Papal Visit 2015: Interpreting for Large Events

By Sarah-Claire Jordan

The “Porteño” Pope

With Pope Francis making his U.S. debut this week, a lot of people are probably wondering how he will deal with giving speeches, addresses, and even homilies in a country that doesn’t have nearly as many Spanish speakers as his native Argentina. Pope Francis is fluent in both Spanish and Italian, and can carry a conversation in French, Portuguese, and German, but he claims his English skills are not so impressive.

The previous two popes were both fluent in at least five languages and didn’t need to depend so much on an interpreter, but Pope Francis is lucky to have an amazing English interpreter by his side, Monsignor Mark Miles. Miles is from Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of Spain. He has been by the pope’s side during many other visits, most notably in the Philippines where he gained almost a cult following that he certainly wasn’t expecting.

What Does Monsignor Mark Miles Actually Do?

Though the pope has been practicing his English, he will still be needing the services of Miles during his time in the U.S. What Miles does is known as “consecutive interpreting”, or CI, which is one of the two most common interpreting methods for large events. This method consists of the source-language speaker says a few sentences at a time, and pauses to give the interpreter time to interpret into the target language. This is more common for events where only one target language is needed.

Other Language Interpretation Methods for Large Events

Simultaneous Interpreting

In terms of large events, there are a few more options for language interpreters. One is simultaneous interpreting, which consists of the source-language speaker speaking and the interpreter expressing the message with about a 5-second delay or so, depending on the interpreter. This method is extremely difficult and requires a very skilled interpreter, as they have to render what the speaker just said while simultaneously listening to the speaker continue. Basically, they have to interpret verbally while listening and figuring out how to interpret the next bit. This can be done in person, but many times the interpreter does this off-site in a special booth and those who need to listen to them with headphones.

Relay Interpreting

This is mostly what you see for UN meetings and other international events and conferences. First, the source language is rendered into a language that most of the other interpreters have in common, like English. Those interpreters in turn render the message into their specialty language, be it Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc. For example, a Japanese source-language speaker will speak, and an English/Japanese interpreter will render the message into English for all the other interpreters, who will render the English message into their target languages.

As you can probably see, interpreting for a large event is a huge responsibility. There are several different ways to do it, but some methods work better than others depending on the situation and context. In the case of the papal visit, Monsignor Mark Miles seems to be doing an excellent job as Pope Francis’ official English interpreter.

 For an overview of our translation expertise, visit our telephone interpreting service page

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Category: Alpha Omega News