Note-Taking for Consecutive Interpreting

John A. Henderson
From Babel. V22, No3, 1976. pp107-116
Recent experience in the field of undergraduate teaching of modern languages suggests
that training in the techniques of conference interpreting constitutes a valuable language
reinforcement activity. It follows therefore that there is a need to elaborate teaching
strategies for the various techniques which the interpreter must master. What little
literature exists in this hitherto highly specialised field is generally addressed to potential
candidates for the profession at the postgraduate or post-experience level and mostly
contains few if any hints on the pedagogical approach (see bibliography). Continental
interpreters' schools have tended to recruit mainly or solely postgraduate students, while
in Britain there is virtually no tradition of teaching interpreting at any level. A small
seminar group has, however, existed for many years at the London Linguists' Club. More
recently, postgraduate courses in interpreting and advanced translation have been
initiated, for instance at the Holborn College (Polytechnic of Central London) and the
University of Bath, while a similar course will begin shortly in the University of
Bradford. The purpose of this paper, however, is to concentrate on the problems arising at
undergraduate level.
In the last ten years a number of new language degree courses have come into being in
Britain, mainly in the newer universities (formerly Colleges of Advanced Technology);
and in the Polytechnics, which now award degrees under the aegis of the Council for
National Academic Awards. In many of these degree courses, interpreting in one form or
another is included either as an option or as a compulsory feature for all students. It is
clear that the vast majority of graduates of such courses have no hope of becoming con-
ference interpreters (and, conceivably, no particular wish to do so). The vocational
argument is, however, only a secondary reason for the inclusion of interpreting as part of
the course. None the less some recent graduates of my own and other universities have
become permanent conference interpreters with, for example, the Commission of the
European Communities in Brussels; and clearly any language graduate employed in
industry or commerce and called upon to perform ad hoc interpreting will do a better job
if he has received training and practice in the skills at least of the consecutive interpreter.
The techniques of consecutive note-taking, in particular, can also be adapted for less
ambitious purposes. But the main reason for involving undergraduates in an activity often
considered too difficult at that level is the pedagogical argument mentioned above -
language reinforcement.
The practice of interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous) requires a mentality - or at
least a mental approach - fundamentally different from that of the translator. The
undoubted difficulty of doing it well offers a challenge which, successfully met, enhances
a student's comprehension, fluency, rapidity of reaction and general oral confidence. It
involves the element of public performance; exposure to large quantities of oral material
(which may be related to other aspects of study, e.g. civilisation, Landeskunde); and
above all an intense effort of concentration. It also lends itself to practice in the language
laboratory, with some modifications for certain modes. The reflections on consecutive
interpreting and note-taking which follow are based primarily on the experience of
teaching these skills to Bradford undergraduates. While it is accepted that few of them
become or will wish to become conference interpreters, the teaching approach con-
sciously offers as a target the norm of the professional in that field (just as in oral
teaching the yardstick may be the speech of the educated native speaker, even though few
if any will match up to it one hundred per cent).
One can isolate and analyse the different interpreting modes (ad hoc, consecutive,
simultaneous) which need not be defined here (see e.g. Herbert) and a number of factors
in each which may be the subject of a particular teaching approach: microphone
technique, public performance, breath, voice, gesture; memory; linguistic interference;
and others, here ignored. One of the most important, however, and to the outsider the
most mysterious (together with the phenomenon of decalage in simultaneous) is the
particular form of note taking used by the consecutive interpreter.
Consecutive interpreting is seen by many professionals as the acid test of the truly
competent interpreter. It is certainly no easier than simultaneous: many would claim that
it is considerably harder. Seleskovitch (pp. 207-208) rejects this idea, stating that both are
equally hard to do well: simultaneous may appear easier, but in practice this simply
means that it is easier to get away with a poor interpretation in simultaneous; the
consecutive mode will more readily reveal deficiencies in the interpreter. Consecutive is
widely believed to afford a higher degree of accuracy than simultaneous (e.g. Herbert, p.
