ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I was watching the clips of Angela Merkel's recent visit. I was a bit surprised that she didn't speak English in these events, she used translators. All the people I worked with from our facilities in Germany (mid-level managers to engineers mostly) spoke English very well. But I read that she is more fluent in Russian, and maybe French, and while conversational in English, just isn't confident enough in her abilities in a live event like this. OK.
But the translator kept right up after a ~ 7 second initial delay. I thought - how could you be talking and listening and translating at the same time, without gaps? Forget all the computer translators, I don't think they are good enough for something at this level.
Reverse engineering this, I thought maybe there are two people with court-stenographer abilities. One just takes the notes in real time in German (just like you see in court), and the second one can read the German notes, and have the ability to look ahead to the end of the sentence and the context to construct the proper English translation. This way, the announcer/translator doesn't need to listen (probably has the sound muted to not distract), and has some time to formulate the translation in their mind.
It could have been reading from prepared notes at first, but there was also impromptu Q&A that was the same.
Does anyone know - is that how it is done? Something else?
-ERD50
But the translator kept right up after a ~ 7 second initial delay. I thought - how could you be talking and listening and translating at the same time, without gaps? Forget all the computer translators, I don't think they are good enough for something at this level.
Reverse engineering this, I thought maybe there are two people with court-stenographer abilities. One just takes the notes in real time in German (just like you see in court), and the second one can read the German notes, and have the ability to look ahead to the end of the sentence and the context to construct the proper English translation. This way, the announcer/translator doesn't need to listen (probably has the sound muted to not distract), and has some time to formulate the translation in their mind.
It could have been reading from prepared notes at first, but there was also impromptu Q&A that was the same.
Does anyone know - is that how it is done? Something else?
-ERD50