A Study of the Techniques of Consecutive Interpretation Based on a Speech Named How to Realistically Decarbonize the Oil and Gas Industry

: At present, all countries are facing the threat of epidemic, and the process of globalization is forced to stop. But it's all temporary. Even if the epidemic situation is normalized in the future, the exchange and development of countries and globalization will be the general trend of history. In such an era, translators are irreplaceable by any technology. As a type of translation, consecutive interpretation plays an important role in foreign exchange. Therefore, this paper takes the speech how to realistically declare the oil and gas industry as an example to simulate consecutive interpretation, so as to explore the skills of consecutive interpretation.


Introduction
Before attracting the attention from the readers to the main part, it is essential to introduce the consecutive interpretation and the speech.

The introduction of the consecutive interpretation
First of all, consecutive interpreting is a kind of interpretation -the interpreter sits in the conference room, listening to the source language and taking notes at the same time. When the speaker finishes his speech or stops to wait for interpretation, the interpreter accurately and completely re expresses all the information content of the source language speech in a clear and natural target language, just like he is making a speech. Consecutive interpretation in conference interpretation requires interpreters to be able to listen to continuous speech for five to ten minutes, and use good speech skills to translate all its contents completely and accurately. CI is applicable to a wide range of occasions. It can be a ceremony, a field trip, a diplomatic conference, an academic seminar or a press conference.CI can be applied to given the various forms of occasions, all different lengths of conversation.
Because it is a kind of interpretation, it also has the characteristics of immediacy, content diversity, work independence and high pressure. For an excellent interpreter, first of all, he should have the following basic qualities: first, he should have a strong sense of responsibility. At work, interpreters should be prepared for possible problems in interpretation, especially conference interpretation. Usually, before the meeting, the translator will get the meeting materials in advance. Therefore, the translator should consult the reference materials for the translated topics and understand and master them, so that the interpretation process can be carried out smoothly and efficiently. In daily life, the translator should not slack off in translation. He should practice consecutive interpretation every day to consolidate and improve his interpretation ability. Second, master both Chinese and English. Proficiency not only requires the translator to have a rich vocabulary, good listening and expression, but also to be familiar with the national culture of the two languages and have a broad range of knowledge. Third, master the skills of consecutive interpretation. An excellent translator must master the skills of interpretation in addition to being proficient in the use of language and profound knowledge.

The introduction of the speech
Besides, this speech--How to Realistically Decarbonize the Oil and Gas Industry is launched by Bjørn Otto Sverdrup. Bjørn Otto Sverdrup leads the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which gathers the CEOs of twelve of the world's largest oil and gas companies around an ambitious goal: to get one of the sectors contributing most to climate change to drastically lower their own carbon emissions. He describes a possible path for the industry to pivot to net-zero operations, reimagining the role it could play in helping decarbonize the economy and changing how we consume energy --and he calls for setting a price on carbon. (Followed by a Q&A with Countdown cofounder Lindsay Levin).