31, English edition). It may be practised in a booth, particularly where more than two
languages are in use, but in its basic form brings the interpreter into direct contact with
his audience: (Dans ce mode… comprehension. Seleskovitch, p201)
It follows that much of the effort of teaching process will be directed to establishing and
maintaining the notion of public performance, with all that it implies in terms of efficient
oral communication. Maurice Gravier, Director of the Paris Ecole Superieure
d'Interpretes et de Traducteurs, describes showing a visitor round establishment:
Je lui montre …à convaincre. (in preface to Seleskovitch, p. III).
But before any interpreter can move, persuade or whatever, he must go through a whole
sequence of processes beginning with the hearing of the original remarks. Schematically,
the sequence in the consecutive mode is as follows:
(a) hearing and comprehension;
(b) analysis and note-taking
(c) reconstitution and interpretation.
The process of translation is here partly replaced by a more complex series of
transferences from language 1 to language 2, some of which may occur between phases
(a) and (b) - since the interpreter may well note travail as 'work', using the shorter word;
or between phases (b) and (c), when he re-reads his notes. L1 to L2 transfer may indeed
involve an intermediate symbolic language: if in my system of notes I write the quotation
mark sign " whenever I hear (phase (a)) parler, prendre la parole, declaration and the
like, then the same sign when I read back my notes (c) will signal 'speak', 'statement', etc.,
according to context. Phases (a) and (b) must of course be concurrent, whereas phase (c)
begins when the original speaker stops.
Hence the need for a system of note-taking. It is of course possible to work for a short
time without notes, relying solely on memory, but a notation system will enormously
improve the quality of the end product and is essential for remarks running to more than a
few sentences. The professional interpreter may occasionally be expected to render
speeches lasting as long as an hour. Even so, memory is a vital factor, and the function of
notes is to serve as a prop to the short-term memory. It follows therefore that interpreter's
notes are unlike a student's conventional lecture notes, in that they only need to be read
(or in some cases deciphered!) while the original speech is fresh in the mind. Whether
they can be understood the next day is strictly speaking irrelevant.
Early consecutive interpreters each evolved their own systems of notation, but there is
now a fairly widely accepted set of principles and precepts, examined in more detail
below. Notes consist mainly of abbreviations and symbols, though it is important that
each interpreter or student of the art should develop his own personal system, constructed
of features meaningful to him, rather than accept the sign " as signifying ‘speech’ simply
because most others do.
Phase (b) above is described as analysis and note-taking, since the two are intimately
linked: notes need to convey ideas, not words. To return to Monsieur Gravier's visitor,
who has just offered the bright idea that his students ought to learn shorthand:
Mais non, ….laquelle il interprete. (ibid.)
Notes should be few and concise and go right to the heart of the matter. To do this
requires not merely that one hears words and writes down those which seem important,
but that key ideas are first identified and then expressed. That is what is meant by the idea
of quickly taking the speech to pieces. It goes without saying that the prerequisite of
analysis before note-taking has a salutary effect on a student's capacity to concentrate and
to think clearly and quickly.
The principles and precepts of note-taking are set out, with advice and examples, in
Herbert (1952), Rozan (1956) and van Hoof (1962). Rozan's book in particular is devoted
entirely to note-taking and gives both an extensive account of its processes and practical
exercises with comments. Any student who has mastered his seven principles and ten
basic symbols is well on the way to acquiring the necessary technique. For convenience
these principles are given below:
1. La transposition de l'idée plutôt que du mot; note the idea, not the word
2. Les regles d'abreviation; abbreviating
3. Les enchainements; linking
4. La negation; negation
5. L'accentuation; stress
6. Le verticalisme; verticality
7. Le decalage shifting
(Rozan, p. 13)
Detailed explanations and a wealth of worked examples appear in Rozan's book, but
some comments may be useful. Point 1 is self-explanatory and has already been
mentioned. It implies for the student a deliberate and conscious act of analysis: a
beginner, hearing il n’est nullement excluque ... may tend to note what is apparently the
key word and write 'exclu' or 'ruled out', whereas the sense is 'possible' or, better, 'quite
possible'. An appropriate note would therefore be 'poss' or 'poss' (see also point 5). The
same principle applies to il y a de fortes chances pour que, where the key word seems to
be 'chance' though the key idea is 'probable'.
