One of these days the interpreter was invited to work in the evening – interpreting at an award ceremony. In the run-up to the event I was told that the question of interpreting equipment was sorted, so I was poised and relaxed, threw on an evening frock and set off. My contact person was very friendly, showed me the beautifully decorated ball room and then threw open the door to my “interpreting booth”– that would be the stylish boudoir on the photo below. Never before had I worked in room equipped with five-armed chandeliers and adorned by silk wall paper. Mind you, on the picture you can see some men’s jackets. These garments belonged to three photographers who had been assigned this room too.
So, I would be interpreting in front of an audience, another first. I laid down some ground rules: cell phones must be switched off, absolute silence etc. Quite an experiment! And quite a successful one, I have to say. My room-mates were very disciplined, walked on tiptoe so they would not disturb me, elegantly and quitedly poured the coffee which was served after 10 pm – and were quite pleased to get a first-hand experience of how interpreting works.
And I was thrilled to get some insights in the inner workings of such a high-level event and to see and feel the incredible and highly professional machinery purring along in the background. To top it all, we were served a delicious dinner… Truly deluxe interpreting!
