Speaker 1: This is Barry, and this is Kathy. They are professional interpreters who will be challenged to speed tests. Barry will interpret a financial speech.

Speaker 2: We have seen that the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean has increased.

Speaker 1: And then Kathy will interpret a text message exchange between two friends.

Speaker 3: I mean, have you ever seen Killing Eve? I mean, it's not that realistic, but I love it. Are you kidding? I've never seen it.

Speaker 2: What we're going to do now is a little speed test from Spanish to English at different rates of speed.

Speaker 1: Round one, normal speed. On this side is the original text in Spanish, and on this side, a translation into English done by a native speaker.

Speaker 4: Let's see how Barry does.

Speaker 2: It is an honor for me to be here with you today at the Lecture Series of the Americas, where well-known personalities have spoken from this pulpit.

Speaker 4: The importance of the topic that we will address,

Speaker 2: and the fact that it's the right time and the relevant forum to address it, simply show the constant attention and sensitivity of the OAS. Okay, stop there. Hesitation. This is a new speech. I'm starting off cold. I've got to dust off the vocabulary so I can talk about finance and economics. And that sometimes can lead me to hesitate a little bit before I speak. And of the Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza. Stop. Proper names. Gratefully, I knew the proper name here, but they can be some of the hardest out there, because they can whiz right by you, and you won't even know what hit you.

Speaker 1: Round two, fast.

Speaker 4: It's a little bit faster, but still doable.

Speaker 2: When an episode of financial turbulence reaches the size and dimension that we currently see in international financial markets, there is no single origin. The huge expansion of credit in the U.S. mortgage market and the use of financial instruments that did not allow for an adequate measurement of risk. Good thing to stop right here. Missed word. There was some terminology that was actually quite specific, and it had to do with measuring financial risk. There was one of those adjectives that I just couldn't fit in, but I still was able to get the point across. Round three, even faster. So, let's talk strategy. As the speed increases, there's secondary information that you can let go. That may mean adjectives, it could be nouns in a list. Letting that information go and still holding on to the essence of the message. This was a inflection point in the history of the markets, and it produced a significant change in the way that financial instability was being perceived, and it appeared that we had gone from a liquidity crisis to another level. So, as I'm listening, I can tell with the increased speed that I'm starting to struggle to process everything appropriately fast enough, because that last thing I said sounded just a little awkward. To another level, to another level, is an example of letting secondary information go. You didn't get all the detail, but I was able to finish my sentence and move on and continue to explain what was happening.

Speaker 1: Round four, extremely fast.

Speaker 2: So, this is the final and fastest round. When it's faster like this, I give the essentials, which is actually easier for the listener to process than me speaking extremely fast in English. Two characteristics separate this crisis from the previous one. It came from outside our region. You'll notice that I'm speaking more deliberately and slower. The reason for this is there's so much information coming in, I have to process that and then choose what it is that I can say that will make sense for the listener. And so, I simplify rather than trying to chase after absolutely everything the speaker is saying. And it is going to affect us both socially and economically. We have seen that the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean has increased. This does not mean that I'm skipping entire sentences or ideas. What it does mean is I'm taking in the information and extracting from all of that information the essence that I need to communicate to my listener. And it's known as a coping technique. It's a way that interpreters deal with variables that they can't control, but they can control their delivery. And this is an expansion that took place when we had low inflation, when we had robust external accounts. Now, you may wonder, well, what if I were to try to chase after everything and get absolutely every word or phrase? The short answer is it would be more difficult for you to understand what I'm saying. And very often, I'd probably end up making grammatical and stylistic mistakes.

Speaker 3: So, Barry did a simultaneous rendition of a very serious financial subject. Me, I'm going to have the challenge of interpreting simultaneously the text messaging conversation between these two good friends.

Speaker 1: On this side are Christian's texts, translated into English. And on this side are Gabby's texts, translated into English. Hola.

