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of symbols, ur not fudgingor theambiguousmultivalence f individualsymboiswithin a family.Lastly,we shouldmentionnotions hat occur iequentry nl y in th econtext f agivenmeeting. or hese, dhocsymbols ndabbreviationsanbe devised. or example,et'sassumehat n a meeting n egional evelop-nrcnt, he phraseownandcountry lanning smentionedepeatedly.hi sis no t hekind of notion ounorrnally ave symbor pyour l".u. for.Bu tnothingpreventshe nterpreterrom noting t as TCp.This abbreviationservests purpose uring hemeeting ndwill be orgottenhe nextday.Thefollowingweek he same nterpreter ay be n ameetingwhere heTrans-port combinationPrctgrammeie sat theheartof the debateThrs oo canbecome CP . n neither ases here riskof confusionor the nrerpreter.In anothermectingoc:al urhorities,egional uthorities nd ationalau-thoritiesar ckcy temr.s. hese anbe abbreviatedo LA, RA andNA, evenif, for exaniple the nterpreter asadifferenrsymbol heyhabituallyuse ornationalwhich couldhavebeenbrought n here. he context nd hecon-venience f usinga groupof ad hoc abbreviations ak eNA th eobviousthing o note ornational uthoriries,husactually veniding he nterpreler'sexisting ote-takingonventions.LinksLinks, it hasalreadybeensaid,are o be notedsystematicaily.o do soaccurately, uicklyand efficiently,t i s best o havesomevery short or mfor all links. These hort ormsdo nor have o be symbols,noi.u"n abbre-viations. herear ea numberof veryshort ink words n Enelishwhichcanbe usedas they standffi for anything n the ,because'fariily;@.,for al]words and phrases f that farniry, ncluding 'however,and forithe otherhand'; andQ. for anything n the 'therefore' amily. Interpreters nto lan-guages ther hanEnglishcanuse hese nglishwords n theirnores, venif essentiallyhey ak enotesn th e argetanguage:here s no reasonwhyinterpreters houldno t borrow convenient hortwords from other an _guages or theirnotes.Altematively, you may use he mathematical ign .'. to mean ,there-fore', and, f you desire,hesame ign nverted o mean because'. r again,some nterpretersmay prefer to express ausalityusingarrows,such hat= means therefore' nd e means because',or example althoughwewill havemore to say below on arrows).whatever he solution, he linksmust be clearand easy o notequickiy.similarly, pointsof view shouidbe easy o note,n particurar irenotions

' - * lins an d thinking)\omething.The symbols r abbre-- \-__/y r. ..- r r^ r]" '^aa r.,,rr rrnrhcr.r-r"ao .eflect ttreiEnoti6ls are not limited to those wo vcri'rs'

cancoverawide ange f expressions'To say'may eflect,annolltlc-dcclaring, ndsoon.Onemayevenwish o use t in noteswhere hereno rcalutterance,or examplevhen report says' hat"" Likelvrse' tolnk' rnay eused o note eel ing, eingof th eopinion hat'etc. or al lh inciicationsf subjectivity,vo ,y-bot' suffice,perhaps?'=fortg'and. '= br'to think'

lTl,a ,"nr., thataremost mportun,s polcarc he present.hepastand heItb,ur.. It is bareiyuseful o differentiaten notesbetween ifferentpastlirnr"r, such sanimperfect ndapast erfect: uch lrfl 'crcncesften ai l ofirn,lrf*, directlybetweenwo languages,nd n any case he appropriatelnsewill probably eusednstinctively y the nterpreter't may be pos-iblc to note enses y usingshortwordssuchas will andhasrn English':ver, f youuse hi s echniquehewordsused hould econsidereds

, not aswords usedaccording o the rulesof grammar'They shouldhot, therefore, e conjugated. ven so,noting ensesn thisway may temptlntcrpreters nto a too literal and too horizontal note-taking echnique'i Mor"ou.r, for languages herea futureor a past s indicated y verb end-,'ing, to the stem, nterpretersmay find suchan approach nconvententor:.unnatural.,,,.'' A secpndptionwouldbe o addsuffixeso verbs uch s e/jor.v.h7l' prstanC.ifor 1fu u5gre.hegroundsor hi sare hat he egular ngiishI t rr ,"nr. i, for*"a ty tire uffix edand n spoken nglish ufuremaybe

i- cxpressed y the tuffit -'l1. If you are noting in a ianguageother thani"' Iinglish you canchoose o borrow the Englishsuffixes or use other onesarisingnaturaliy rom the arget anguage.There s, however, third option'which ha s he advantage f being

rotallysymbolic, ince t is a graphic resentationf tense nd hus otallyindependent f language. ou can use he dea hat w.lrats past s.'bac,k-ward-looking,,whichanbe symbolized y the sign.J contranwtse,nel.uture"un UJf; and hepresent anbe indicatedby default.Thus, 'is op-posing' is noted simplyoppose; opposed' canbeoppose or )oppose;and:will Jppose' anbe-l ppose , oppotL. The engthof th ehorizontalin eis up to the ndividuai nterpreter, s s the questionas o whetherto putthe symbolbeforeor after he verb stem.You may find that his doesnot necessarily ave ime in note-taking,