Point 2 (abbreviation) applies primarily to lexical aspects, but can also convey features of
grammar and style (van Hoof, p. 76 ff). Countries can be readily noted by their initials, or
international vehicle registration signs (UK or GB; F, D, DK, NL, etc.; the Soviet Union
is known as the USSR, though SU is shorter) and these will also convey 'the delegate
representing...' or 'the government of' that country, according to context. Abbreviations
should be unambiguous, and it is preferable to note not only the first three or four letters
but also the ending. 'Con', when read again several minutes later, can stand for anything
from 'concept' to 'confirmation', or 'concur', or 'contribution', or dozens of others. Ab-
breviation is then only a partial solution: 'concpt may be better rendered as 'idea', 'concur'
becomes 'OK' (to express approval); 'confmn and 'contrbn are probably clear enough, but if
the latter simply means remarks made by a previous speaker, then the symbol " will be
more appropriate.
Some interpreters allocate specific fixed meanings to each letter of the alphabet, though
these will depend to a large extent on the field in which the interpreter habitually works,
since they will be reserved for ideas which arise frequently. Some of the commoner
conventions are 'w' (work, travail, emploi; labour); 'W' (world, universal); 'M' (member,
delegate); 'c' (committee), etc. In the more elaborate personal systems several alphabets
may be so used (Greek, Cyrillic) and the resources of the single letter system doubled or
further multiplied by underlining or circling each letter (Herbert, p. 42). This, however,
implies a sophisticated technique requiring much practice, and there is some controversy
among interpreters about the need for such elaboration, recommended by the
'symbolisers' but viewed with reservation by the 'memorisers', who rightly stress the need
to keep notes to a minimum. The degree of elaboration is clearly a very personal matter
and may ultimately depend on individual temperament or taste.
Numerals, while often constituting special difficulties for students of a foreign language
(see below, pre-interpreting practice), lend themselves readily to abbreviation. `1°' will
convey 'first(ly)', 'in my opening remarks', 'tout d'abord'. 'During the period 1973 and
1974' is simply '73-4'. Larger figures need some care, however, rather than write a whole
string of noughts one can show treize mille as `13m' (or '13th') (thousand); treize millions
as '13M'; and treize milliards as '13Md'; or use a horizontal line, thus:
13 000 13 -
13 000 000 13 =
13 000 000 000 13 ≡
provided there is no risk of confusion with an accentuation sign (point 5). It should also
be remembered that milliard is a billion in American usage, but a thousand million in
Britain (where a billion has twelve noughts).
Grammatical abbreviation can convey gender, number and tense. Thus 'American
women' (USe s; or, using the biological sign for the female, US ♀s); 'debates' (O s; see
below, 'discussion' symbol); verb plus suffix –ll (future), suffix -ed (past), and suffix –id
(conditional). Tenses may also be indicated by symbols, e.g. arrows.
Stylistic abbreviation is most useful in handling elaborate phrases with minimal content,
such as formules de politese. Van Hoof (p.79) offers ‘B thanks too’ for ‘la delegation
belge se joint aux autres orateur pour remercier’.
Point 3 deals with link words, which are often vital to comprehension. Short English
words arefrequently most useful:
As, for; if; so; tho; but
Depending whether the relationship indicates cause; supposition; consequence; and
opposition respectively. The symbols for ‘therefore’ (▲) and ‘because’ (▼) are similarly
convenient. Rozan (p. 17) suggests that the Latin ‘sed’ may be preferable to 'but', for fear
of confusion with the French but, although this in turn may be rendered by the ideogram
for a goal (∏).
'As to' also appear in lists of suggested link words though again the Latin ‘re’ is simpler.
Points 4 (negation) and 5 (accentuation) require little illustration. ‘No OK’ or ‘OK’ will
convey the idea of disagreement, disapproval, rejection, refusal, etc. Accentuation (or
modulation) is habitually indicated by a system of underlining:
Impt – very important
Impt – extremely, exceptionally important
Impt - fairly, somewhat, quite, rather important.
