'Shadowing' to success
OSAKA--What people learn at a young age often has a profound effect on their later lives. For Toshiko Silva, 42, who works as an English instructor at Osaka Gakuin University and as an interpreter and licensed guide, what she learned while studying simultaneous interpretation at Osaka University of Foreign Studies still survives in her, and now she is passing it on to her students.
The course was taught by Chuta Funayama, one of the leading simultaneous interpreters in the Kansai region and currently a professor at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies. Funayama also serves as vice president of the Japan Association for Interpretation Studies. He gave students an opportunity to learn the most advanced techniques of the time to become simultaneous interpreters.
"Funayama told us the mind-set needed for simultaneous interpretation, how interpreters should act during their duties, what interpreters should aim for and how to effectively brush up your skills," Silva told The Daily Yomiuri. She took the class when she was a junior.
One of the important things she learned from Funayama was a method of shadowing or repeating while listening to phrases--a technique of listening to what people say and repeating it almost simultaneously. "I believe the method was little known to people in the early 1980s. So I found it revolutionary," she said.
One day in his class, Funayama played a tape of an NHK morning news program and had students repeat the phrases on the tape. Silva said that the news stories were all delivered in Japanese, but she found that she was unable to follow and repeat the words as fast as the anchorman spoke them.
"He [Funayama] told us that the first step to becoming a simultaneous interpreter was learning to coordinate our listening and speaking abilities, because it's a very unusual situation for ordinary people to simultaneously speak while listening," Silva said.
From then on, she practiced shadowing to develop her coordination.
After graduating from the university Silva started to work as an English teacher at Baika Middle and High schools in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture. She has since included the method as part of her classwork.
Among Funayama's other practical advice, she stresses the importance of interpreting as quickly as possible. She says speed is crucial to making listeners feel at ease with the translation. "I was taught that to respect the flow of communication among people was one of the interpreter's most important duties," Silva said.
"Funayama also said that it was important not to aim for perfection," she said. "It's fundamentally impossible to simultaneously interpret every single word and phrase exactly as they are uttered. So he encouraged us to aim for good, not perfect. He said that would help an interpreter to not hamper the flow of communication."
Silva has been involved in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation activities, mostly on a voluntary basis.
Events that she has worked on as an interpreter include the annual Gymnastic Festival Osaka, an event attended by gymnastic teams and leaders from abroad to promote health through general gymnastics.
As a Christian, she has interpreted speeches by pastors and others for foreign visitors at Senri Newtown Baptist Church, Osaka International Church and Minoo Higashi Church.
She currently teaches a variety of courses, including a TOEIC preparation course, an introductory course for tour guides at Osaka Gakuin University, English for students majoring in other languages at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, and oral interpretation at Kansai University.
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This monthly column focuses on areas of specialization for translators and interpreters through interviews with experts in such fields. It will return on Dec. 22.