The Main Techniques of Consecutive Interpretation
In my opinion, the main techniques of consecutive interpretation can be divided into four parts, including listening, comprehending, memory and noting.
In the process of consecutive interpretation, listening is the first and the most significant step. A great listening skill can get twofold results with half the effort. So, there are two techniques can be used to improve the efficiency during the listening. The one is that the application of visualization. Visualization means that the translator needs to mentally imagine the image of something said by the speaker or the scene of an event, which is equivalent to listening to the speaker's meaning. It is also helpful for translators to quickly remember information with important and special meaning. The another is that determining the time period of the speech. Mastering the rhythm and remembering the stages of narration is also a way to understand the meaning. This reduces the attention to the text and no longer only looks for the corresponding words.
In the specific interpretation process, it is necessary for the interpreter to question the speaker in order to accurately understand the message expressed by the speaker in order to get a clear answer. Secondly, the interpreter must learn to infer the meaning of the text from the context and fully grasp the knowledge of the source language. Third, active listening is a very important strategy. Interpreters must grasp and understand the meaning of the source language text in an instant. Therefore, throughout the process of listening to the source language text, he must maintain a high level of concentration, constantly asking himself "What is the speaker trying to say?" The active listening strategy is a comprehension strategy that the interpreter must learn. In addition, the interpreter should be able to identify the thematic ideas in the communication and should be able to identify the primary and secondary information that supports the speech, since these two types of information together constitute the thematic information of the source text.
From the perspective of memory, the essence of consecutive interpretation memory is to understand the meaning and keywords of the source language information, rather than mechanically memorizing phonetic codes and information symbols. The characteristics of consecutive interpretation memory are mainly: "Intentional" memory in the process of listening and discriminating (the interpreter consciously and actively processes and analyzes the source language information, with strong purpose and direction, in order to improve the ability to deduce and analyze information); 2) Prominent short-term memory. At this stage, the information is stored for a short period of time and the memory capacity is limited. In interpretation, the retention time of information in short-term memory is generally 15-30 seconds, and 200-600 phonemes need to be processed, while the capacity of short-term memory is difficult to reach this goal. For this reason, some basic strategies that can improve the memory capacity of consecutive interpretation can be used to expand the capacity of short-term memory and improve the speed of information processing, including the use of mnemonic symbols, visual images, geographical features and directions, number sequences, prediction, and repetition exercises.
In essence, consecutive interpretation notes are an auxiliary means of memory, which is different from classroom notes and general meeting minutes. Consecutive interpretation notes are not a word by word record, but only a record of core information and logical relations, and the form of expression is only some core words or symbols commonly used by translators. In addition, consecutive interpretation notes are also different from shorthand. Shorthand is the original text recorded according to the pronunciation rules and some fixed shorthand symbols. It is a relatively closed and rigid system. Consecutive interpretation notes are more flexible and open. Their purpose is to highlight the key points, clarify the relationship, facilitate the interpreter to read quickly and summarize the content. They are the information internalized, understood and processed by the interpreter. The content of the notes consists of two main aspects: writing down the meaning and reflecting the structure. The meaning is the basic part of the speech, the "key words", which are the main content of the notes. In the translation process, the interpreter reorganizes the target language according to the "key words" in the notes and expresses the speaker's thoughts and feelings in his or her own language. The meaning of the interpretation notes can be expressed by various symbols, such as pinyin, Chinese characters, letters, mathematical symbols and even graphics, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort in consecutive interpreting. In addition to noting down the meaning, the interpreter's notes need to reflect the structure, in other words, the relationship between meanings. To reflect the structure of the notes, the interpreter can use symbols that reflect the meaning and also make full use of the space to supplement the meaning of the notes. Thus, notes need to both capture all core meanings and reflect structure. To summarize, in consecutive interpreting, the language used in the interpreter's notes is neither the target language nor the source language, but a mixture of Chinese characters, English, non-linguistic symbols, and space.
And then, there are the application of the above techniques.

The Application of Consecutive Interpretation Techniques
This chapter focuses on explaining and giving examples of consecutive interpreting techniques utilized by the author in the process of simulating consecutive interpreting.

Visualization
When performing consecutive interpreting, the use of visualization can be a good way to help the interpreter remember what he or she has heard. This is because the imagined images combined with the sounds produce more stimulation to the brain than the simple sounds. There is one example.
(1)I am an identical twin. This is the picture of me and my twin brother, running a 60-meters race, five years old.
译: 我有一个同卵双胞胎兄弟，这是我们的合照。那时 我们 5 岁，正在进行 60 米赛跑。 First of all, this sentence is very special for the translator. Because it is the first sentence of the whole speech, which has a special meaning in itself. In addition, the word "picture" in the source language is actually a hint. The translator is prompted to use the technique of visualization when remembering the phrase. So in remembering the phrase, interpreter can draw a picture with the five-year-old speaker and his twin brother in his mind.
Since the whole speech is centered on carbon emissions, this means that the speech is in the category of science and technology. There are fewer descriptive scenarios used in this type of essay. Therefore, there is less use of visualization in the process of consecutive interpretation of it.

