Interpreting more than just language
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Let's be honest. You must be envious of an interpreter standing next to your favorite movie star, whispering into his or her ear. Well, then you probably won't make a good interpreter.
"I'm not really the star-struck type," Yoshiko Okura said flatly. "They're all human beings after all," she added, as if talking about her colleagues.
In her nine-year career as an interpreter, she has worked with the likes of Angelina Jolie, Matt Dillon and Spike Lee, to name just a few.
Due to her father's job at a trading house, Okura spent her childhood in London, Tokyo and New York.
"My parents always told me to cherish English skills," said Okura who was sent to local schools, making her bilingual and versed in both American and British English.
English ability is widely believed to be the only element needed to make a good interpreter like Okura, but it's not that simple. one must also be a good listener who can carefully deduce what journalists are trying to ask and what actors and directors are trying to say by way of reply, she said.
"In interviews, I do my best to convey nuances and phrases precisely, and particularly to keep them in the same 'temperature' [in the two languages]," said Okura.
Most visiting actors and directors have to put up with similar questions asked over and over when they promote movies.
"Imagine, they have to do it from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. while jet-lagged. So, in asking such questions, I try to use different ｅxpressions to give variations," Okura said.
She also tries to catch each actor and director's temperament and changes the tone of her interpretation, for instance, building a mellow atmosphere for those who she thinks prefer it.
Okura may have learned such an adaptability naturally from her childhood spent in different cultures. The capability to quickly adapt herself to the surrounding environment and to read between the lines is one of the reasons why she's asked to work for one actor after another.
Having worked with an array of celebrities, she has various anecdotes--probably enough to write a book. Some have given her telephone numbers to contact them if she gets the chance to visit their cities, while others have sent her pictures by e-mail.
Okura, who has never received special training to become an interpreter, normally has no problem with understanding various English accents. But she confessed, "For me, Johnny [Depp]'s accent is a hard one to understand sometimes, though I don't know what makes it difficult."
Like the sudden appearance of English phrases almost impossible to be directly translated to Japanese, pitfalls lurk in an interpreter's job. But it's a fulfilling profession that keeps offering her various challenges, she says.
"When everything goes smoothly in interpreting, I feel as if I'm in this special zone," Okura said. "With English, I have this job, so it's like a part of my identity."
"When I can say, 'I've done a good job and am satisfied with it,' I may quit it, but I haven't reached that point yet," she said, adding that the toughest critic of her work is herself.
With great English skills and amazing adaptability, Okura continues to convey to Japanese moviegoers the words of their favorite screen heartthrobs.
--Atsuko Matsumoto
(Apr. 27, 2007)