Noting Ideas

Everyone will tell you to note ideas and not words. But what constitutes an idea? Below is a simple introduction to recognizing ideas which can help in the early stages of learning consecutive interpreting. Often equivalent to a sentence or Subject-Verb-Object group ideas are divided from one another on the page with a horizontal line. Interestingly, J-F.Rozan did not explicitly suggest this in his book, but he did do it in all the example notes he gave and his example has been widely followed.

It is through the analysis and notation of the ideas that the interpreter will avoid mistakes and a labored delivery. Example 1: Let us take the following, from Russian into English: “Этооченьхорошийшанс, чтобы…”/ There is a very good chance that…” If we base our notation of this expression on the words, the kea word is “ chance ”. If we base it on the idea, it is “probable”. The notes will have to be read 20 minutes- even an hour- after the idea was originally expressed. In the first example it would be very difficult not to make mistake. Having noted “chance” the interpreter might, if the context allowed, render it “there is a chance that ” or “by chance”. If on the other hand he noted “probable”, the mistake cannot be made. The issue of style is also dealt with in the second example where one would automatically say (interpreting into English), “It is probable that”, or “It is likely that”, or “In all likelihood”, whereas in the first example, even if the interpreter will correctly recalled the idea that the word ‘chance” represented, he/she will be a prisoner to that word and might easily produce a Gallicism. Example 2: “We should try to live up to…” It would be absurd to note the word “live” and it would greatly increase the risk of making a mistake. Although it would seem to be very different from the original it would be more appropriate to note in Russian, for example, “всоответствиис… ” (in English “ to be up to…”). This is the result of analyzing the idea behind what is said and noting it idiomatically in the target language. It would be just as useful to note “be=”, representing “being equal to”, which could very easily be read back idiomatically in interpretation, (i.e. “всоответствиис… ” in Russian and “to be up to” in English).

Whenever taking notes, the interpreter must concentrate on the major idea and how this can be noted clearly and simply (preferably in the target language, although this is not essential).