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A space/ground terp, certified by RIO...
Oct. 22nd, 2003 12:25 pmI passed the space/ground certification, and if comments can be believed, I passed by a fairly large margin, though there were a few moments, there, when I thought the issue was in doubt.
The cert started with my interpreting a Russian PAO event (basically, a media interview with Russian TV, involving into-English simultaneous interpretation). I did a fairly good job of keeping up, missing only a couple of details along the way. Afterward, the crew read a prepared statement that will be broadcast later to attendees at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Keldysh Center.
All of that went well.
Then the Russian crewmembers read a prepared statement of which we had no previous knowledge, and it was read at near-light-speed. I thought it was going to be a reread of the Keldysh announcement, but it was a good thing I paused to listen, because it wasn't. And it was read so quickly, I felt I was tripping over my linguistic feet on nearly every word. I finally did the only thing I could do: I shut up and waited for a spot where I could start anew, which I did. Up to that point, I thought I'd done very well; after that impromptu event, I thought I had failed.
All was not lost, however. I got a call to keep interpreting through the next PAO event, which was to be held with CNN and CBS (meaning I'd be doing simultaneous into Russian), which I did. In the end, I interpreted both PAO events, and a bunch of other calls having to do with a half-dozen different disciplines, mostly into Russian, though there were a couple of exchanges that went into English.
In short, the NASA RIO (Keith Z.) said it was probably the most demanding cert session in a while. And one that, in the end, I passed.
After which I went off to be prodded, poked, and injected at the NASA clinic with a hefty bounce to my step.
Cheers...
The cert started with my interpreting a Russian PAO event (basically, a media interview with Russian TV, involving into-English simultaneous interpretation). I did a fairly good job of keeping up, missing only a couple of details along the way. Afterward, the crew read a prepared statement that will be broadcast later to attendees at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Keldysh Center.
All of that went well.
Then the Russian crewmembers read a prepared statement of which we had no previous knowledge, and it was read at near-light-speed. I thought it was going to be a reread of the Keldysh announcement, but it was a good thing I paused to listen, because it wasn't. And it was read so quickly, I felt I was tripping over my linguistic feet on nearly every word. I finally did the only thing I could do: I shut up and waited for a spot where I could start anew, which I did. Up to that point, I thought I'd done very well; after that impromptu event, I thought I had failed.
All was not lost, however. I got a call to keep interpreting through the next PAO event, which was to be held with CNN and CBS (meaning I'd be doing simultaneous into Russian), which I did. In the end, I interpreted both PAO events, and a bunch of other calls having to do with a half-dozen different disciplines, mostly into Russian, though there were a couple of exchanges that went into English.
In short, the NASA RIO (Keith Z.) said it was probably the most demanding cert session in a while. And one that, in the end, I passed.
After which I went off to be prodded, poked, and injected at the NASA clinic with a hefty bounce to my step.
Cheers...
