How to deal with Humor, Formal Speech, and Latinisms in Conference Interpreting

The interpreter’s task gets really challenging when a speaker uses humor and jokes, which are usually very difficult to interpret in a way that gets the audience to laugh. The most important thing for the interpreter is to understand the intended purpose of humor in that particular situation. In fact, sometimes the most important thing is to preserve the humor, but in other cases the most important thing is to preserve the meaning of the message, if it is a key point of the speech.

When trying to interpret humorous speech, interpreters should be careful not to exaggerate either.
Humor is also difficult to interpret because of the timing required to make the joke work. The interpreter’s décalage may hinder the humor.
One of the main forms of humor used in politics is ‘deadpan’ sarcasm. A famous person who used quite a lot of sarcasm in his speeches was Abraham Lincoln. Humor, in many different ways, can be used for social or political criticism.
As far as puns are concerned, the translation can only work if the words used in the pun have a cultural reference that works for both languages.
A good exercise for interpreters who want to improve their skills in the field of translating humor is watching stand-up comedy shows to learn more on the comedians’ style. I personally like Comedy Central Stand-up, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Formal Speech and Latinisms

Formal speech is often embellished by Latin expressions. As an interpreter, when you are not sure of the meaning of a Latin expression, you can just repeat it in Latin in order to be on the safe side. However, knowing basic Latin expressions is important, either to repeat them or to translate them. Some Latin expressions are assimilated in a language and should thus be translated into the target language. On the other hand, a Latin quotation in a speech to a literate audience should be left in Latin. Equally, a technical or scientific term in Latin expresses an exact meaning and should stay in Latin. So the problem with the latter type of Latinism is to hear it correctly in order to repeat it.

Sometimes, moreover, a Latin term is preferred by the interpreter in order to be more concise. A series of examples are presented by James Nolan in Chapter 16 of Interpretation Techniques and Exercises, posing questions on how to solve some interpretation issues referred to Latin terms.
All in all, it is important for an interpreter to be familiar with the most common Latin expressions found in his/her source and target language.

Reference: Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 of Interpretation Techniques and Exercises by James Nolan.

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