When AUSIT Past President (2014–17), Professor Sandra Hale, was randomly selected to be invited to participate in our regular Member Profiles series she agreed to do so (see our Autumn issue, page 20) – and her answer to one of the questions was so interesting, we asked her if she could turn it into a short article. Sandra agreed, and here she is, reflecting on the experience of working as a conference interpreter in a specific area of conservation over more than three decades.
These jobs have taken me into areas I would never have explored on my own. Interpreting opens up unexpected opportunities for learning and discovery …
In 1991, just four years into my career as an interpreter, I was offered a two-week simultaneous interpreting job in Hobart, for the annual meetings of the international organisation CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources).
Thirty-four years later, I’m still interpreting at that event every year. I’ve specialised in the field of conservation in the Antarctic region, and interpreting at annual meetings of various related organisations has taken me all over the world – to Bulgaria, South Africa, Peru, Germany, Czech Republic, India and more.
I’ve worked as an interpreter for conferences in many other fields, but my favourite work has been my assignments in this field of environmental protection, for several reasons. When you specialise in a field at an international level, you become very familiar with the subject matter, the political positions of different countries, the dynamics of the meetings and, of course, the specialised terminology.
The meetings are very challenging due to their technical nature, but also due to the pressure to get everything right, as very highly charged political topics are discussed, and decisions are taken that will affect the wider international community.
On the other hand, the working conditions are very good. These organisations fully understand the need for interpreters to be as familiar as possible with the content that they will interpret, so we are given access to all the background papers that will be referred to. It can take months to read and prepare all the relevant papers before a meeting.
My work in this sphere has also contributed to my T&I teaching, as I’ve had the opportunity to invite my top students to observe meetings and do internships, and several of them have gone on to work with the organisations after graduating.
These jobs have taken me into areas I would never have explored on my own. Interpreting opens up opportunities for learning and discovery; and above all, interpreters become the crucial link that facilitates communication across languages and cultures.
Professor Sandra Hale was born in Argentina and completed high school in Sydney. One of the first cohort of students to study T&I at Western Sydney University, she also holds a master’s in applied linguistics, a PhD and a Doctorate Honoris Causa. Sandra is a NAATI-certified conference interpreter (Spanish–English) and the Convenor of Interpreting and Translation Programs at UNSW. She has authored multiple publications on interpreting, and is one of the principal authors of the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals, as well as being a past president and Fellow of AUSIT and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
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