UN interpreters: The high-performing brains that keep diplomacy running

Brought to you by [Quartz Obsession] UN interpreters September 21, 2017 We hope you’ve been enjoying the first week of the [Quartz Obsession]( our new afternoon email that dives deep into a different topic each day. Let us know what you think (and what you’d like to see covered) at hi@qz.com. Lost in translation --------------------------------------------------------------- The United Nations annual [general assembly kicked off this week]( as diplomats, heads of state, and legions of staffers from 193 countries converged on New York City to discuss the fate of the world (and annoy commuters). How can so many disparate nations communicate with each other? That’s where some of the sharpest minds in the UN come in. Without the simultaneous interpreters who convert Chinese to English, English to Russian, Russian to French, and so on in real time, international diplomacy wouldn’t get very far. The stakes are high: one mistranslated word (see Donald Trump, below) could dictate history. This week, Quartz tagged along to see and hear how they work. pop quiz Which of the following is not an official UN language? GermanMandarinRussianFrench Correct. The other official languages are Arabic, English, and Spanish. Incorrect. This is an official language. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Brought to you by Samsung Doodle Interlude: 🕊️ edition --------------------------------------------------------------- Today is the International Day of Peace. People around the world are raising their voices to encourage respect, safety, and dignity for all. Though thousands of miles apart, social media users are sharing photos and messages of peace with the #jointogether hashtag.[Find out what else the Galaxy Note8 can do]( tricks of the trade Thinking in two languages at once --------------------------------------------------------------- Simultaneous interpretation is one of the most taxing feats of the human brain. The head of the UN’s Chinese section in New York, Xiaofeng Zhou, describes it as five separate tasks: listening, memorizing, speaking, monitoring how you sound, and deciding how much to focus on each of these other tasks, based on factors like what prepared materials you have and how fast the speaker talks. industry hazards Interpreting Trump --------------------------------------------------------------- Donald Trump’s threat at the UN to “totally destroy” North Korea [sounded even worse in Chinese](. That threat was intended not only for Pyongyang, but for Beijing, North Korea’s most prominent backer. And if you think “totally destroy” sounded aggressive in English, in the Chinese translation it sounded downright apocalyptic. The UN’s official interpreter chose to render the phrase as 完全消灭 [in Mandarin,]( which means something closer to “annihilate,” “completely exterminate,” or “wipe off the face of the earth.” That could make Chinese diplomats even more nervous than Trump may have intended. Because science The neuroscience of interpretation --------------------------------------------------------------- “The brain regions involved go to an extremely high level, beyond language,” Narly Golestani of the University of Geneva [told Mosaic’s Geoff Watts](. Researchers there have put simultaneous translators into a functional MRI machine to identify the neurological regions at work, and it turns out there a lot of them—especially the caudate nucleus, which helps to coordinate complex behaviors within the brain. As interpreters gain more experience, they tend to show less activity in certain brain centers, not more. “The caudate plays a role in the control of all sorts of skilled actions,” David Green, a neuroscientist at University College London, told Mosaic. “And there’s other work showing that as people get more skilled at a task you get less activation of it.” fun fact The 2005 Sydney Pollack film “The Interpreter”—starring Nicole Kidman as a UN interpreter who overhears an assassination plot —was the [first movie]( to be shot inside UN headquarters. brief history Translation through time --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ancient times: Chuchotage]( From the French for “whispering,” this refers to an interpreter who sits among a small audience and quietly translates what is being said, a practice which continues today. [13th century: Dragoman]( Interpreters in the Ottoman empire needed to speak Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages. [1925: League of Nations]( Businessman Edward Filene (of Filene’s department store and Filene’s Basement) came up with the idea of translating speeches using microphones and amplifiers, working with inventor Alan Gordon Finlay. [1945: Nuremberg Trials]( The US Army’s Col. Leon Distort comes up with the concept of simultaneous translation at the Nuremberg Trials. It is subsequently adopted by the United Nations. By the digits 30 minutes: The maximum amount of time interpreters are supposed to spend translating before handing off to a colleague. After half an hour, [the number of mistakes rises considerably](. Object of envy What equipment do they use? --------------------------------------------------------------- Since 2015, the UN has used a microphone setup made by Taiden, a Chinese company. This little gadget is basically the only piece of technology in most translation booths. Interpreters select the channel they want to listen to (the source language) and the channel they are sending to (the destination language). People listening on the floor have headsets set to their preferred language. quotable “I feel like there are two of me when I interpret. One is working, and one is detached.” – Xiaofeng Zhou, interpreter in the UN’s Chinese section million-dollar question Why not just use Google Translate? --------------------------------------------------------------- Robot interpreters are getting better, but they are a long way from replacing the world’s best humans. Interpretation at the highest level needs to be flexible in a way that computers are not. For example, many people at the UN give their remarks in English, but are not native English speakers, and their accents and subtle mistakes [cause problems for speech-recognition algorithms](. Google, Amazon, and other companies have made huge strides in translation by [harnessing the power of neural networks and machine learning](. But their tools work best when the language is straightforward and predictable, based on statistics derived from massive data sets. And crucially, AI interpreters don’t actually understand the meaning of what’s being said. If you ever get the chance to observe UN interpreters at work, you’ll see that they discard minor grammar errors from the speaker because they understand the overall context. Computers just aren’t there … yet. watch this! Our favorite cinematic misinterpretation comes from the Sophia Coppola classic “Lost in Translation.” [Here’s what the director was really trying to tell Bill Murray.]( take me down the 🐰 hole Sign language --------------------------------------------------------------- Simultaneous interpreting is the norm for sign language, whether it’s [a concert by Chance the Rapper]( or [this scene from “The West Wing.”]( For a fascinating look the nuance of sign-language interpreting in Hollywood, check out [this episode of the “West Wing Weekly” podcast](. talk to us How many languages do you speak? [Click here to vote]( Just one, and now I feel slightly worse about that.More than one but less than three.It actually says polyglot on my LinkedIn page. the fine print In yesterday’s [poll about fatbergs]( 42% of you said you’d stay out of the sewers and stick to exploring on YouTube. Today’s email was reported and written by [Nikhil Sonnad]( who is working on a deep dive into the topic of interpreters for [Quartz](. (Stay tuned.) Images: Reuters/Carlo Allegri (UN translators). Taiden (microphone). The correct answer to the quiz is German. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States Share this email