Group Profile

Interpreters

Rerai   Ruangrit

Noppadol   Tappila

Pim   Boonthong

Nattaporn   Boonthrawanna

Self-Reflection of members

               
                   Unsocial Media and Technology was the topic that we did our group consecutive interpretation. The speaker talked about how social media creates distance between people, even though they were originally created to help us stay in touch easier. He also talked about the benefits and bad effects of social media. The speaker left a few questions for the audience about our future regarding to social media usage.

 Rerai Ruangrit

                   We were assigned to perform on the topic “Unsocial Media and Technology” and I was the first in our group. I got to do the consecutive interpretation on the introductory part which was about the way Aj. Derek used to socialize with his family and friends when he was young.
                   An hour before class, I ran into Aj. Derek and he asked me if I have question. He helped me with the big word “unsocial” that I was not so sure about its true meaning and that was very helpful because I got some time to think the proper interpretation. In the mock situation, I found that the content was not so hard because there were many technical terms which can be transliterated in Thai such as smart phone – สมาร์ทโฟน, tablet – แท็บเล็ต and video games – วิดีโอเกมส์.
                  Overall, I think my performance was not bad, it was better than I had expected. Moreover, it appeared that I prefer sitting while doing my job rather than standing. The desk controlled my nervousness. However, in the last two-three minutes, I noticed that my interpretation was slow down because my brain started to shut down. My power bank was running low. It was hard for me to focus on just one thing in almost ten minutes. In addition, when Aj. Derek talked about his free time with his friends, sisters and dad, I did not interpret it in the same order as him because I did not remember. I focused on the content, on what he said more than order. I took no notes since I was afraid that it would be distraction and I thought I would not be necessary because Aj. Derek did not give me long sentences.

 Noppadol   Tappila

                    I was responsible for the part of negative effects of technology. I did some research on the terminology such so that I would be able to perform well on the interpretation. I was quite satisfied with the consecutive mock situation performance. I was able to interpret smoothly with little pause. I could think of the equivalent vocabularies that could convey the exact meaning without altering the intention of the speaker such as "keep up with the Jones" = "การอยากจะมีสิ่งของเพื่อให้เทียบเท่ากับคนอื่น". This is because I am familiar with the topic concerning technology. I could start interpreting without hesitation as the glossaries in the source language were not too technical and the construction of the sentences was short and not complicated.
                   Also, I could perform well in transferring the emotion of the guest speaker to the audience. For instance, when he talked about the competition of smart phone operation system that was funny and ridiculous, I also interpreted his speech in a funny way as well. Nevertheless, I accidentally interpreted some sentences to be parallel with the source text because I was confused with the construction of the source text so I tried to explain them with my understanding. I usually paraphrase or rearranged the construction of the source text so that my interpretation could be easily understandable. For the overall performance, I could see that I have the development in several ways. For instance, I have got more confidence than in the beginning of the course, I am able to construct the more natural and smooth sentence, and I can abruptly come up with good selection of vocabularies  when started interpreting.

 Pim Boontong

                    Before starting interpreting, the members of the group and I had prepared the terms we would hear and asked Aj. Derek about what we did not understand on his power point slides. The coping tactic that I used the most was note-taking. It was very helpful because the speaker would tell us his stories and it would have been too long to rely on just memory. Taking notes helped me keep the information that he said. Sometimes I repeated words such as “ก็”, so my translation sounded a bit redundant. I once used the instant naturalization tactic when Aj. Derek said the name of a country singer that I had never known before. I used omitting information and explaining coping tactics when the speaker said the name of the card game “Solitaire”. I just did not say the name of the game and just said “a card game” instead to make it easier for the audience to understand. While I was translating, I would look at the screen of the computer to make sure I was on the same page with the speaker, and I also looked at the prepared paper that brought with me.  Also, I said “Ah…” as my delaying response coping tactic a few times while thinking about what I should say next because sometimes my own notes distracted me. I think I did well, but I wish I had been less nervous. I need to be more careful not to repeat some words.

Nattaporn   Boonthrawanna

                   The night before the performance, as our group got the power point, we consulted about the vocabularies on facebook to make sure about their meaning and for our smooth interpretation.  Also, we made an order for the interpretation and I was the last one.  It could not help to be nervous even the speaker is Aj.Derek as always. I therefore read the slides twice before bed and twice in the morning.  Around 15 minutes before the interpretation, I was very nervous and the most nervous moment was at the beginning of my interpretation.  After interpreting for a while, I felt more relaxed but still felt nervous and I think that the nervousness could distract my memory while interpreting.

                   Considering on the tactics that I used while interpreting, I found myself used only Reformulation tactics.  I always delayed my response by saying “เอ่อ” before interpreting and I realized that I did it after watching the recorded video.  Moreover, I consulted the documents in the booth as I looked at my mini slides that I had printed them out and jotted the vocabularies’ meaning down.  I only once looked at the slide because I could not remember the meaning of “Interpersonal communication” that I had just consulted Noppadol before my turn.  As Noppadol had interpreted this phrase in his turn, to make our interpreting went smoothly and his definition of this word was better than what I got, I then used the word.  Also, I once asked Aj.Derek to repeat the source text when he talked about the movie because the source text suddenly disappeared from my memory.  Besides, I did the instant naturalization with few words such as Google glass, facebook and twitter.  There was also my own explanation in interpreting.  For example, Aj.Derek said that he had used Skype to talk with family back home but my interpreting was “ผมใช้โปรแกรมสไกป์พูดคุยกับครอบครัวของผมที่อเมริกา”.  We can observe that Aj.Derek did not mention the word “America or the U.S. but I explained the word “home” to be “อเมริกา”.  In addition, there is a word that I omitted when Aj.Derek gave the example of social media program because I forgot it.  The word is “Tinder”.  However, I like this performance anyway.

