Interpreting Case Studies

Harvard University W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research – 2 Day Conference – French, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish Simultaneous Interpreting - “Black in Latin America”

“Black in Latin America” was a multinational conference that took place at Harvard University on January 27-29, 2011. Inspired by Professor Henry Louis Gates’s upcoming documentary of the same name, to air on PBS on April 19, the “Black in Latin America” conference gathered together scholars from Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Perú, Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. to discuss a variety of issues related to race relations of Afro-descendants in the Caribbean and Latin America. The conference began with an evening reception on Thursday, January 27 at the Institute's Rudenstine Gallery, featuring the work of Afro-Mexican sculptor and printmaker, Elizabeth Catlett. Six panels on Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 28 at the Tsai Auditorium in CGIS featured presentations by scholars from or at work in these African Diaspora communities. The conference ended with two roundtable discussions on Saturday afternoon featuring top scholars in the field of Afro-Latino and African Diaspora Studies.

This conference was a high-caliber event requiring simultaneous interpreting into three different languages (Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and French). Language Connections was pleased to offer Harvard with six top-notch interpreters from Boston and Washington DC. As this conference was multinational, panelists’ speeches did not only have to be interpreted to and from English, but also into the other two target languages, also called relay interpreting. Relay interpreting is an extremely challenging and complex procedure. A source-language interpreter interprets the text to a language common to every interpreter, who then render the message to their respective target languages. For example, a French source message first is rendered to English to a group of interpreters, who listen to the English and render the message into Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, the other target languages. Let our client from Harvard speak: “The conference was, by all accounts, a smashing success.”

CERA Week 2011 – 5 Day Chinese Simultaneous Conference Interpreting - Leading the Way: "Energy Strategies for a World of Change"

Language Connections has been providing simultaneous interpreting services to CERA Week for over ten years. Once again, our company has won the contract and will also be providing interpreting equipment for the conference (6 Booths, Stationary Equipment and 250 Portable Headsets and technical personnel). CERAWeek is the world's leading energy conference, bringing together senior executives and officials, leading experts across the energy spectrum and members of the financial community for highly interactive discussions and presentations on the future of energy. Language Connections is happy to be a trusted partner of this noteworthy event.

CERAWeek 2011, the 30th annual conference, will be held March 7-11, 2011 at the Hilton Americas in Houston, Texas. Our company’s president, Leo Galperin, will be at the conference himself to oversee the linguistic and technical aspects of the event.

Harvard University Asia Center – 2 Day Conference – Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting – “New Century, New Literature”

The Harvard University Asia Center hosted the second Chinese-American Writers' Forum on September 24-25, 2010 entitled “New Century, New Literature: A Dialogue between Chinese and American Writers and Critics.” This event brought together distinguished Chinese and American writers and critics in a two-day dialogue on new literature in a new century, its achievements, hopes, and challenges. Topics of discussion include Chinese literary production in the 21st century, the role and agency of literature in public culture and society, translation and transculturation, as well as comparative perspectives on world literature of the past decade. Among the writers featured in the Chinese delegation were Wang Meng 王蒙 (former Chinese minister of culture), Zhang Wei 张炜, and Zhang Kangkang 张抗抗. They were in conversation with American authors Jamaica Kincaid, Ha Jin, Gish Jen 任璧蓮, Qiu Xiaolong, as well as with literary scholars including Stephen Owen and David Damrosch.

How is the communication of these distinguished Chinese and American writers possible? Language Connections’ top-notch interpreters made sure that this event was a success. They don’t interpret words, they simultaneously interpret context. Our interpreters are always well prepared and are specialized in subject matters like literature, history, cultural communication, but also medical, technical and legal topics.

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences – 1 day conference – Spanish Simultaneous Interpreting – “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter”

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (“SEAS”) recently developed a new General Education science course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter.” This course, offered for the first time this fall (September through December 2010), uses food and cooking to explain fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering. Twelve of the most famous chefs from around the world are participating in the event.

Limited to currently enrolled Harvard undergraduates, (open to the public on specific evenings), these lectures have brought together several eminent Harvard researchers and world-class chefs. Among these chefs are world famous Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Wylie Dufresne of wd-50, and Dan Barber of Blue Hill. In the classrooms, theoretical lectures on gastronomy are accompanied by cooking labs which are conducted in an unused chemistry laboratory so that the students can eat their results.

Although the language of food is international, the seminars tend to be quite technical and detailed because of their scientific orientation. Furthermore, due to the international nature of the event, on site interpreters were needed to provide simultaneous interpreting services and overcome language barriers. Language Connections was asked by parties responsible for the event at Harvard University to interpret from Spanish to English during the first series of lectures entitled “21st Century Gastronomy: A Multidisciplinary Subject: Spain: A Case Study”. This seminar, funded and promoted by Spain’s tourist organization, started off with one of Spain’s most famous chefs, Ferran Adria of El Bulli Restaurant in Catalonia. He presented a lecture on molecular gastronomy entitled “Gastronomy as a Language and its Role in Contemporary Culture” The seminar series on Spanish gastronomy was very successful, largely because of the fame and competence of the lecturers, but partly due to the high level of competence of our interpreters. In a sense, one might say that we helped teach the students how to create “the perfect dish.”

This is how our interpreters experienced the event:

"We had heard, from sources that shall remain unnamed, that Ferran Adria was a particularly troublesome speaker for simultaneous interpreters, since, in addition to having flights of inspiration into every conceivable culinary obscurity, he apparently spoke in a heavily accented Iberian Spanish peppered with Catalan, not to mention fast, very fast. We set right to work reading up on his life and work, and especially scouring the web for every lecture, interview,and even parody available online. We soon learned that things weren't quite so grim. Adria spoke quickly but clearly, and it dawned on us that some of his trouble with interpreters came from his handling of the microphone (someone remarked that he might be using it as a microphone and as a fly swatter at the same time). Our faithful sound technicians agreed not to give him a hand held microphone, and everything went seamlessly. The mark of a good interpreter is invisibility, and even though the majority of the audience wore our portable headsets to hear Adria's intervention in English, they took a lesson directly from the master."

Gore Desing Completions, San Antonio, Texas

Unprecedented GLOBAL Demand Requires Fast And Diplomatic Translation Turnaround

Putting advanced technology in the sky for heads-of-state, international executives, and private individuals is the work of Gore Design Completions and Language Connections.

In recent years, particularly as a reaction to increased airline security since 2001, the demand for large-cabin, technology-rich executive aircraft has grown at more than 30% per year, an unprecedented rate for the industry. Gore Design Completions in San Antonio is one of the very few companies in the world equipped to install or refurbish these large airplanes to the exacting specifications of high-profile customers in various markets, including the traditional markets of Europe and the Middle East, and the emerging markets of China, Russia, and Africa.

Knowing that deep cultural understanding and comprehensive language fluency is central to the high-stakes projects the company undertakes, Gore Design turned to Language Connections. Language Connections works with Gore Design to ensure that every financial, logistical and design detail is communicated to the international client in his own language, whatever language that may be, facilitating decision-making, relationship building, and ultimate client satisfaction.

Together, Language Connections and Gore Design work in a high-pressure environment, under tight deadlines, to secure and implement these international business deals. In one instance, Language Connections provided a last-minute French translation which proved invaluable in face-to-face negotiations. In another case, we translated a contract into Russian in less than one business day allowing Gore Design to close the contract expeditiously.

Gore Design Completions knows that we are standing by at all times to be their global communicator. No job is too small or too large - no deadline is too tight - we'll get it done.