The Interpreter’s Race to Keep Up with Energetic Speakers

Note to all speakers: Before you start reading, no, it is NOT a bad thing that you're passionate about your subject, we just need to keep up.

As interpreters, we’ve most likely encountered numerous types of speakers, most famously: the super sonic ones, the sloths, the mathematicians, the politicians, the repetitions, and my personal favourite and nightmare: motivational speakers.

Motivational speakers are not necessarily the ones who tell you to get up at 4 in the morning to grind and catch the sun before it catches you; to me, they are the kind that fill the room with energy with their speech. It could be about the downfall of the economy for all I know; it is their intonation that makes the speech magnetic.

All of a sudden, you’re mesmerised and locked in with their words. Motivational speakers often have appealing stage presence, spectacular storytelling, and their confidence is almost theatrical. They have a way of making the audience interact with every bit of their speech...

You can’t help but admire them, honestly, even envy them for their stage presence.

But that is, of course, if you’re part of the audience. Which you are not, we are not, I am not.

While everyone else is enjoying the show, you’re fighting for your words.

So, why are motivational/energetic speakers the worst?

Simply, put, they know their topi,c and we do not

At least not like they do. These speakers live and breathe their topic. They’ve built it, launched it, and written it. They own their subject matter. We, on the other hand, are lucky enough if we receive their presentations before the day of – and if we do, they most likely won’t have a script to follow. In that case, we discover their thoughts as they speak them, they know their next train of thought, and we just wait to discover it like everyone else in real time. The challenge is, we have to understand it, say it in another language and if you’re really good, in the same intonation.

Their passion is moving, but not in a good way (again, an interpreter’s POV)

Their speeches often come from a place of passion, from spontaneity and conviction. But interpreting cannot afford spontaneity, especially if the pace is quick; we build on something entirely different: stability. 

Our work often hangs on structure and breath control. That’s why, sometimes, you’ll hear an interpreter speak in a monotone voice while the speaker is setting fire to the stage. It is the only way we can stay in control. We tame the speech by stripping away its spontaneity and rebuilding it through structure.

Technical talk: someone shoot me. Please.

Now, when that same energy comes from a technical speaker, an engineer, a policy expert, a scientist, a finance bro, we don’t even have time to listen to them. We’re just trying to survive the jargon shit-storm. There’s absolutely no space to develop an opinion or reflect on meaning. It is pure real-time decoding. Your brain runs faster than it ever has before, and still, somehow, it’s not enough.

Storytelling speakers: contagious passion

Then there are the storytellers, the motivational, the emotional, the ones who pull you in. They don’t just speak; they perform. And it is so hard not to mirror that same passion – it’s amazing if you’re able to interpret passionately, it’s just as great if you just interpret. I personally find them to be too good to keep up with.

It’s happened to me today, actually, with Jake Karls, Co-founder and Chief Rainmaker of Mid-Day Squares. He told the story of Mid-Day Squares and the importance of communication. If I were in the audience, I would have definitely enjoyed the speech. But I was in the back, in my headset, trying to ignore his energy and focus on the words. Challenging but not impossible. Especially when, like me, you are not used to these types of speeches.

How do you deal with it?

You don’t. You practice, you anchor yourself, you breathe, you do what you always do and hope for the best.

Or if you actually want to deal with it:

CONCENTRATE. Nothing else matters except the words flowing into your ears. Salami the heck out of every single sentence. Say. Only. What. Matters. The Ands, Buts, and Ifs, the useless details of a sunny day, are NOT important.

Get to the point. Summarize, explain, predict (not too much, you’re not a fortune cookie)

And remember: you’re not in a race. You don’t need to be glued to the speaker’s rhythm. A few seconds of silence won’t kill anyone. As Andy Clifford once told me: “When you don’t know what to say, zip it.”

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Now that you’ve gotten to the end, I’d love to know your worst-case scenario of speakers. My worst-case scenario – which I thankfully have not had yet: motivational speakers meet the mathematicians /finance bros. I would quit this profession entirely. Tell me yours!