Japanese 5105:

Introduction to Professional Japanese Interpretation

Words are nothing more than a container for ideas.

The interpreter must pour those ideas into a new container

Spring 2023 Online course

Instructor:                   Allyson Sigman (professional conference interpreter)

Credit:                         3 credit hours

Prerequisites:              Japanese 5102.01 or 5102.02 (Level 4-II) or instructor’s permission

Call number:               30387 (graduate section)/ 30388 (undergraduate section)

Class time:                   Tue/Thu 3:55-5:15

Japanese 5105 is a course on professional Japanese interpretation. Distinct from translation, which is written, interpretation requires a high level of oral proficiency. Students will acquire the foundations of interpreting techniques while developing fluency in business-level Japanese. As the class is broken into thematic units, students will be responsible for reading on a given topic, preparing vocabulary lists, and getting ready to interpret that content into the opposite language. The language that students acquire through preparing to interpret will be applied through hands-on training in consecutive and simultaneous interpretation, bidirectionally between Japanese and English. Lecture material will include an overview of the field of interpretation, different modes of interpreting and the techniques involved in each, as well as active listening and public speaking skills. By the end of the semester, you will become familiar with basic theories and concepts of interpretation and acquire a fundamental interpreting skillset.

The course will be conducted entirely remotely using a variety of tools (such as Carmen, Zoom, Slack, GoReact). Students must be able to watch lectures, record videos of their interpretation, post feedback to other students' videos, and attend Zoom practice sessions. For this, the instructor recommends a computer with at least 2GB RAM, a stable internet connection of at least 8 Mbps down/2 Mbps up, and a headset with a microphone.

If you have questions, please contact Prof. Allyson Sigman at training@echojapanese.com