Consecutive Practice

Revisit this very good video on memory techiques and note-taking.

How can you practise consecutive interpreting at home?

There are many sites with video/audio materials that you can use to practise note-taking and consecutive interpreting skills. You can check educational institutions where translating and interpreting is taught, websites dedicated to famous speeches by politicians, famous speeches on films, TEd talks, university podcasts (iTunesU), radio programs (e.g. ABC Law Report), etc. Check the permanent links on the right side bar.

Today I am introducing WISE Interpreting Workshop speeches for consecutive practice. This is a project by The London Metropolitan University and the Universidad Europea de Valencia.

The video below is about cricket (English).



The video below is in Spanish and its topic is tourism (Las Fallas, Valencia).

Sports Deportes

San Sebastian Triatlón 2010 by MiguelSicari

While translating a text comparing Australia & Argentina yesterday, we came across several sports we either had never heard of or we didn't know how to translate.

One of them was indoor soccer, which we thought was fulbito in Spanish. My sons play it and have told me it is also called fútbol sala, futsal o fútbol de salón. Do a small search and you'll find alternative terms in English, like five-a-side or six-a-side. 
I remember that ages ago in Spain fútbol was also called balompié. One of my brothers was  a great hand ball (balón mano)player, all my brothers did judo and we all played baloncesto and vóleibol, vólibol, or balonvolea in High School.

Other popular sports played in Spain are el bádminton, el tenis, el tenis de mesa, el golf. Some sports like el rugby, cricket, sófbol or el béisbol are not as popular as in English speaking countries.

What about traditional sports, like el deporte de equipo celta hurling? In Spain we have el tiro de barra aragonesa, the famous basque jai alai also called pelota vasca or cesta punta (zesta punta in Euskera), Argentina has el pato. There must be hundreds of vernacular sports particular to a region with matching names, only known by the people living in the area.

If you analise the Spanish terms for these sports (which were mostly invented in English speaking countries), there is a range of  ways in which they have been translated into Spanish. Some are left in English (rugby, hurling), others are spelt in Spanish (fútbol, bádminton) while others are translated into Spanish ( balompié, cesta punta from The basque/Euskera).

I leave you with the terms above to start a glossary of sport terms for your translating/interpreting  reference resources. We can also start a common glossary in our wiki. Visit it and add to it. But get up from that chair and run around the block or kick a ball in the back yard!