed and he tried
to use the shortest possible version. This was an error of judgment on
the part of the interpreter but he did not mean any disrespect to the
nomenclature, to the rules of the General Assembly, and I apologize.'
And that was it."

Mr. Fahr, 54, an Egyptian who is a 30-year veteran of the Service as
an Arabic interpreter, oversees a corps that numbers about 100 but
swells at times of the UN 'rush hour,' particularly during the General
Debate, which brings scores of presidents, prime ministers and
monarchs to UN Headquarters in New York at the start of each annual
General Assembly session in September.

At the moment, he has 109 interpreters on hand but that swelled to 137
this September and will vary over the coming months as free-lancers
may be hired to increase capacity during the meetings of the six
specialized Assembly committees.

UN rules of procedure have simplified the potential linguistic morass
by having six official languages for all Security Council and Assembly
activities, and into which all UN documents are translated – Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. It is only on very rare
occasions that an interpreter will have the written text of a speech
in front of him, though this may occur in the case of non-official
languages.

Any Member State has the sovereign right to speak in any language it
chooses as long as it provides an interpreter into one of the official
languages, or a written translation and a pointer - somebody who sits
behind the interpreter to point out where the speaker is at any given
moment. For example, this year Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
brought his own English-language interpreter.

This led to a potential nightmare a couple of years ago when Mr.
Rouani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the Assembly.
"The English booth got the written version but the Farsi interpreter
never showed up," Mr. Fahr said. "There was a problem with security,
or something and she didn't appear."

"Our colleague in the English booth had an impossible choice to make –
either to leave the President of a Member State speaking without an
interpretation coming out of the booth or to take the plunge and start
reading when she doesn't understand a word of what he's saying, and
try to keep some kind of rhythm with him."

"So she made the very courageous choice to start reading from the
translated text and try to keep pace with him. Half way through the
speech, the Farsi interpreter barged in, panting and sweating bullets,
sat down and took over helping with the interpretation of the speech."

For Mr. Fahr, the worst nightmare is if you hea
________________
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

Follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/UN.News.Centre) and
Twitter (http://twitter.com/UN_News_Centre)

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/


--
President of The United States
Guy Ralph Perea Sr President of The United States
Weatherdata1046am0426 a Discussion Group of
Weatherdata<http://groups.google.com/group/weatherdata1046am0426>
USFMSC
http://www.cityfreq.com/ca/avalon/>
QUALIFY QICP
OCCUPS
http://www.occupationalinfo.org/02/025062010.html
goldlandabstracts; link check
own search engine - The United
States International Policies
http://lnk.ms/8d5gl aol
http://groups.google.com/group/united-states-of-american
http://twitter.com/ptusss Federal Communication
Commission<http://columbiabroadcast.spaces.live.com/>

Ambassador Chevy Chase; Kevin Corcran; Jack Nickolas; Cher; Shirley Temple
Black; Liza Minnille; Ansari; Ernest Tascoe; Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
Agent Jodie Foster; Department of Veterans Affairs Director George H.W. Bush
Title 22 USCS section 1928 (b) The e-mail
transmission may contain legally privileged information that
is intended only for the individual or entity recipient, you are hereby,
notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance upon the
contents of this E-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
E-mail transmission in error, please reply to the sender, so arrangements
can be made for proper delivery. Title 42
USCS section 192 etseq Margie Paxton Chief of Childrens Bureau
Director of The United States Department of Human Services; Defendant
Article IV General Provisions Section 2
(Supreme Law of The Land) The Constitution of The United States "Any thing
in The Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary Notwithstanding"
Contrary to Law (of an act or omission) illegal;
for eprint oalfy23iak52@hpeprint.com
https://twitter.com/ptusss