Globally Speaking

Podcast

The Rise of Interpretainment

[TONY ROBBINS MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH SEGMENT]

R: I am Renato Beninatto.

M: And I am Michael Stevens. And Renato, I know you know him, and I know

our listeners who know Tony Robbins can recognize his voice. He’s best

known for infomercials, statements like “it’s not the size of the fight in the

dog, it’s the size of the dog in the….” No, I said it backwards. That’s why I

am not Tony. He has self-help tapes, seminars, books that include

Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within. He reaches out to people

and fills arenas because they want to be inspired and challenged by him.

He’s been a big influence on Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com. His

events are highly interactive and very intense.

R: Well there is a whole industry built around these events around the world.

Maybe you and I should go into it, Michael?

M: It might be our next calling, but you did tell me that you once tried to be an

interpreter.

R: Well, I did. I used to work for a company that brought Michael Porter, this

famous Harvard professor, and they asked me—at the height of my 22

years of age—to interpret his presentation for a single customer who didn't

speak English. It was the hardest job in my life in the language industry.

First it was exhausting, and it was also frustrating because I don't

remember a thing that he said, and the guy is kind of my guru. When you

interpret, you act like a loudspeaker. You get information coming into your

ear, and you just spit it out. So information in, information out. Nothing

stays in your brain.

M: You’re a conduit for the speaker.

R: Exactly.

M: So I know a little bit. There is a difference between simultaneous

interpretation and consecutive interpretation.

R: Well, consecutive interpretation is when the interpreter waits for the

speaker to finish a sentence or an idea, and then he renders those words

into the target language. Here is a short example of President Xi Jinping of

China and his interpreter during a joint press conference with President

Obama.

[PRESIDENT XI JINPING CONSECUTIVE INTERPRATION SEGMENT]

M: This looks pretty straightforward.

R: And formulaic… In simultaneous interpretation, though, the participants

wear headphones, and the interpreter renders the speaker's words into

the target language as she is speaking. This type of interpretation requires

a huge level of concentration, so simultaneous interpreters usually work in

pairs and they switch microphones – they switch their place every 30

minutes in general. Usually, the interpreters work in a sound-proof booth

that enables everyone involved to focus on their work without the

distraction of hearing another language.

M: Probably a lot of people know this is what they use at the UN.

R: That’s the UN, and it started in Nuremberg. The first time that it was used

was in the trials of the Nazis in Nuremberg.

R: So what you usually see on TV is also simultaneous interpretation, when

the volume of the speaker is lowered and you can hear the interpreter's

voice over it, like this Donald Trump interview simultaneously translated

into Russian.

[DONALD TRUMP SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETATION SEGMENT]

M: Cool! I get it. But this episode is about interpretainment. So we mentioned

the term in our podcast about the forecasts for 2017, but I am not sure I

completely get it.

R: Well, Michael, I recently had the opportunity to interview Maria Paula

Bulhões de Carvalho, who was the person who inspired me to create the

term. Why don't you hear it from her?

MP: I'm Maria Paula Carvalho. I'm an interpretainer, and I work with events of

coaching motivational speakers, some call themselves gurus, others don't

like so much that term, and I work with the pair of languages between

Portuguese and English.

R: What is an interpretainer compared to an interpreter?

MP: All interpreters should convey the message as the speaker is choosing the

words and vocabulary and so on, but what we found out is that in events

of coaching, motivational speakers, personal development, people need

an extra dose of emotion. They need to feel the translation and not listen

to the translation. So we realized that we offered something different. We

offered that emotional connection. We offered that ... We surrender to the

language. We surrender to the speaker's choices. We surrender to his

emotion and so we strip ourselves from the regular interpreter’s postures

and attitudes, still hanging on to the core message and to what the goal of

that lecture is.

R: So you have more freedom, more creativity?

MP: Yeah, because it has to sound very natural. Let's say, if I am working here

in Brazil with interpretainment, and I have 90 to 95% of my audience

listening to the translation, people cannot miss the voice of the speaker. If

he's shouting, I cannot just tone down his choice. It is his choice.

Everything in coaching and personal development has a purpose. So his

shouting has a purpose. His laughter has a purpose. His gesture has a

purpose. So, my voice has to convey that purpose. So, I have actually to

dive into the character myself. I have to think as the speaker thinks.

R: You said that you are the ... The speaker is the face, you are the voice.

MP: Yeah.

R: Right is that what you…

MP: Yeah, he's the body. I'm the voice.

R: So you need to convey the same emotions in the process.

MP: Yes, and the events that we've been doing here in Brazil, even the booth

is up front, so the audience sees the interpreters inside the booth. They

see that we actually do the same gestures. It's hard because we actually

living through the message itself.

