Speaker 1: These two diplomats are about to begin a negotiation. This one is from an unspecified Spanish-speaking country. Hola. And this one is from an unspecified English-speaking country.

Speaker 2: Hello.

Speaker 1: And these are real interpreters. And I'm Barry Slaughter-Olson, a conference interpreter with 25 years of experience interpreting for diplomats and world leaders at places like the UN. When you think of interpreters, scenes like these are probably the first that come to mind. People in soundproof booths, interpreting in real time to government officials below. But interpreters often have to do their jobs in private closed-door meetings. This is called bilateral interpreting. And as anyone who heard about the Trump-Putin meetings knows, it's a very real situation when certain meetings just have a limited number of people in a room. And those people are sworn to secrecy. This is a demonstration of what can typically happen in these meetings behind closed doors. Comenzamos.

Speaker 3: Shall we begin?

Speaker 1: Actually, things began before anyone even arrived. Most of the time, terms are agreed upon in advance of the meeting. The agendas are carefully negotiated and outlined. They can range from arms reduction to economic cooperation to water rights. All we need is a plausible topic to get started. Let's say dolphin-safe tuna fishing. To start, our interpreters position themselves. You'd think they'd be in the middle somewhere because they've got to hear well, right? Well, for meetings in front of the press, they don't want to be the center of attention or appear in press photos. See how they're on the sidelines here? That's so they can easily be cropped out of the pictures to be published later, which doesn't always work out. So before this meeting begins, there are things that need to be decided. Will recordings be permitted? Is a record being kept? Who's going to attend? But this is a closed-door bilateral meeting, so it'll just be these four. Now, there are two styles of interpretation, simultaneous and consecutive. Consecutive is the most common style of interpreting in diplomatic situations. Here's an example.

Speaker 2: It's been a while since I've been here. I'm so excited to be back. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: And then?

Speaker 3: The interpreter waits until the speaker pauses.

Speaker 1: And then interprets. We're very happy to be able to collaborate again with the government of your country. Simple, right? But what happens if the speaker goes on and on without pausing? Interpreters rarely translate word for word. Instead, we remember specific ideas and translate those ideas accordingly. But when the speaker goes on and on for a long time, interpreters rely on note-taking.

Speaker 2: We want to authorize the use of the dolphin-friendly label by your country's tuna processors. These symbols represent the speaker's ideas.

Speaker 1: But each interpreter has their own style. Watch as three different interpreters take notes on the same sentence.

Speaker 2: We want to authorize the use of the dolphin-friendly label by your country's tuna processors. But we must have a reliable way to verify the use of authorized equipment and fishing practices.

Speaker 1: Interpreters usually come up with the symbols beforehand. And as you can see here, on Catty's cheat sheet, she carefully thought about what will be most useful for this particular meeting. The DFL stands for dolphin-friendly label. The TU in a box refers to tuna that's being caught. You get the idea. Now let's watch as Catty interprets her own notes into Spanish. Now let's switch to simultaneous interpretation. Simultaneous interpretation is usually used with earpieces and microphones and with interpreters working from a soundproof booth. But we won't have equipment in this demonstration. When we're right next to another person, like in this scenario, we can employ what we call chuchotage, which means whispering in French. This usually isn't ideal. Whispering for a long time is bad for the vocal cords. It can also be hard to hear due to ambient noise in the room, like ventilation. Now let's talk about pacing. In simultaneous interpretation, you try to maintain an optimal distance from the original speaker. This is referred to as décollage, or ear-voice span. We'll call it EVS. So when one diplomat starts speaking, the person employing chuchotage would probably start here.

Speaker 3: We understand perfectly the preferences of the consumers in our country.

Speaker 4: And that is why we are coming together to identify...

Speaker 1: Even if the speaker is speaking at 100 to 110 words per minute, which research tells us is the optimal speed for interpreting, the interpreter still has to figure out the optimal EVS. Here's the problem. The further back in the diplomat's speech the interpreter is,

Speaker 3: the more the interpreter has to keep in their short-term memory. They're listening and processing as they're interpreting.

Speaker 1: It's a lot. ...is high-quality dolphin.

Speaker 4: Dolphin? But get too close to the original speaker's words,

Speaker 1: and they may screw up things like grammar, syntax, and style. The preferences of the...

Speaker 4: We understand that the preferences of the speakers are very important. We understand that the preferences of the preferences of the country of yours... What are you talking about?

Speaker 1: And of course, interpreters are prone to fatigue and burnout. Fatigue will hit at around 30 minutes of straight interpreting. This is why simultaneous interpreters often switch out in intervals of 30 minutes or less. If pushed to our limits, interpreters can really suffer. You may recall the 2009 incident in which Muammar Gaddafi's interpreter collapsed at the UN after simultaneously interpreting for over 75 minutes. So what happens if the conversation turns emotional, or the speaker becomes rude?

Speaker 2: Well, my friend, I've listened to what you have to say, and the only conclusion I can come up with is that you're a damn fool.

Speaker 1: Interpreters are not meant to be mediators. Our only job is to stay true to the message of the speaker. If someone becomes rude or angry, if threats are made, then we are supposed to interpret those threats faithfully. So in this situation, an interpreter would not say...

Speaker 4: And the only conclusion I can come up with is that you've been a little imprudent.

Speaker 1: And here is an example of a faithful interpretation.

Speaker 4: And the only conclusion I can come up with is that you're a perfect idiot.

Speaker 1: Although a speaker may become emotional and gesticulate, the interpreter is not going to parrot the behavior of the speaker. This is not the way.

Speaker 5: How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends. How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends. This is more realistic. How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends. How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends.

Speaker 1: So the situation has gotten quite intense. Maybe a joke would be helpful to lighten the mood. But jokes are some of the most difficult things to interpret because they can get lost in translation easily.

Speaker 2: What did one dolphin say to the other after splashing him? You did that on purpose.

Speaker 1: Never mind that this joke barely makes sense in English. In Spanish, it completely doesn't work because porpoise is marsopa and purpose is propósito.

Speaker 4: What did one dolphin say to the other after splashing him? You did that on purpose.

Speaker 1: Untranslatable pun. I don't understand. Attempts at humor are often lost, and there's not much an interpreter can do. There's an anecdote about an interpreter who, when faced with an untranslatable joke, simply said,

Speaker 4: Hey, your colleague just told a joke that is totally untranslatable. Would you please laugh? That was good. That was a good one.

Speaker 1: Of course, what we've seen today is a tiny excerpt of what are often longer and arduous negotiations. And that concludes our bilateral meeting behind closed doors. This job is tough, to juggle the many things that we have to do to be able to interpret well and accurately. But this job is important because it's what makes communication possible between countries and between peoples. I've been at it for 25 years, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Speaker 6: Barry will interpret a financial speech.

Speaker 1: We have seen that the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean has increased.

Speaker 6: And then Cathy will interpret a text message exchange between two friends.

Speaker 7: 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.