Speaker 3: Hi. Hi, how you doing? Bien, bien. Great, great. Are you really looking forward to Game of Thrones this Sunday? I'm really sad to say this, but I'm not interested in Game of Thrones. Are you kidding? It is the best series in the history of the world. You're not going to be part of the conversation. Well, I'm really sorry, but I really prefer something more realistic. I mean, have you ever seen Killing Eve? I mean, it's not that realistic, but I love it. Are you kidding? I've never seen it. You can tell by the look on my face that I don't know what I'm talking about. So, I'm trying to get in the interpreting zone. I'm trying to get the feel. I'm trying to get on board with this. I'm trying to get the energy, but I can't really do it because I really don't know what they're talking about. Game of Thrones, Killing Eve, Joe Bowman, Celia Cruz, and Willy Colon, Selva's Cuban Cuisine. This shows the importance of ensuring that the interpreter is familiar with the subject matter that the interpreter is going to be working with. You're going to throw pop culture at me, you want to let me know in advance so that I can sort of up my own game and figure it out. Are you kidding? I've never seen it. I mean, I'm not interested in fantasy. I mean, I didn't even start watching Game of Thrones until last year. I mean, it's cool, but beyond that, I think it's really realistic. I don't know. I mean, you're not going to convince me. So, obviously, they were speaking very quickly, talking over each other. And that's really hard because it's hard to hear and it's hard to distinguish one voice from the other. So, you get bogged down in trying to listen to one or the other. So, that was a real challenge. Another major challenge is I have a notepad. As you can see, I wrote down nothing. Normally, I would be writing down names and figures, but it was coming at me so fast, I didn't even have a chance. If you're not interested, then we can't be friends anymore. No, no, no, I'm not interested in that series. Another aspect that was really hard in this was the emotion because they're speaking sort of emotionally to each other. There's a lot of power behind their words. Okay, fine, I know you're Chilean. Yeah, that has nothing to do with it. And it's hard, at that pace, to keep up with that emotion and express it adequately while you're grappling with all the other challenges that you're being confronted with.

Speaker 4: I mean, but watching that other show is a lot of fun. Look, this is the best thing ever.

Speaker 3: So, obviously, you can't interpret what you can't hear. Now, when I'm speaking, that's making noise. And that noise is keeping me from being able to hear the two of them clearly. If you're going to tell me that you don't like Joe Bovan, no, that has nothing to do. I got nothing against any of those people, but you can't compare reggaeton with Celia Cruz and salsa. Okay, fine, Celia Cruz is the best. Oh, Willy Colón, you know, Soboloma. Yeah, right, whoever. Look, don't change the subject. Interpreters have to be incredibly flexible. You have to understand where you're sitting, what you're doing, because it's not the same thing to be sitting in a very staid, formal conference setting as it is to be working with two friends who are trying to communicate. Your demeanor is going to be different. The words that you choose are going to be different. That's sort of a rule. The interpreter is an interpreter, always, but has to adapt to the individual circumstances and the setting where they're working. In a normal speech at a major institution, there'll be a lot of adjectives. We didn't hear a lot of adjectives here. We did hear slang terms from one country or another. It's really difficult on the fly to reflect all of those slang terms and come up with an appropriate rendition in English.

Speaker 4: Which is short for, but I guess only Chileans say that.

Speaker 3: Only Chileans say that. Nobody else conjugates verbs that way.

Speaker 5: I didn't use too much slang, but we referenced some Cuban food when we were talking about lunch, and I said, which is like a Cuban pastry. I missed that. And a cortadito, which is a coffee. I got the cortadito.

Speaker 3: No, are you hungry? No, I'm starving. Have you gone to Sophie's? Sophie's Cuban cuisine? Absolutely. That's the best Cuban food in Miami. You remind me of that every day. But all right, fine. You want me to go over there and get something now? Fine. All right, fine. Bring me a cortadito so I can get some sleep. Are you kidding? That wasn't bad. That wasn't bad.

Speaker 5: It was highly stressful. It was hard for me to hear myself think, listening to you and you. Yeah, it was hard reading. It was tough focusing.

Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I had no trouble at all. I gotta confess. This is the best job in the world. And it's the best job in the world for a nerd like me. Because I get paid to go to the best conferences, to study, and be at the state-of-the-art events on a really broad range of subjects. I'm not pinching a hold on one thing or another. Perfect thing for a nerd.