My responsibilities

Interpretation is something I enjoy very much. This is a small group of around 15 people at the seminar. All of the French speakers except one are bilingual and understand English (and some know multiple languages), so my translation is mainly from French into English. I am interpreting for 6 people. For a small number such as this, we do not have earphones and other equipment. So, the group for which I am interpreting sits closely around me in order to hear. The difficulty comes from the fact that all the English speakers have a different accent. I am the only one for whom English is my mother tongue. For all the others, their mother tongue is a tribal language and English is an acquired language. So, we all have to adapt to the way each one speaks. Sometimes it takes quite an effort to understand what is being said even though the person is using English. And I am sure that they are doing the same when listening to my strange version of English, which is neither British-based nor has the tonality of a tribal language. I try to speak slowly and to carefully pronounce all the consonants – which we do not normally do in American English!