By Armando Ezquerra Hasbun ©2017 It is bound to happen. You spend most of your professional career trying to get where your ambitions lie. And then you spend most of your time trying to improve, to catch up, to seek elusive perfection in your craft. And in...
The text below is aimed at individuals who have been trained but are stepping into a booth as professionals for the first time. These are my thoughts —nothing scientific about them, just good old experience, gut and gumption. So, the first thing you need to do is...
It is Tuesday. Usually that would mean I could sleep in a bit, but today it means I’m waking up at 6:45 to check my phone and…yes. Class has been confirmed for 7:30 this morning because during our normal class time, our professor will be...
As some of you are already aware, this September I embarked on the Master’s in Conference Interpreting program with Glendon College at York University. At the time of this posting, a month will have already gone by. Time flies when you’re too busy to think! Because...
I kind of feel like my fall should be entitled, Conference Interpreting: The Final Frontier. Because (that’s right, drum roll!) on September 10th, I begin classes at Glendon College, York University, for the Master’s in Conference Interpreting (MCI) program. The start of my classes will mark...
By Armando Ezquerra Hasbun ©2017 It is bound to happen. You spend most of your professional career trying to get where your ambitions lie. And then you spend most of your time trying to improve, to catch up, to seek elusive perfection in your craft. And in...
- by Gio Lester *This article was originally posted on September 21, 2012. It seems just as timely now as it did then. - Gio During a conference assignment, not too long ago, I was confronted with a very uncomfortable situation. Unbeknownst to the team of interpreters,...
If you have been a conference interpreter long enough chances are you may have found yourself in a situation where comments or jokes privately shared with a partner in the booth eventually got across to the audience. I once had it happen twice in a...
“We need more pay for the work we do.” “Nobody respects us interpreters.” “Can we please stop having intruders in this profession?”[1] “When will people understand that being bilingual doesn’t mean you can interpret?” “We should boycott if they try to bring in video interpreting.” “Maybe conference interpreters can demand...
I am ushered through a backdoor by a Korean who calls himself Francisco and who happens to speak near-perfect English, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a regular and quickly shows me around. I sign myself in and stand at a busy intersection of narrow corridors,...