Real time interpreting is really hard
Matt Cooper, the CEO of Skillshare, and I met with a few prominent Korean companies about potential partnerships to bring Skillshare content to Korean consumers. I’m certain Skillshare presents enormous value for Korean professionals as there is widespread aspiration to get ahead in the workplace by a) developing/polishing skills, and b) improving English proficiency. Skillshare allows professionals to do both simultaneously — thereby killing two birds with one stone.
More on Skillshare in a later post as the international growth story there has been a very interesting phenomenon. I wanted to write this quick post about real time interpreting as I had to do that in multiple meetings and realized that it is really. really. hard.
Interpreting during a meeting requires parallel processing of multiple threads:
- Processing new content introduced during the meeting
- Synthesizing the new content to determine implications for a potential partnership
- Holding the content in the brain’s RAM (short term memory)
- Translating the content, both raw and synthesized, all while worrying that I’ll get something wrong in the process and be judged by folks who understand every bit of English that’s coming out of my mouth
Sometimes quick direct translations (without having the time to think of the proper nuances) result in comedic situations. In one case, a Korean CEO remarked that Matt is really fit (Matt participates in triathlons). My brain was fried by then and I provided a direct translation to Matt by saying “He says you have a nice body.” Awkwardness ensued before I recovered and gave a better translation…