The last example, conveying attenuation, can be just as quickly noted with a wavy line
(impt).
Points 6 and 7 perhaps need further explanation. 'Verticalism' in Rozan's system means
simply writing notes down rather than across the page. This apparently minor point is in
practice of enormous assistance in conveying the greatest amount of information with
maximum economy. Students need to be shown the advantages of using a fairly narrow
note pad, so as to write only one idea on a line; so as to indicate a relative or subordinate
relationship by placing one note beneath another, if necessary with a horizontal line
dividing them; and more generally so that information is contained not only in what one
writes but also in the page layout. Often the vital linking terms discussed in point 3 can
thus be eliminated. Examples will be seen in the illustration below of a student's
interpreting notes.
The final principle, that of décalage, complements the advantages of a 'vertical' layout.
Not to be confused with the decalage in the time sequence in simultaneous interpreting,
where there is a delay of a few seconds between the original speech and the
interpretation, consecutive note-taking requires decalage in space, i.e. progressive
indentation across the page. This is of particular use for enumerations:

= prod cty
ex pts
ch. d’af –
+benef s
(+ tax too)

'A marked increase has been recorded in productivity, exports have risen accordingly and
so has turnover. This has led to an increase in profits, but also in the amount of tax paid'.
Together with the principles enumerated above, interpreters use a variety of symbols,
some of which have already appeared (e.g. ll in the second line of the last example - -
'parallel'). Many symbols are personal, since the only criterion is that they should be of
immediate short-term significance to the user. A few are however, very widely accepted
and of obvious value:
the colon (:) indicating thought - reflection; considering, believing; opinion, view;
feeling, etc.
the quotation mark (") for speaking - talk, declare, state; speech, remarks, comments, etc.
the circled dot (O) for discussion - talking around a subject; debate, examine, deal with a
point on the agenda, etc.
the term OK for approval - adopt, support, agree, etc.
None of these symbols has any special or exclusive virtue. If an interpreter or student
through association of ideas or for any other reason has his own preferences, then he
should of course pursue them. Many examples of symbols will be found not only in the
illustrations below but also in Rozan, Herbert and van Hoof. They are however no more
than suggestions, and merely indicate some of the resources available.
The most versatile is the arrow:
→ movement towards; tendency, trend; sending, conveying, communication; export; and
many others, according to context.
← receive from; import; return; derive from, etc.
↑ increase, rise, progress, improvement, etc.
↓ decline, fall, decrease.
Others of equally obvious relevance are the diagonal bar / , showing a relationship,
especially of subordination: the 'equals' sign = and its negative or opposite = , for like and
unlike; and the plus and minus signs, e.g. 'de +' for 'in addition', 'moreover', etc.
Further symbols may well appeal to some, though Rozan suggests that only the basic ten
are essential (:, ", O, OK, →, ←, ↑, ↓, =, and ≠ ). They may derive from mathematical or
musical notation, road signs, proof reading marks, other alphabets or indeed ideograms:
└ stands for the chairman of the meeting; ⊕ - a stylised clock face - represents time; if
signifies a country or nation, then is `international'; and so on.
Thus the system of note-taking, or at least some examples of its main features. Two
problems now arise, which it will be my purpose to examine below: the first is how this
can be taught to undergraduate linguists, in the light of their other needs, as practitioners
of interpreting and as language students and future professional users of languages; the
second is how much one can reasonably expect such students to achieve in this direction.
A reader unfamiliar with consecutive interpreting must at this stage wonder whether such
an elaborate system is worth the effort obviously needed to master it; and whether the
student can expect to achieve any degree of success. The measure of student achievement
which is possible in practice can be gauged from the illustration quoted below. The value
of the whole exercise evidently depends on adopting the approach outlined above (p. 2),
namely that the best results in terms of language learning are obtained by treating the
subject seriously and applying the yardstick of the professional, even though the average
student will not frequently be called upon to act as an interpreter after graduation. It is for
just the same reason that many of us believe in the value of prose translation into the
foreign language, as a language learning exercise at the highest level, even though
relatively few graduates will ever translate in that direction professionally.

