Interpretation: Techniques And Exercises (Professional Interpreting in the Real World)

I have received a copy of the book Interpreting Techniques by James Nolan on the date promised and in a very efficient way-
Thanks Amazon for making long distances seem so much shorter.
Ana de Choch Asseo
Buenos Aires
Argentina

I find the reviews above rather one-sided, so have decided to post this brief review.

There are some very useful chapters in this book, for example the introduction and the chapter on restructuring syntax. But to suggest that the book is an outright success smacks of bias.

There are some serious flaws with this book, not least of all, that 3/4 of it is useless if you don't have EN FR and ES together in your combination, as examples used to demonstrate interpreting techniques are given in these languages together with translations into EN. This rules out a huge proportion of an already small potential readership.

The author also makes some ill-advised forays into the world of EN language teaching in the Chapter "Figures of Speech", something he is apparently not qualified to do. Most of these exercises were banished from the language classroom 20 years ago and the 10 pages of Spanish, French and English idioms, without explanation or translation, cannot possibly help a student learn to interpret.

There is more. But it is not my intention to be overly negative, only fair. Parts of the book are useful, and parts of it deserve to be read and I recommend to my students. However, it is far from being a outright success.

This is a wonderful book for beginning or student interpreters (especially those whose working languages are French and/or Spanish), with a concise introduction to the profession followed by 18 chapters of exercises focused on specific areas, such as word order and collations, dealing with numbers and quotes, and note-taking.

Moreover, I think that experienced interpreters would also benefit from many of the exercises in this book, especially those aimed at honing diction and register skills. The chapter on figures of speech alone would make this book a worthwhile purchase.

good book, but too oriented to UN conference interpreting. Some sections are not exactly interpreting exercises and others could be more related to the fields of medicine and the law. It is a bit elitist (UN interpreters)but well written. The author seems to be a very thorough, well-trained specialist

Very good book. It adresses more United Nations interpreting but may also be applied to other areas. It will require a seasoned interpreter or faculty to point out the differences with other fields of interpreting, such as medical or legal.