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ascompared ithsuffixes, rvenwriting heverbong-hand,sinopposed.sometimeshiswiil be rue.But he ealadvantag*lnotingi.or", in thissymbolicway is that he nterpreteran mmediut"ly..rog"nizethe ensewhen eading ack heirnotes. ou don'thaveobother itf,notingrregu_Iar pastor furure enses, ndyou don'thave o careaboutsequenceftensesn ranguageshere hat s relevant:hecorrector- oi.*pressionwill be providedby the nterpretern theiroral rendering ui doesnotneed obepresentn thenotes.If an nterpreter ishes-to otea pruperfectheycando soby usingthc 'past'symbol,but doubre nderrinin!, oas o indicate further e_n)()ven ime, hus: .It mayarso eusefuro ndicateheconditionarrsubjunctive odes,dcpendingn he argetanguage.hesymbol hosenor nisand tsplacein relationo theverbcan-behoseneety uy eachnterprei"iprouia"a tis clear'one widery-usedption s tgptaR-a"circumflex".;;;; over heverb.Thus,'woul oppose,ecomed.q.6se-'..MoclalverbsAgain, t is a mootpointas owhetherymbols r abbreviationsrenec-cssory r svendesirabreor modal erbs. ince hese reverbs hatoccurtiequently ndare ntrinsicairymportantn most anguages,nterpretersmight eel t isworthwhile aving ymbols.n theott.-. ia,'moour, ,"ndto beshortwordscan, must,want,etc.,nd otjustnEngtisi_,andonemeygetby withoutanything pecialor hem.That aid,wewouldarguehat t isprobably etterohave ymborsorrn'dals, or two reasons- irst,notions xpressedy modals analsobeexpressedn anumber f otherways, nd i wilr beusefuro have srngresimPle ymbolowhich ne an..ju., ansuch;r;;;;;.rrto" ,n,rr,if"nlust' ssymbolizedsA, henwording uch s willbeobrigedo, canbenoted s A L,see nd, rodals an avemorehan nemeaning,nd ometimesheretheres ustone nodar.none anguaget canbe ranslatedith wo differ_en tmodalsnanother.ranguage.orexample,heEnglish.onun .un .robe physically)apabref, oknow ow o' ,andalsotobea'owed o, ohave ermissiono'' In anumberofanguageshesewosensesrereflectedbydifferent erbs.By symborizing oiarithe nterpret.., -o.. tit"ty,opinpointhecorrect otion n theiinotes ndwiil *n r.ssof ariskof beingtrapped y heambivaiencef hemodarn the ourceanguage,nd hus fmistranslating.

ll one doeschoose o usesymbols or modal verbs t is best o treatItrcrnas a family groupanddevelopan organically elatedsetof symbolst{) rcpresenthem..$txr.r,s.\pcakersnevitablyqualify heircomments y stressing articular ointsorwords, r, alternatively, y aftenuatinghem. n order o beable o renderallslradesf meaning t is agood hing or an nterpretero notesuchqualifica-rions.This can be donevery simply througha systemof underlining.Forcxample, f something s said o be very important" this canbe notedasiwo)tant,If the interpreterwants hey can extend he systemby noting;"*tr"-"ly important' usingdoubleunderlining.On the otherhand, fairlyinrportani,"o,rldb"Ilotedby underlining, ut usinga squiggly ine.This,or any similar simple system,may make t easy o notea whole rangeofnuances ith greatease.lnterpretersmay alsowish to abbreviatehe way they notecompara-tivesand superlatives. hey may usesuffixessuchas er and st, nspiredfrom he standardEnglishsuffixes.Again this s possible ven f the notesare n a different anguage. lternatively, ou may prefer o usea symbolsuchas + for comparison,with ++ for superlative; 1) for comparative(.more han'), nwhich case canbeused or 'less',an dsoon .The choiceisup o the ndividual nterpreter. hekey hing s hat he system houldbeconsistent ndunequivocal.AnowsArrows areparticularlyuseful ools n agraphicsystem f note-taking. hesense f the arrowwillhave an ntrinsicmeaning, bvious n context.Thustwill mean ncreasequantitively)nd mprovementquaiitatively); willmean he opposite. uc h igns anbe used n combination ith others, smentionedbOve.orexample,f e is economy',et iS economic rowth'.The position of an arrow n relation o the words or othersymbolsnoted.u n ulro be significant.unemployment ontinueso be at a high level'canquitesimply be notedas:

unemPloYmentThe arrow itself Signifies continues o be', and he fact that he arrow is.high' above heword it qualifies ndicateshe eveiof unemployment.

