How I Passed the EU Interpreter Selection in One Year
My online name is Jacky. I studied in Qingdao for four years, at Ocean University of China's Department of Computer Science and Technology. Unlike many people who follow current trends like Super Girl, Happy Boy, Go! Good Men, Li Yuchun, Zhang Liangying or Zhou Bichang, I might not even know who made it to the national top 7 or 6. I might also be unaware of the latest news about "All the Glitter," Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi, but I do know the results of the sixth round of six-party talks. I am also aware of the consequences, affected areas due to China's torrential rain and floods. I have an experience worth mentioning.
After graduation, I worked for two years. Then, I resigned and came to Beijing alone to prepare for postgraduate entrance exams. Initially, I aimed for the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), commonly known as the simultaneous interpretation program. At that time, apart from being attracted by the high salary of simultaneous interpreters, I also wanted to improve my English skills.
At first, my English level was just around CET-6, but I often practiced speaking, so my communication was quite fluent. This was my only advantage. Other than that, I had no work experience, and a computer science background didn't seem beneficial. However, I possessed something that many others lacked: firm determination. This was the most crucial factor in my later success in getting admitted.
Starting from January that year, I prepared earnestly, but at the time, I had a vague concept of high-level translation. So naively, I thought that memorizing a set of 60 articles recommended by New Oriental and GRE vocabulary would suffice. After about a month, I realized that while my language application ability improved, it was still far from enough for the exam because I started reading The Economist, which I found incomprehensible. Thus, I frantically searched online for information related to high-level translation, including forums, websites, blogs, etc., and began gathering a large amount of information. Here are some important websites I recommend:
If you're looking for a comprehensive website for interpreting materials and practice methods, check this out.
If you haven't seriously read The Economist, taking the high-level translation exam will be very difficult. The Economist is a must-read, preferably every day.
The Economist China:
If you're preparing for BFSU, you should frequently visit BFSU's dedicated campus network for the latest news and posts from many experts.
BFSU Starlight:
If your listening skills and knowledge base aren't broad enough, you should regularly visit Putong Listening Forum and practice. I persisted for over a year.
Putong Listening Forum:
These are the main forums. I'll explain their uses when I talk about my own efforts.
To clearly describe my preparation process, I list the exercises I did for each skill required for the exam:
English Foundation - I translated the third and fourth volumes of New Concept English, the 60 selected articles from New Oriental, 50 essays by Zhang Peiji, Practical Interpreting Course, Modern Chinese-English Interpreting Course, and its exercise book, and memorized them thoroughly. That's seven books in total! Actually, I memorized many other books 2-3 times, but I won't mention them here. These books should be memorized at least 3-4 times. I personally memorized them about 10 times, then summarized important sentence patterns and phrases that I wasn't proficient in, targeting my weaknesses.
Listening - This is what I consider the most important. To train my listening skills, I found Putong Forum and strictly followed its daily training regimen, which can be found on the forum. Every day, I transcribed BBC, as VOA was too simple and could be fully understood within a month. So I continued intensive listening to BBC until September that year. I found a software called NV Player that could change audio speed without distortion. You can search and download it for free. Other software I tried mostly distorted the sound, but this one only increased the speed without distortion. Then I started listening to BBC at accelerated speeds: 1.1x, 1.2x,... up to 2x. It might not seem like much, but when you actually use the software, you'll find that even jumping from 1.1x to 1.2x makes many things suddenly incomprehensible. Meanwhile, I downloaded live meetings from the UN and White House websites and listened to them at accelerated speeds. Putong Forum also provided various materials for me to intensively listen and practice. By October, I started intensive listening to BBC at 2x speed and began formal simultaneous interpretation practice. Yes, I could already perform simultaneous interpretation, though it was only for UN and White House live broadcasts. Each day, I practiced for about an hour. After about a month, I started simultaneous interpretation of VOA news. News simultaneous interpretation is a taboo in the interpreting world because it's too fast-paced, dense, and challenging. But I bravely accepted the challenge and persisted with daily news simultaneous interpretation because I found UN meetings and White House meetings too simple. I played UN and White House meeting recordings at 2x speed for extensive listening, understanding them almost instantly.
Later, I attempted simultaneous interpretation of a recorded UN speech by Kofi Annan. It was like slow-motion for me! The effect of listening at 2x speed became evident because I found that I could interpret about 90% of Annan's speech. During this period, I not only persisted in practicing VOA news simultaneous interpretation but also began attempting accelerated simultaneous interpretation, i.e., interpreting VOA news at 1.3x speed. This was indeed very challenging, but I overcame it. It required a lot of courage and perseverance. Many people ask me where I get such motivation. I say it all comes from my dream — a dream in my heart to become someone who can use language effortlessly, someone who can utilize their talent freely. Gradually, by December, I could simultaneously interpret VOA news at 1.5x speed, which is very difficult because it's fast and requires simultaneous interpretation. These practices enhanced my extraordinary reaction speed and stable psychological quality. Now, when I listen to people speak, it feels like they're in slow motion. Also, by December, I started simultaneous interpretation of CNN at 1.5x speed and NPR, but I never tried BBC because I kept it for daily intensive listening.
