3.3. When to Note

In the process of note-taking, the interpreter is burdened with making decisions all the time. When to take notes is a very important and also tough decision that requires the interpreter to arrive at properly and wisely.

According to Jean Herbert, beginners should be taught to start taking notes as soon as the speaker starts delivering his/her speech because in some situations what might look like a few words may unexpectedly end up as a very long discourse. [41: 35]

When the interpreter can sense the meaning of a sentence which might has not been completed, he or she should note it down. Here the interpreter has the ability to “forecast” or “feel” upcoming things. Besides the interpreter is not required to take everything exactly the same way as the speaker, his or her notes are not presented in exact order as they were said by the speaker, so there is no need for the interpreter to wait until the speaker finishes an utterance to take note.

Therefore, interpreters should start the notes as soon as possible without having to wait for a complete “unit of meaning”. If he or she waits too long, there is danger of not being able to jot down sufficiently what has come earlier.

Almost 60 years on and this professional view has not changed because R.Jones argues that although it is true that interpreters deal with ideas not words when taking notes, the consecutive interpreter should start note-taking as soon as possible insofar as he/she can be sure where an element fits in the notes. For example, if the interpreter hears “The Prime Minister attacked the leader of opposition for being opportunistic over the issue of the war”, he/she should note down “The Prime Minister” only when he/she hears the verb “attacked”, thus realizing that this noun phrase functions as a subject and not an object because the sentence may well be a passive sentence: “The Prime Minister was attacked by the opposition leader …”. In such a case, The Prime Minister will obviously be in the object position. [43: 67-70]

Jones states why it is important for the consecutive interpreter not to take the risk of lagging too long behind the speaker by drawing a comparison between consecutive interpreter and simultaneous interpreter. First, the simultaneous interpreter can always be in a better position than the consecutive interpreter if he/she lags behind the speaker since the former can catch up with the speaker by accelerating delivery, but the consecutive interpreter will be taking notes, and it is obvious that writing notes takes more time than speaking. Second, the simultaneous interpreter’s choice about his/her final delivery is a decision that directly determines what his/her audience will hear unlike the consecutive interpreter whose decision is only about the notes which are only a means to an end [43: 67], and some of the words might not even be included in the final rendition [65: 31].

It is also worth mentioning that as soon as speakers finish their utterance(s), the interpreter should stop taking notes instantly and start reproducing ideas. If the interpreter is too preoccupied with notes, he or she will delay the interpretation, which is not wanted. The interpreter cannot afford to take longer than the speaker. He or she is expected to react immediately after the speaker has finished.