Amendments, New References, Corrections for the Book “Improving the Interpreter’s Voice”

Improving the Interpreter's Voice by Cyril Flerov and Michael Jacobs book cover

 

Any book is work in progress and a living organism: it must grow and develop, and its evolution is not completed on the day it was sent to the publisher. Thankfully, modern technologies provide ample opportunities to do that.

“Improving the Interpreter’s Voice” is no exception. We constantly scout various sources for new and relevant information.

This page includes new sources, corrections, additions etc. Check it back periodically and buy our book. If you want to buy the book, click the image of the book cover on the right.

 

Correction on page 54

This paragraph should read:

“If semantic peaks are important to understand the meaning, everything else – as far as information processing goes – is a “semantic pause” or “semantic silence” i.e. a period of time when we may concentrate more on speaking and not listening (peak of speaking) even though some source  language words are being physically uttered.”

 

 

Chapter 3 Speaking and Breathing Volume

 

 Pages 30-37

 

One of the topics covered by the book is wearing your simultaneous interpretation headset. Some interpreters use only one ear and we recommend against such practice. The book goes into more detail including the explanation of binaural summation and why it is safer from the medical standpoint to use both ears.

hearing loss one ear using headset

Do not shoot yourself in the foot by using only one ear!

Using one ear also negatively influences speech intelligibility. At the time the book was written, we did not include any statistical data, however, here is a source that claims that “individuals with unilateral hearing loss find that speech comprehension suffers greatly, falling to only about 30 to 35 percent of what can be heard with two healthy ears.” Source: Facts About Hearing Loss.

Interpreters who shift one ear or use only one ear place themselves artificially into a situation hearing loss patients experience. We know that in cases of unilateral hearing loss (UHL) one of the symptoms is difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments.

Here is another source on the topic of UHL:   Welsh LW, Welsh JJ, Rosen LF, Dragonette JE (December 2004). “Functional impairments due to unilateral deafness”. Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. 113 (12): 987–93. It further clarifies that “[t]he data revealed a wide range of impairment, from mild to relatively severe (ie, 0% to 60% [mean, 34%]…” for speech discrimination in noisy environments.

Check this page later for more additions and new sources!

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© Cyril Flerov/InterStar Translations and Michael Jacobs , 2014, All Rights Reserved.