Later, I accelerated VOA simultaneous interpretation to 1.7x speed, but this was already into the next year. I also started practicing news memory, i.e., after playing and simultaneously interpreting the news, I tried to recall its general content. Some friends might say that news is simple and easy to remember, and short-term memory practice should use meeting records instead. But I don't think so. A five-minute news segment may be short, but it often includes 7-8, sometimes 10, unrelated major events. If you can remember each unrelated event, remembering meeting content will be simpler and easier. Some friends might find me a bit abnormal, listening at 2x speed and using news to practice memory... pervert!
Yes, friends, if you've read many books and autobiographies, you'll find that successful people in society are generally abnormal or have done abnormal things from one perspective. But from another perspective, this isn't abnormal; it's dedication, passion, and love. I have a friend who has been doing simultaneous interpretation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a long time. Once, during a chat, upon hearing that I listen at 2x speed, he immediately exclaimed, "Pervert!" I smiled and said nothing because I rarely tell people that this is my dream, and I'm willing to sacrifice everything for it.
Now, I can listen to any material without any obstacles as long as there are no unfamiliar words. Even when facing five EU interpreter selectors, I was somewhat nervous, but their English sounded smooth and clear to me even when I was nervous. This was my goal. Do you remember how many people practice well regularly but end up unable to speak when the speaker finishes at the actual meeting? This is because regular practice must exceed the actual requirements so that the negative effects of nervousness can be offset on-site.
Currently, I've read some books about rapid listening and found that 2x speed isn't the limit; 2.5x speed is. This is because 2.5x speed is the human ear's rebound limit. Regular practice at 2.5x speed means that listening at normal speed won't return to normal speed; it can continue at the higher speed. So I currently practice BBC listening at 2.5x speed. I hope if you really want to enter the simultaneous interpretation field, invest more. Short-term memory for narrative content, which is tested in the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and BFSU interviews, is relatively easy. But meeting content is harder to remember because it involves many numbers, classifications, and note-taking. Among the three major simultaneous interpretation exams in the country, only the EU Interpreter Selection Exam covers entirely meeting content, with clear numbers, years, and months. I once encountered a nuclear issue, so practicing news memory regularly is especially important. Here, we talk about note-taking. For note-taking practice, I only used one book: Practical Interpreting by Lin Chaolun. I practiced the entire book about five times, spending an hour on each article. By the end, I could basically take notes while playing at 1.7x speed. However, I had one flaw: I was limited to the book's mode, always taking notes for about a minute, which was fatal because EU interpreter selectors wouldn't restrict themselves to testing real abilities. I lost points here in this exam. Fortunately, because I practiced intensive and extensive listening at 2x speed a lot, it gave me great confidence. After all, I practiced note-taking at 1.7x speed, so when she read at normal speed, although it took a little longer, I still performed well. Therefore, everyone should practice other long content regularly. Specific techniques include methods mentioned in the book, strictly following steps, and practicing effectively. These are the general situations regarding listening. There's too much to cover, so I can only narrate these.
If you want to practice with everyone, you can go here.
Every day, many talented people, passionate youth pursuing dreams, gather there, constantly striving.
News and Magazines - Understanding and memorizing news is crucial. I memorized about 100-200 VOA and BBC news articles very fluently. I also memorized about 100 articles from The Economist. These helped me understand news and magazines. After memorization, you'll find that the framework of news is basically similar, and magazine articles are largely the same. You can translate, but it will take a lot of time. However, this translation is good. I persisted for about three months, translating one article every day, but later, I switched to sight translation, which greatly improved my reading speed. I understood more effectively and learned how to convert complex language into simpler language for easier understanding. My sight translation ability is now very good. While reading The Economist, I suggest accumulating every unfamiliar or unknown word daily. This is a gradual process. Relying solely on GRE or other methods to solve problems is hard. I accumulate many words daily and review them regularly, continuing to do so even now.
