Simultaneous Interpretation: Past and Present

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United Nations Senior Interpreter Jeffrey Tao will help shed some light on the mysteries surrounding the somewhat esoteric field of simultaneous interpretation. He will provide some historical perspective on the birth of the profession in the aftermath of the Second World War; describe the kinds of individuals the field has attracted over the years and how it works in practice at the Mecca of the field, the United Nations.

Mr. Tao will be sharing with the audience some of the memorable experiences he has had during his career spanning three decades. This will include showing a videotape of a live broadcast on ABC News in July 1997 of simultaneous interpretation he provided for President Jiang Ze Min’s speech at the historic ceremony marking Hong Kong’s Return to China, and playing audiotapes of UN speeches of topical interest.

Part of his lecture will be devoted to discussing how changes in the international situation and China’s reform and opening up have had an impact on simultaneous interpretation work. Mr. Tao will also share his professional insights on some of the challenges posed by Chinese interpretation and how they might be overcome. A videotape designed and produced by UN interpreters themselves to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the organization will also be shown.

Author Bio

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Jeffrey Tao was born in Shanghai, grew up in Hong Kong and attended university in England, graduating in 1971 with a BA Degree from the University of Sussex.

He came to New York in 1972 when he began his career as conference interpreter, joining the Chinese Section of the United Nations Interpretation Service that year. In 1983, he attained the position of Senior Interpreter. In 1987, he received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from New York University.

As a simultaneous interpreter, Mr. Tao’s work runs the whole gamut of UN topics, from highly political and sensitive meetings of the Security Council, say, on Iraq and the Middle East, to many sessions of the Law of the Sea Conference, culminating in the signing of the Treaty, to specialized technical meetings on budgetary questions, weapons systems, the environment, trade law, statistics and international accounting. He has traveled extensively on UN assignment, e.g., to Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1992 and to the International Meeting on Small Island Developing States held in Mauritius in January 2005. He also worked at meetings at the level of Heads of State or Government during the 50 th Anniversary of the United Nations in 1995 and the Millennium Summit in 2000.