Consecutive

interpretation
Splitting ideas

The first rule of consecutive interpreting is

that the real work must already have been
done when you start reading back your
notes: the text, its meaning and the links
within it, must have been perfectly
understood.
" Jean-Francois Rozan

 Everyone

will tell you to note ideas and not

words.
But what constitutes an idea?

What is an idea?
What

Answer: the sentence.

And

is an idea?

what are the basic units of a sentence?

Answer: Subject, Verb, (Complement, often but

not always, an Object)

 This

is a speech given by Chris Patten to the

European Parliament on July 3rd 2000.
Try to

ignore all the padding and additional information

identify the essential Subject Verb (Object) units
that make up the backbone of the speech
and separate them from one another

In the areas for which I have some responsibility, there were

also, as the Prime Minister has mentioned, some important
developments at Feira. We took stock of the European
Union's relations with Russia and the situation there,
including in Chechnya, in the light of the recent EU-Russia
Summit, which I think was regarded as fairly successful. It is
too early to judge President Putin's economic programme;
however, our basic message is that a sound programme will
be vital to boost investor confidence. In Chechnya, there
have, it is true, been some recent moderately positive
developments in response to international and European
Union pressure: for example the recent ECHO mission was
able to take place and western humanitarian agencies have
greater access to the area. The conflict nevertheless
continues and we still have considerable concerns. In
particular, we want to see much greater access for
humanitarian aid agencies. We want to see genuinely
independent investigation into reports of human rights
abuses, and we want to see a real dialogue between the
Russian government and the Chechens.

 The

first unit of Subject Verb (Complement)

is....
S
V
C
There....were.....developments

It's a long sentence but all of the rest of the information is

secondary and has been tacked onto the basic framework
which is " There........ were........developments. ".

V
C
We....took stock of...relations (with
Russia)
and the situation there

In the areas for which I have some responsibility, there were also, as the Prime
Minister has mentioned, some important developments at Feira. We took stock of
the European Union's relations with Russia and the situation there, including in
Chechnya, in the light of the recent EU-Russia Summit, which I think was regarded
as fairly successful.
It is too early to judge President Putin's economic programme;
however, our basic message is that a sound programme will be vital to boost
investor confidence.
On Chechnya, there have, it is true, been some recent moderately positive
developments in response to international and European Union pressure:
for example the recent ECHO mission was able to take place and western
humanitarian agencies have greater access to the area.
The conflict nevertheless continues
and we still have considerable concerns.
In particular, we want to see much greater access for humanitarian aid agencies.
We want to see genuinely independent investigation into reports of human rights
abuses,
and we want to see a real dialogue between the Russian government and the
Chechens.

 How

does this help in consecutive?

Imagine each S V O group above as section
of your notes.
On one page of your note pad you have room
for two sections of notes, in which you note
the Subject Verb and Object diagonally
across the page.
The sections are seperated by a horizontal
line.

Note the passage above in this way....

There
were
developments
____________
We
took
stock of relations
+ situation

 Now

you are ready to try doing the same

thing with the spoken word. Listen for the
idea, the 'who is doing what to who'. Note
only that. At the initial stages it would be a
mistake to try and get all the detail. Work on
the essence first and the detail will come with
practice.