Vocabulary - This is my favorite part. To increase my vocabulary, I memorized many dictionaries. I memorized GRE vocabulary countless times, basically reviewing it every weekend. Memorizing dictionaries is boring, testing your perseverance. The first time I memorized GRE, it took me a week, and I finished it. Afterwards, I reviewed weekly, and now it takes me about six hours to recite it all, not just read but recite. This shows how familiar I am with it. Why do this? My first leap in dictation was because of GRE vocabulary, allowing me to guess many words. Another is categorized news vocabulary, which you can find in BFSU's bookstore for 12 RMB, containing about 2000-3000 words. This is simple, but if memorized well, there won't be many obstacles in listening to news. Writing them all out might still be problematic. Another dictionary is the interpreter's dictionary, crucial for Chinese-English translation, American newspapers vocabulary, approximately 10,000 words, all new, which also needs to be memorized well. TOEFL phrases are useful, especially for phrase expansion. An American oral dictionary helps better understand The Economist, improve oral skills, and understand English culture.
All these are excellent dictionaries, each of which I have memorized thoroughly, both Chinese-English and vice versa, alternating between them, and reviewing regularly. Memorizing dictionaries is a tedious process. You often encounter tough times wanting to give up. At such moments, I tell you, the reason many people fail is because they become weak at this critical time, just like you. Whether to persist depends on you. When you reach the next weak moment, tell yourself that there are probably a few others as excellent as you, overcoming the first resistance, but also stuck here, finding it hard to persist. Whether to continue depends on you. Encouraging yourself like this repeatedly is no less than memorizing articles. The key lies in whether you like this industry. If you're only attracted by the high salary, I think you're wasting time. One day, you'll regret spending so much time doing something you dislike, and because you dislike it, you'll find it hard to do well!
In this year, I basically didn't rest, using all holidays to cram words or dictionaries. Weekends were spent memorizing GRE words or other vocabularies. Every day, I studied for about 18 hours.
I got up at 6 AM every morning to run and practice Tai Chi, which is important for maintaining physical and mental health. I went to bed at midnight punctually, eating meals on time, and thus didn't get sick throughout the year.
I briefly described my exam preparation, and now it's time to face the test. In fact, BFSU's exam proved that my preparation was sufficient in some aspects but insufficient in others. In BFSU's exam, my total score passed the line, and my English score was high, but I missed the political section by 2 points. As expected, I had no chance to enter the interview, but I was spotted and admitted by the EU Interpreter Selection Office. I once posted a thread explaining my exam process.
In fact, the real inside story was revealed this morning when I called the teacher.
In the preliminary exam, there were two parts: a written test and an oral test. The oral test included Chinese-English and English-Chinese consecutive interpretation. At the time, since I didn't know the oral test would directly involve a 3-minute recording of consecutive interpretation, I was very nervous and accidentally turned the English-Chinese consecutive interpretation into a summary!!! After finishing quickly, I removed the headphones and heard people around me speaking Chinese, immediately realizing my mistake!!!!!!!!!!
Finished, my first thought was "It's over, completely over." But I forced myself to stay calm. The Chinese-English consecutive interpretation went well, but it was inevitably affected. After the written test, I quickly handed in my paper and found the teacher to explain my situation, but he said, "It's impossible to let you take it again alone. Just wait for the notice." Unexpectedly, a few days later, I actually received the interview notice. The joy was akin to knowing I passed the interview, due to my excitement, I specifically asked the teacher, "Teacher, do you remember me? The student who approached you right after the first exam ended?" He said, "Of course, you're the only candidate among all who turned the translation into a summary. No matter who you are, I remembered you." I felt incredibly fortunate upon hearing that. I thought it was due to my decent written test score and good pronunciation that I got this opportunity to enter the interview.
During the interview, the situation differed slightly from what I later told everyone.
The interview consisted of four rounds: self-introduction, impromptu speech, English-Chinese consecutive interpretation on-site, and Chinese-English consecutive interpretation on-site. After each round, students had to leave, and all examiners evaluated together to decide the scores, which was very humane.
Later, I learned that my performance in the first three rounds was excellent: standard pronunciation, fluency, quick response, thorough understanding of international politics, leaving a good impression on the examiners. Even by the fourth round, when it was my turn, the Chinese examiner giving me the question quietly asked the person beside him, "Is it necessary?" Apparently, I underestimated my own abilities, but I wasn't proud. There's still much more for me to do. These are merely a simple beginning.
Seriously thinking about it, life is truly strange. What if none of this happened?
If I hadn't made it to the interview, would I still be one of the lucky ones?
What would I have experienced the next year? Would I still be as energetic as now?
Life is too mysterious. Perhaps many things are destined, and time will teach us to grow. Currently, perhaps we can only accept everything.
Later, for all interpreters, I founded a forum called "Interpreting the World," symbolizing interpreting the world and representing the world of interpreters.
Later, I began spreading my philosophy on "Interpreting the World."
I hope more people can replicate my journey in a year and succeed within a year.
I hope all those searching for the dream of interpretation will no longer wander.