Arrows canbemadeobliqueandused o expressrendsor progfessive

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change.Thus nflation ) lmay mean inflation has ended o increase,.Interpretersmay refine he system urtherand draw arrowswith a straightline n normalcircumstances,ut with a squiggly ine f a notionha sL,eenattenuated.hcn inflationhas ended o increase lightly' couidbecomeinJtationJ 1.Arrows can alsosignify simply movement 'US car exports o Japan'couldbe notedus cars J. Theyca nbe wo-way

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Ipassage,s easy o re-narrate, rovidedone ememberso inciude t. In thecase f an anecdoteor joke the interpretercan also choose o note theparenrhesis,nd within it to write one key word which should riggeroffmemory f the story' or evenwrite the word oke,just to remind them-selveso el l the oke at thatjuncfure.Numbering

It alrlost oe swithoutsaying hat ntelpreters anoftenmake if e easierfo r hemselvesy numbering oints n theirnotes,us t as we mentionedabovchat hey might find it useful o numberpoints n their mind to en_hanceheir nalysis fstructureand heir ecallofa speech.fa speakernunrbcrsn heiracrual peech,henyou shoulddefinitely ollow their *riu_bering.uteven f aspeaker oes ot number, t mayhelp o introduce ourown umberingn notes,providedof course heir structure s sufficientlyclcaro nake umbering ossible.Insuch umbering,whether t comesdirectly rom hespeaker rwhetheritrs he nterpreter'snitiative, heremay be no t us t pointsbu t alsosub_points,nd ven ub-sub-points.n suchcaseshe nterpretermust akecare

tohave watertightnumberingsystem- f the main points are numberedwithArabic umerals,hen sub-pointsmustbe notedwith something lse,lertcrsrRoman umerals, or example. therwise henotesand hesubse-qucntntcrpretationun he isk of beingextremely onfused ndconfusinq.lilliriencYlrrll luse fabbreviationsndsymbols,nterpretersus tseek ut hemostct'l icientbrm f notes. hi smeanshe ymustdrawupon hewidest ossiblerangcrl'signs.heyshouldusemathematicaligns uc has*, _, =, (, ),I, t, arrrl, n. Theyshould lso al luponpunctuation arks: or exampre/ ca n euscd o mean important',us t as a and ? canbe used o mean'supply'anddemand'. rrowsof all possibleormsanddirectionsanbeused.s escribedbove. etters fdifferent cripts anbeused. nterpret_erswho an eadmusiccan borrow rom musicainotation.Thosewho aremore isuallynclined an evenus eschematic rawings: simple adderplushe uffixncouldexpressescaiation'n amilitaryconflicr.Rcminis_cencesro m chool r university aysca nhelp,with the ableof clementsbeingsed.fromhemistryand heNewtonianabbreviationsrom tlrc awsofmotionearntn physics lasses.he is t s endless.

i:,t whicharemore rouble han hey areworth':':.J' S".ond, thereare many hings hat nterpreters houldnot write downi, in theirnotes.The verb to be' canusuallybe omitted,beingunderstoodn

:i -fhe variety of potentialsourcesof symbolsand abbreviations'plusihc rcquirement hat notesshouldalwaysbe logicallymeaningful o theirDretersshouldiettheir imaginationplayindevisingilillli?;:lJl::j#nrty, instinctivery,hroughettingheirmind anderarrdusing ateral hinking, association f ideas, hat each nterpreterwill'eome pwith thesystemof symbolsandabbreviations estsuited o them'

At the same ime, the searchor efficiencymeans hereare wo thingsth c nterpreterhould'notdo .First, hey shouldno t develop ymbolsan d[bbreviations hat areso complicated hat hey actually ake onger o noteclown hanwriting notes ong-hand' r thanusingad hoc,but perfectlyob-:' ui,rus,abbreviations. f onehas a well-developedSystem f symbolsand., rbbreviations, articularly f the systemadmitscombinations f different

- symbolsand abbreviations ,t is easy o fall into the trap of taking notes

contextby default. The Secretary-Generals pleasedhat,..'can be notedSec-Gen leased....The only thing that needs o be noted s the tenseormode, eading hepresentense y default.So^'the ecretary-Generalouldbe pleasedf...' canbe notedSic-Genpt&a.... The word nor, and heideaof negation n general, eednot be written long-hand n notesbut canbe expressed y crossingout the notion to be negated'Then there are somany words that do not need o be noted, either because hey will re-...ig" automatically n the nterpretationrom context, r becauseheyarewordswhich have ittle ntrinsicmeaning ut exist o oil thesyntax, o ospeak,of a language.An exampleof the former would be The workingparty hot submitted ts eport o thesteeringgroup' ln context t may beobvious hat he only operativeer bcouldbe o submit' n whichcase hi scouldbenoted:u-,nA I r-y'2/ / tz/ -7-* / -:J -/*);f

The examples f the atterare egion-Words suchasget, makeand do canalmostalwaysbe omitted romnotes.Thewordtfral,used n reported peechor n conjunctional hrases,s unnecessaryn notes.Relativepronouns anvery oftenbe omifted.And soon. Each nterpreter houldwork on honing