Interpreters and Conference Interpreting

I often hear that approaches to consecutive can be very different from one school to another, so I thought it would be interesting if students currently learning consecutive shared the best practical advice they've heard from their teachers on how to do well in consecutive.

I'll start with a drill that I vaguely mentionned in another thread, because I find it really useful. It was described to me by two Westminster teachers, one of whom is an ESIT graduate (so I assume this might be known to ESIT students as well). It went roughly like this :

The most important factor in consecutive is your understanding of the whole speech, which relieves your memory greatly as you can then use logic to remember what you have to say. To develop a quick and effective understanding of speeches, students in their daily life should get used to either giving their undivided attention to whatever they listen to, or not listening at all. The worst is that twilight zone where you only listen to a few interesting bits, and you don't even know how or why they came up. That's a really bad (though natural) habit that students need to get rid of.

A few steps can be followed to develop that ability :

-Start by asking yourself who, what, to whom, and be sure that you can answer these 3 questions at any time when you listen to something - a speech, a radio talk, a TV show, anything- (If you can't answer because the information is missing, then you should be aware of it).
-Then, to the questions who, what, to whom, add two more questions : causes ? consequences ?
-Once you feel comfortable with these, add : why is this information given ? What is the speaker getting at ?
-Then add : what is the speaker not saying or not stating clearly, what should I read between the lines ?
-Finally add : what is the speaker likely to say next ?

At first this sounded really ambitious to me, but apparently experienced interpreters ask themselves those questions quite naturally, and with practice it should become second nature...

So far those were the advice that struck me most, I'm still struggling to put that into practice though.

I've been practising this technique when listening to speeches and news items and I realise that I'm able to recall what I hear once I concentrate. I have to force myself to do it all the time though but I suppose it'll come more naturally with practice. Understanding the whole of what the speaker is really trying to say also helps immensely with recall. Thanks Aymeric, very helpful advice

I'm glad it helps, I'm struggling to put that into practice as well

If anyone has any other advice to share, feel free...

Hi guys. I'm a newcomer to this forum. I'm from Vietnam.I find your tips very interesting. Indeed, i also try to answer to these question when i am practise interpreting. you all are right. Tips are interesting, but practice matters the most.
Well, i think one way to get the ball rolling is to practise with some of your favorite shows, programs. if you find something interesting, you can do it easier and better. And as you gradually develop this asking habit, you can start with other kinds of program. i've tried this method, and it works.
that's my opinion. thank u for sharing your tips.

p/s: i'm really glad to be a member of this forum!

Hi everyone. I'm a newcomer to this forum, too. I'm so glad that I found it. You guys are great - your tips are very useful.

Hi buddies,

This is first time in here. I also found the tips very useful. As I’m acquiring skills in this kind of work, these ideas are very good. Sometimes when I do consecutive, I get kind of lost when the speakers prolong very much.

Anyway, I got it and I’ll try to reduce them into practice.

So long!

Rony