Comments for other groups

Group: Repurposing: Making a smaller footprint

                 The first group interpreted about Repurposing which we thought was going to be very hard to interpret. However, the members of this group did a very good job! We could see that each of them had a note where they had listed terminology that would be found in the topic. Therefore, whenever we heard unfamiliar words from the guest speaker, they seemed to be calm and could find the appropriate words for them. Panuwat took notes a little, and sometimes when he heard the words he had listed on his prepared note, he would underline or put a dot under those words. On the other hand, Benjarat and Atthasit did not take any notes. Benjarat misheard the word "ladder" to be "letter", so there was an error with her interpretation. Atthasit pointed at the screen when necessary and relied on the power point slides and his prepared note.They used reconstructing the segment with the help of the context, consulting documents in the booth, asking for clarification, taking notes, explaining or paraphrasing, reproducing the sound heard in the source-language speech, and omitting the information coping tactics. This group looked very professional while interpreting and the quality of their interpretation was really good. We think it was because they were well-prepared for the talk, tried to stay calm during the interpreting session, and they might have been in less pressure than the later groups because they were the first group to perform.

Group: Romance Between a Southwest Guy and a Southeast Girl: a case of Intercultural Relationships

                The second group seemed to be very nervous and got stuck every now and then. We thought that the topic was not going to have many specific terms since it was a quite general issue. However, we understood why they had a hard time interpreting some phrases, though I bet they understood it in English. Words such as "norm", could sound "too formal" if they had interpreted word-by-word into Thai as "บรรทัดฐานทางสังคม". We believe that was why it might have made them unsure about which words they should use.
They were speaking too softly and could not convey the tone of the speaker's voice and feelings. He sounded very happy talking about his girlfriend, but they made it sound depressing. A few members of the group asked for clarification more than four times, and it made them look less professional. It was understandable because it was probably everyone's first time doing this and Aj. Derek's accent could be hard to understand sometimes. The coping tactics they used were reconstructing the segment with the help of the context, consulting documents in the booth, asking for clarification, taking notes, and explaining or paraphrasing. For the overall picture of this group, we would say that they need to be more confident with themselves and try to convey the feelings of the speaker more.

Group: Why So Many Beauty Clinics? Questions Posed by a Puzzled American

                 This group performance was good though the topic seemed to be the most difficult one among the four topics because there were quite a lot of technical terms in this topic. Moreover, everyone in the group looked calm. Tanutta went silent for a few seconds, and would smile when she interpreted something wrong, so we could see immediately that something was not right. Alisa and her did the instant naturalization for words such as "magazine", "tan salon", and "wow" while they could have translated these words into Thai. Alisa and Patcharawan asked for clarification a few times. Patcharawan was also the only one who took notes, but eventually stopped after a while. She also omitted some part in the end which was the important message from the speaker. All members of this group said "Er.." a few times while delaying their response. The coping tactics they used were reconstructing the segment with the help of the context, delaying response, consulting documents in the booth, asking for clarification, taking notes, reproducing the sound heard in the source-language speech, explaining or paraphrasing, and omitting the information coping tactics.. The performance of this group was good even though each of them had a different style of speaking and translating. It would have been better if they had not done the instant naturalization as often as they did.

Interpretation Performance

Part I: Introduction

Part II: Negative Effects

Part III: Positive Effects

Part IV: Questions about social media

Terminology

Summarization of the Topic

Unsocial Media and Technology

Advancing a step back socially

Picture from: http://www.ndn.com.hk/do-socially-active-brands-really-listen-consumers/

                  Social media was created to make us become closer, but now it is creating distance between people. Back in the past, Aj. Derek would play with friends and his sisters outside and inside. They didn’t have phones, just walkie-talkies. However, nowadays people have smartphones, tablets, and online games. Consequently, there are negative and positive effects of social media. First, interpersonal interaction has been affected negatively. People interact with each other less, even in family. Second, it also causes consumerism and materialism. People get jealous if they don’t have what other people do. Next, it can cause accidents as people use their phones or tablets while walking or driving. Last, it affects how we use time. We spend more time on social media websites than being with our loved ones or doing something productive. However, there are benefits of social media. To begin with, it makes it easier for intercontinental communication. News also travels quickly. Sharing information becomes easier. Moreover, customers get better service from using social media. In addition, social media is useful for education and learning. Having a smartphone is like having a library in your pocket. People can spend their leisure time watching TV or movies and playing games on their phones. We can look up for reviews and information of many things online. We can also do online shopping as well. Therefore, Aj. Derek wondered what the future looks like. He left two questions for us which were will we become more out of touch the easier it gets to stay in touch? and how can we get back to being closer together? and do we even want to?