Note-taking is simply a tool which the consecutive interpreter needs to master. To

practice note-taking, however, requires him to go through all phases of the consecutive
mode, provided one includes also the reconstitution of speech from the notes.
In terms of teaching method, received theory - even allowing for the differences between
the symbolisers and the memorisers - is rather scarce. The works already quoted are a
great help as far as they go (the worked examples in Rozan's ‘practical exercises’ in
particular), but the remarks below are just as much based on the pragmatic findings of the
present writer and his colleagues. The majority of articles on the topic tend to rehearse
the difficulties, but in practical terms of actual teaching strategies are mainly confined to
examples of 'pre-interpreting' exercises and gambits leading up to the real thing, i.e.
succinct and effective notation of a complete speech. Pre-interpreting exercises are of
course useful up to a point, especially the various forms of monolingual and interlingual
precis.
Special practice with numerals can also usefully prepare a student for interpreting (quite
apart from problems of abbreviation, mentioned above) since a concentration of numbers
is often a barrier to comprehension. A rapid improvement can be achieved simply by a
series of short exercises in which a variety of numerals of several digits are dictated,
though at normal speed. This helps both concentration and confidence and fairly quickly
becomes superflous.
The problem of comprehension more generally must of course be recognised. Several
writers tend to assume or require 'perfect' knowledge of the appropriate languages as a
precondition to starting interpreting. This is a counsel of perfection and, except in
extremely rare instances of the truly bilingual individual, foreign language knowledge
can never properly be described as 'perfect' but is always capable of improvement. It is
equally obvious that it is pointless to start too soon. To practise so-called 'interpreting'
with a school class would involve such severe editing and censoring of the original as to
distort the sense of the word. Some interpreters' schools recognised by the AIIC confine
their intake to students at graduate level with proven linguistic ability, and even so only a
small proportion of their students obtain the final diploma. It is the contention of the
present paper, however, that, given the severely selective and competitive entry system of
British universities, interpreting is a meaningful undergraduate activity. Comprehension
is therefore a factor, though the student's passive knowledge is much greater than his
active command of the foreign language. It follows that one must select and grade ap-
propriate material, not only as regards lexical and syntactic difficulty but also in terms of
subject matter. This can be a positive advantage where a student needs to relate his
linguistic studies to other fields, e.g. in the social sciences (politics, economics) or in
supporting subjects, life and institutions of the target country. Any subject field is a fair
source of raw material for the tutor, provided it is likely to elicit some interest and the
challenge it offers is sufficient without being excessively discouraging.
More specifically on the question of notetaking, the tutor will first explore the nature of
the process: the place of short-term memory, the principles discussed above; the note-pad
itself and the physical limitations of notation at speed. To discourage a common initial
tendency to make excessively detailed notes, remarks must from the start be delivered at
'normal' speed (though this is a somewhat elastic term; a better phrase is perhaps 'natural
delivery', avoiding any temptation to speak at dictation speed). In this way the first
principle to note ideas rather than words-is in effect forced upon the student.
This, however, does not solve the problem of gradation. Here there seem to be two
possible methods, and the most effective system is one which combines both. Method (a)
consists of working from smaller to larger semantic groups: words, phrases, sentences
and eventually paragraphs. This is useful preliminary work and helps in mastering basics,
but will not of itself bring the student to grasp and record the salient ideas and the
relationships between them in a more extended speech.
Method (b) amounts in effect to throwing the student in at the deep end: having offered
the principles and a few examples, the tutor will from a very early stage require the
student to note (and reproduce) quite lengthy passages containing several ideas. In this
way the student will go beyond the simple mechanics of notation and experience for the
first time the peculiarly lonely sensations of the interpreter, faced with the evident
difficulties of his craft and entirely dependent on his own resources.
Method (a) is of severely limited value and, except for an occasional refresher exercise,
can be phased out at an early stage. Method (b) is effective provided one starts with
material which in more relaxed circumstances would be fully within the student's
comprehension. The level of criticism and tutorial advice should also be graded: initially
students will produce only the gist of a speech, but should immediately be encouraged to
add detail, reconstructed from notes and memory; and eventually to give due
consideration to questions of style and the faithful recreation of the spirit of the original.
