I was happy to serve on two recent interpreting missions, which were quite different from each other. For 6 days I participated in an international meeting of automobile mechanics from 7 countries, who were training for a global competition in car repair that will take place in Lyon, France in September 2024 (WorldSkills). I was one of 4 interpreters (from Japan, China, Taipei, and France – me) at this 6-day meeting in France, which was attended by 30 to 80 persons.  The official language of this meeting was English. We had to interpret for technical discussions about car repair, casual chats during meals and outings,  training instructions, and speeches by VIPs and sponsors. The most challenging part of this mission for me was the unfamiliar technical vocabulary about cars, such as tools or repair procedures. Since I was the only French-English interpreter supporting the French organizer of this event, all the speeches were given first in French, then interpreted by me into English, then interpreted into the other languages by the other interpreters. In order to keep the speeches short, I had to strongly condense my interpreting to capture only the essentials in English. This is a skill that I am very good at, thanks to my experience with lecturing in English and scientific writing.

I also served as a French/German/English interpreter for a film crew making a documentary film for French TV. We spent 3 days at a scientific conference in Germany where several dozen Physics Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of young researchers were gathered. Our mission was to interview 10 of these Nobel Prize laureates about space, the beginning of the universe, and quantum physics. For the non-French scientists, the questions and answers were in English. I also interpreted during interactions between the French film crew and the Germans, from the hotel all the way to returning the rental car in Stuttgart. The most interesting part of this mission for me was seeing the 3 filming experts at work. The producer managed the interviews according to his overall plan, the sound expert recorded the audios, and the image expert set up lights and recorded the videos. Sound recording is a very important topic for interpreters. We should consider it more fully during our missions, because good understanding comes from voice quality, as well as from the acoustic quality of the environment we are speaking in. 

Dr. Natalie Uomini, French/English/German translator and interpreter