Lakhasly

The consecutive interpreter has to speak in public.For this reason it is important to learn to speak well early on and have an in-grained technique that will hold up under pressure and not distract from finding the right words to say.(Thiery 1981: 102) In this chapter you will learn how to: o sit or stand correctly for public speaking o assess public speakers and other students o assess your own speaking performance.Ifyou are notset upright, then everything that follows will be much more difficult.Any posture you take up should be chosen to make you appear professional; facilitate your interpreting; and promote the audience's confidence in your interpreting.That means being able to: read your notes; look up at your audience while speaking; hide your nerves by limitingany unintended body language; and eliminate physical tics.

The consecutive interpreter has to speak in public. They must therefore have some speaking skills.
(Thiery 1981: 102)
In this chapter you will learn how to:
• sit or stand correctly for public speaking
• assess public speakers and other students
• assess your own speaking performance.
One of the sub-skills of consecutive interpreting is public speaking.
Indeed, if you learn nothing else during the time you study interpreting you will still have learnt a very useful life-skill. However, public speaking is more difficult for the consecutive interpreter because at the same time as the consecutive interpreter is speaking, they have to do a number of other things - reading their notes and recalling information, for example. For this reason it is important to learn to speak well early on and have an in-grained technique that will hold up under pressure and not distract from finding the right words to say. That in turn is why many interpreting courses, and this book, begin with public speaking skills.
Let's start with a look at posture. Ifyou are notset upright, then everything that follows will be much more difficult.
Posture
We'll look here primarily at your posture while you are speaking. Much ofthis advice will also apply to your posture for listening.
Any posture you take up should be chosen to make you appear professional; facilitate your interpreting; and promote the audience's confidence in your interpreting. That means being able to: read your notes; look up at your audience while speaking; hide your nerves by limitingany unintended body language; and eliminate physical tics. The recommendations below aim to do all of that.
You may be asked to do consecutive sitting orstanding so we'lllook at both.