Method (b) evidently requires the student to go through a number of complex mental pro-
cesses in a short time. Rather than attempt to analyse these, I am tempted - being British,
and therefore, one may suppose, a pragmatist - simply to observe that, like a kind of
osmosis, it works! As students progress one can intensify the difficulty in a number of
ways - register, lexis, accent, quality of the speaker, speed, etc - but initially conditions
must be the best possible in terms of clarity, audibility and comprehensibility, precisely
so that one can achieve high standards of interpretation from the start. In short one must
as quickly as possible move beyond the piecemeal approach, not only by running both (a)
and (b) concurrently but by stressing the importance of page layout in conveying
information (‘verticalism’ and ‘decalage’) just as much as symbols and abbreviations.
None of these processes is particularly easy to accomplish, it helps if students are aware
of the advantages to be derived from practising and mastering them. The issue is further
complicated by the evident differences between individuals as regards memory and the
need for more or less detailed notes. The skeptic may still be wondering what can in
practice be achieved in the context of an undergraduate course.
The illustrations which follow are the unedited consecutive class notes of a Bradford
student in his fourth and final .ear of studies, together with a transcript, of the original
speech, some explanation of symbols and my own comments. Interpreting is introduced
in the Bradford B.A. honours course in Modern Languages from the second year, at two
hours per week for each of two languages. This student had therefore taken French / Eng-
lish interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous) for approximately 90 hours and
German/English for a similar time. For reasons of space, only the first question and the
first answer are shown. Each was played to students without any break, and their
consecutive renderings given in the interpreting laboratory (i.e. with students working in
enclosed booths). The only preliminary information provided was the title and date,
together with a reminder that the interview was recorded shortly after President
Pompidou had returned from the United States. Students heard a tape recording of the
original, with the voices of President Pompidou and his interviewer, i.e. no concessions
were made in terms of speed or delivery, as might be the case with the tutor reading from
a script.
This particular student has evolved an unusually complex system of notes and symbols,
which many may consider too elaborate. Such opinions are of course irrelevant: the only
significant criterion is that he is able to follow them with ease and interpret from them
(and memory) without hesitation. Fortunately, he has also kindly provided a key,
enabling most notes to be understood (additional comments below the transcript - refer to
numbers in the right-hand margin):
This example could of course be improved in some details and it is evident that its author
relies fairly heavily on memory. It is also obvious that he is a distinctly above average
student who has worked hard at developing his own system. He is however far from
being the only graduate of the course to find employment as a conference interpreter.
I have perforce ignored many other aspects of interpreting, and in particular the recon-
stitution of notes and the consecutive rendering that follows (see e.g. van Hoof, p. 114 ff)
which may be the subject of future papers. My pedagogical findings, as will be all too
obvious, are tentative and purely pragmatic. These notes will however have served their
purpose if they merely start a discussion of the problems involved.
Summary
Though conference interpreting is traditionally a highly specialised activity confined to a
few postgraduate language students, an increasing number of British modern language
courses now include interpreting at the undergraduate level. Some graduates of such
courses do in fact become conference interpreters, but for the majority interpreting serves
mainly as an effective form of advanced language learning, different from but
complementary to translating. A definition of consecutive interpreting shows that it
requires the student to master a particular form of note taking. The account of the
principles of note-taking for consecutive interpreting is based mainly on existing
literature, while an exploration of teaching methods for undergraduates stems from
experience at the University of Bradford. An extensive sample of undergraduate work is
given, together with comments, showing what can be achieved at this level.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Herbert, J. The Interpreter's Handbook, Georg, Geneva, 1952.
van Hoof, H. Theorie et Pratique de l’Interpretation, Max Hueber Verlag, Munich, 1962.
Rozan, J.-F. La Prise de Notes en interpretation consecutive, Georg, Geneva, 1959.
Seleskovitch, D. L'Interprete dans les conferences internationale, Minard, Paris, 1968.