好译员是英雄 / Good Interpreters Are Heroes

Good Interpreters Are Heroes

In 1976 I was in a meeting at the Canton Trade Fair between a Chinese foreign trade official and a group of Americans, all members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to improve and facilitate US-China trade.

I was a young, junior member of the group, and it was the first time I had been invited to join a meeting of this sort.

The spokesman on the U.S. side had the habit of using a lot of slang expressions in English, including corporate slang. He was an interpreter’s nightmare because he also spoke in long, winding sentences without pausing for the interpreter to translate.

The interpreter for the Chinese official was reasonably competent but obviously inexperienced. Like most interpreters in China at the time, he probably had little or no exposure to native speakers of English among his teachers.

The Chinese official, Mr. Sun, was a somewhat stern, quiet, middle-aged cadre in a gray zhongshan-styled jacket. As was routine at that time, we were told his surname only. No title or department, and no name card was provided.

The meeting dragged on, with the talkative American raising trade issues, problems and suggestions, and the quiet Chinese official listening more than responding.

The interpreter was averaging about 60% accuracy in rendering the American’s comments into Chinese. That’s a dangerous level, considering errors and omissions, especially in a conversation covering multiple topics and lasting more than an hour.

As a junior guy, I did not feel it was appropriate for me to chime in and clarify or correct the interpreter.

The American gave a long spiel about how the Chinese foreign trade corporations needed to improve the packaging of their export goods if they wanted to increase their sales.

The interpreter handled this pretty well, but he was clearly getting tired.

The senior Chinese guy responded: “Your comments on export packaging have been noted and will be relayed to the responsible persons of the departments concerned.”

Somewhat frustrated by the vagueness of that assurance, the American responded with an obscure piece of corporate slang:

“That’s a fine idea, Mr. Sun, but who’s going to put wheels under it?”

Which the now very frustrated interpreter translated as: “Now the American has a proposal about the automotive industry.”

From that point on, the conversation went off into outer space, with huge disconnects between the respective comments and responses of both sides.

The American was talking about export packaging of bulk chemicals, but the interpreter was trying to fit his comments into the context of the automotive industry.

Mr. Sun just listened, no doubt wondering what these Americans were going on about.

It was like a pingpong match in which every volley and serve completely missed the table. Puzzled faces all around.

There were lots of conversations that ended up like that in those days. Good interpreters were few and far between, and could make the difference between productive discussion and time-wasting babble.