J’Adore Dior!

It has been a year since I interpreted at the most fabulous Journées Savoir-faire Lady Dior event at Christian Dior’s flagship store on London’s Bond Street, and I was thrilled to be asked to work at their 2022 Lady Dior event, which on this occasion was held at their majestic Manchester store.

Having interpreted for the event last year I had the benefit of knowing what to expect, but honestly, there is nothing quite like this sort of assignment.

For me, especially, as I adore fashion and covet designer shoes, it is a dream come true to interpret for the illustrious craftspeople of Dior and translate their extraordinary craftsmanship for the awe-struck audience.

Sadly, at the time of the event, the country was in the period of mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and as a result, Dior made the conscious decision to tone down the celebratory nature as a mark of respect. The champagne and cocktails were replaced with fruit juices, and the tone was quiet and reverent, but nevertheless, the event was exceptional, and a true highlight of 2022.

I am delighted to have added the technical knowledge required to interpret for luxury brand events to my repertoire. This is a niche area and I would suggest to translators and interpreters who might want to branch out into this field to thoroughly learn a glossary of terms particular to this industry along with an understanding of the nature of the business. I can assure you, the hard work and time spent studying is well worth it!

The skills involved with interpreting for a luxury brand are, of course, transferrable between companies, and it is a joy to work with such interesting and accomplished artisans and professionals in their industry.

You are your best investment: CPD

Those who know me know that I am a firm believer in investing in personal learning and growth. I am currently undertaking a training course with an interpreter from the European Parliament who is really at the top of the industry to absorb his valuable knowledge with the aim to become as elite as he is! He has shared his knowledge to help me interpret to the best of my ability, every time.

The sky really is the limit!

I thought I could share a few of his pearls of wisdom with you all, as some of his tools have really made me think about how I work and how I could improve, even after twenty years of interpreting!

So, here’s a snapshot of a few of his insights which I found particularly helpful to remember, and hope you might think are useful, too:

• Focus on the main ideas – second best is absolutely fine: your audience will not know!
• In simultaneous, interpreters need to be able to express themselves in short, simple sentences despite the speakers who tend to use complicated, long sentences. Apply the salami technique!
• Try to add intonation into your interpretation, monotony will send your audience to sleep! A person listening to interpretation is often dependent on intonation patterns for emphasis, nuance and structure. Don’t distract your audience with a wrong intonation pattern.
• Don’t worry about taking a second of silence to absorb the speaker’s full meaning before interpreting. Your audience trusts you and a moment of quiet will not concern them, it shows that you are intelligently forming the correct sentence. Silence (for a moment) can be golden!
• Keep your audience entertained.

Top tips for interpreting are always so valuable and something I love to come across. I hope these have been useful. If you’d like to share your tips, I’d love to hear from you!

KUDO Launch Interpreter Marketplace

I have worked with, and championed, interpreter platform KUDO for some time so I was delighted to read of the launch of KUDO Interpreter marketplace, a new product which gives clients access to a network of over 12,000 professional interpreters on a multitude of platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Interprefy.

I am a regular user of KUDO for RSI and during the pandemic, when travel was impossible, it really came into its own as a brilliant and vital resource. You can see it has been designed by interpreters for interpreters. I was fortunate to converse with KUDO’s Co-Founder and Chief Language Officer, Ewandro Magalhaes, just after the news was released, and convey to him my appreciation of this new initiative. Ewandro is probably one of the most knowledgeable and genuinely nicest people in the interpreting industry and it was great to be in contact with him at this important time for KUDO.

I think KUDO have really produced something brilliant with this new launch, passing on the freedom for the client to choose their platform whilst still enticing them with their top-quality professional base of interpreters. It is a sign of the times that hybrid and remote multilingual meetings can become the norm and so easily hosted. Thanks, KUDO!