The role of memory in interpreting

Interpreting can often feel like an Olympic sport. It’s a form of mental athletics, demanding speed, cognitive agility and teamwork.

We have to listen, understand, remember, interpret, and convey the message accurately, in the right tone – all in seconds. Over and over again.

It’s an incredibly intense endeavour, which is why interpreters usually work in pairs, taking turns to interpret, then resting and supporting. For simultaneous interpreting, for example, we’ll usually swap every half an hour, because it’s just not possible to sustain that level of attention for prolonged periods. It’s like competing in an Olympic relay!
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Just like professional sports, interpreting demands disciplined training. To cope with the speed of live speech, for example, we learn special memory techniques such as visualisation and chunking.

Visualisation turns spoken words into simple images that help us remember what’s been said, while chunking groups information into manageable units, such as themes or categories, because a few structured chunks are easier to remember than lots of individual details.

We also make use of notes. With consecutive interpreting, where we need to hold several minutes of speech in our heads, we’ll create a visual sketch of what’s been said. With simultaneous interpreting, we’ll just jot down any keywords that must be repeated verbatim, such as dates, names or acronyms.

Memory can be impaired by stress and fatigue, which is one reason why I’m so passionate about rest and wellbeing. I learned long ago that getting enough sleep, exercise, and downtime is essential for peak performance.