Determining the time period
In the process of consecutive interpretation, it is important to be able to accurately identify the stratification of the discourse. In the stratification of discourse, many key words appear as signals, such as however and other conjunctions that indicate transitions, as well as time. Therefore, a good temporal orientation will save the interpreter a lot of effort when listening to the interpretation. In this speech, some examples can be listed as follows.
(1) Also, at the time, I didn't know that the air we were breathing, when we were running, had a concentration of 320 particles per million. Today, that is 410.
Obviously, in this sentence, "today" is a time Indicator. The appearance of this word means that the meaning of the two parts before and after is stratified. In another word, the meaning of the part after "today" is compared with the before. Of course, this is the characteristic of the word "today".
(2)A few weeks ago, the CEOs came to together and for the first time signed up on the shared ambition to bring all their own emissions to net-zero within the time frame set by the Paris Agreement.
译: 几周前，首席执行官们共同签署了合约，即在《巴 黎协定》规定的时间框架内将他们自己的所有排放量降 至净零。这是他们所有人共同的心愿。 (3) "A few weeks ago," is the time indicator in this sentence. It also implies that interpreter need to pay his attention to the part after this phrase.
In a bit longer, distant future, we will need to use hydrogen in our own operations, carbon capture and storage and other solutions.
译: 在更长一点的遥远的未来，我们将需要在我们自己 的操作中使用氢气，碳捕获和储存以及其他解决方案。 In this sentence, the "in a bit longer, distant future" is the time indicator. But as we all know, looking to the future is a common sentence pattern and strategy used in speeches in order to stimulate the passion of the audience. This also reminds the indicator from the side that the sentence pattern can be changed appropriately to increase the emotion of the sentence.
(4) We believe that we can lead the way by helping to set ambitions, setting targets, and also to help countries to identify where the problem we have set targets, we have all sorts of shorter-term targets towards 2025, for our own performance, but we also are setting targets that can inspire the industry. 译

Questioning the speaker
In consecutive interpretation, it is a very direct and efficient method for the translator to ask the speaker directly, which can quickly help the translator solve problems. But in the speech, this plan seems to be infeasible. Because the continuity and atmosphere of the speaker's emotions are extremely important in a speech. These will directly affect the effect of the speech. If the speaker is directly asked in the process of consecutive interpretation, the effect of the speech will be greatly reduced. As for that, questioning the speaker is not accessible.

Note taking
Whether interpreting or consecutive interpreting, note taking is an important means to assist the translator in memory and output. Great notes can reduce the translator's memory intensity and pressure. There are some examples.
(1) Changing the energy system is going to be hard. We need to turn from an 80% fossil-fuel based system to a completely zero-emission system. That would require massive investments, radical policy shift and us changing behavior.
It can be seen from the notes that the translator adopts a vertical structure and uses a large number of symbols and abbreviations. The so-called vertical structure means that when recording, the number of words in each line is small and the number of lines is large. Such a structure is very suitable for expressing the structure of sentences and the relationship between sentences. For example, the use of the underline, arrow, brace and other symbols in the picture is a hint of sentence structure.
(1)For Equinor, my company, for instance, the biggest new project is not another oil and gas platform. It's actually an offshore wind farm development in the North Sea: a tenbillion-dollar investment with the capacity to power 4.5 million homes in the UK. Further up north in the UK, Shell, BP and other companies are involved in developing carboncapture and storage industry that will help cement, steel, and other industries meet their climate efforts.
译: 以我的公司 Equinor 为例，最大的新项目不是另一 个石油和天然气平台，而是北海的海上风电场开发。这是 一项价值 100 亿美元的投资，能够为英国 450 万个家庭 供电。在英国更北的地方，壳牌、英国石油公司和其他公 司正在参与开发碳捕获和储存工业。这将有助于水泥、钢 铁和其他行业为改变气候做出努力。 The figure 2 is the author's note of this part. As you can see from the notes in the diagram, the sentences are split into two parts, that is, two meaning groups. The relationship between the parts can be clearly seen.
(2)For me to unlock the potential, the scale, the capacity, the competence of this industry, to put it to work, to drive the broad transformation of society that we really need is what motivates me. Not to speed it up, not to slow it down. Then we need to act and use our voice in accordance with the spirit and the consistency of the Paris Agreement.

