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.