R: So you have to convince the same emotions. You have to cry. You have

to laugh. You have to dance?

MP: We dance. Unfortunately we sing sometimes, too. Thank God it's not glass

in the booth, but when we're there it's almost impossible not to do it,

because I have to close my notebook. I have to be looking at the speaker,

and we dive so much into it that we actually, instinctively we do the

movements. We do the gestures. We do the same. We are the same at

that moment.

R: Is that the same? Let's say you go to an event where you have 15,000

participant, and they are attending in multiple languages. Is this something

that is done in other languages or is that particularly added here of your

type of work?

MP: I would say this is us. It's our signature. It's my team and mine. We go to

some events in the United States, where you have like, as you said,

15,000 people in the audience and we have 100 Brazilians. So my

audience is pretty small if you compare to the total of it. But they depend

on me to be on the same mood as of the other 15,000 people, and

sometimes we even have to translation to seven or eight other languages.

Then we realize that the Russians wouldn't curse, when Tony Robbins

curses. I mean he chose to curse. It's not me. It's not up to me to make

that decision. That cursing word, that thing has a purpose.

MP: Sometimes when we can, when we have the right equipment, we try to

open the two mics and do the interventions with two voices. If it's a short

intervention, even with one mic, we kind of hold on, stick together and we

try to do two voices because it gets more comfortable to the listener to

realize there is a dialogue going on.

R: So if there is a man and a woman…

MP: I mean a woman ... Even two man. I can dive into one character, while my

booth buddy can dive into another character, and then we can actually

convey what they're feeling. I see that the other languages don't do it.

R: From a delivery perspective, you mentioned your engagement, your

activity, your physical involvement. How is that different from

interpretation, if we want to compare interpretainment to interpretation?

MP: There is a certain code that interpreters must follow that we cannot get ...

We are neutral. It's not that we're not gonna modulate the voice. It's not

that we're not gonna pace down things and so on, but usually interpreters,

when the speakers goes "Good Morning!," the interpreter goes "Good

Morning." We have to go for the same tone, but you're not gonna do that

with economics. You're not gonna do that with mining because people are

not worried about living the message. People are worried about getting

information. When we go for living the message, you have to be exactly

what you're saying.

: Let's say you are in a crowd of 15,000 people and you have 100 Brazilian

participants and they have to take part in the same process. So, let's say

Tony goes with a question, and he goes like, "Who here has started a diet

and has never finished one? Raise your hand." I have to start after him

because I need to know what he's gonna say, and I have to finish at the

same time because my Brazilian participant needs to raise their hand

along with the other 15,000 people. Otherwise, they won't be engaged in

the process. So it's our responsibility to set the pace, set the mood, set the

emotions.

Well let's say we are preparing people to walk on fire. If I don't work with

them towards it, they're gonna get burned. So they say "Dim the lights." I

turn off my lights in the booth. "Sit straight up." I sit straight up. "Palms of

your hands on your lap". Palms of my hands on my lap. "Close your eyes."

I close my eyes. Because if I don't do it, I don't convey it,and they won't go

through the transformational process of walking on fire.

M: Let's interrupt the conversation and listen to a clip of Maria Paula’s

interpreting Nick Vujicic (VOY-I-CHIK), the Australian motivational speaker

born with a rare disorder characterized by the absence of arms and legs.

[NICK VUJICIC INTERPRETATION SEGMENT]

R: You must make a lot of money, Maria Paula.

MP: Well, not yet. I will though. I think it's a process that we have to ... We

have to prove that it is different. And since it is very unique, it's ... It's kind

of tricky because we are also ... It's becoming trendy to bring motivational

speakers, international motivational speakers to Brazil, but people are still

not very aware of how this work is done. So, sometimes I see that there is

this motivational speaker coming, and then I start sending quotes for the

event. And they go, "Oh, no we already have hired the interpreter we

usually work with." Since my clients that go to Tony Robbins, that go to the

Secrets of the Millionaire Minds, that go to other ... Like Kevin Harrington,

or other speakers, they send me Facebook messages, like "Oh, we

missed you there. Why weren't you there? Didn't you send a quote?" and I

go, "Yes, we did send a quote, but they already had a team." You know.

M: So as with any new service, it’s hard to show the value in the beginning,

but it sounds like to me that not everybody can do this type of service. It's

a matter of skill, combined with just raw talent.

R: Well, I like to think that interpretainment is to interpretation what

transcreation is to translation. It’s an enhancement that has fewer

applications, but definitely adds to the value of the overall experience.

M: Seems like something we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future.

R: Well, if people take it up in other languages, let’s see how it goes. And at

least we created a new term.

M: Sounds good! Thanks for listening.

End of Conversation