Fig.2
Pattern of the auther's note.

Fig.3. Pattern of the auther's note
Unlike the notes in the first two sections before, the notes in this section contain more symbols and look more concise. That is attributed to the use of the helper symbols.
So, in the next part, the helper symbols will be introduced.

Helper symbols
It is impossible for an interpreter to remember every word and phrase spoken by the speaker in its entirety, much less capture every aspect of the message, so note taking is an essential thing for a consecutive interpreter. So, how to take notes effectively in the short time available for consecutive interpreting? How can you make your notes work twice as well as you do? This is where the helper symbols come into play. The following is a list of the notation symbols that the author commonly used in this consecutive interpretation.
△ It can express total, summation, etc. In addition to the conventional symbols mentioned above, there are many unconventional symbols, including braces, dashes, underscores, exclamation marks, question marks, hearts, etc.. And each interpreter has a unique symbol list of his own. These are designed by the translators according to their own memory habits as well as their areas of proficiency. In a word, everything can be used to be a symbol to indicate everything, only if you can identify that.

The number
There is a distinctive feature of texts in the science and technology category. That is, there will be slightly more numerical expressions in the text than in an ordinary text. The accuracy of digital translation can have a direct impact on the quality of consecutive interpreting. On the other hand, the memorization of numbers is also crucial. So, there is no doubt that the presentation of numbers in this speech is also noteworthy. There are some examples can be listed as follows.
(1) Also, at the time, I didn't know that the air we were breathing, when we were running, had a concentration of 320 particles per million. Today, that is 410.
译: 事实上，三分之二的能源都来自于化石燃料。 (4) The members, household names, are actually producing, every day, nearly 30 percent of the world's oil and gas production.
译: 这些家喻户晓的成员每天都在生产。他们的产量占 世界石油和天然气产量的近 30%。 The above numbers are less difficult and can be recorded directly in Arabic numerals in the process of memorization. The only thing needed to be careful of is not to confuse the content modified by the numbers. Translation should not only express the surface meaning of the speaker, but also capture the internal meaning that the speaker wants to convey. For a qualified interpreter, no matter how complex the topic is and how different the speaker's accent and style are, he should accurately translate the source discourse. Therefore, the translator should first pay attention to the speaker's purpose and accurately grasp the speaker's thought. Only by accurately understanding the main idea can we make an accurate translation. Once the translator does not understand or cannot summarize the main content of the speaker, it is likely to cause contradictions or conflicts between the two sides in the process of cross transmission.

Conclusion
This paper analyzes the techniques of consecutive interpretation used in the process of simulated consecutive interpretation of the speech--How to Realistically Decarbonize the Oil and Gas Industry. Finally, the following conclusions can be drawn.
At the beginning, in the process of consecutive interpretation, the translator must choose appropriate skills according to the subject matter. For example, in the process of consecutive interpretation of this speech, the choice of skills is very important. First, this is a speech related to science and technology. This directly leads to the decline in the utilization of visualization, one of the consecutive interpretation techniques. Furthermore, the speech is special because that speech was generally used to appeal to or inspire people to do something. So the translator's mood is also very significant as well as the speaker.
Secondly, there is no substitute for the role of note taking in consecutive interpretation. As the saying goes, a good memory is not better than a bad pen. Therefore, if you want to be a good interpreter, except for a good memory, the ability to take notes is also essential.
To be precise, this part also belongs to the second conclusion. It is that a good mnemonic symbol is a godsend to the interpreter.
Finally, there are still many defects in this translation, among which there are still some debatable parts, and some sentences may have better expressions. Therefore, in the future study work, we need to carry out more in-depth research and more extensive practice in order to solve the problems in translation and better improve our translation level. Of course, if you want to be a good interpreter, the skills of consecutive interpretation are important, but the most essential thing is to master the second language and ensure the quality of translation.