I propose note taking courses, practical workshops and further education seminars for universities, higher education institutions and colleges, professional academies, other vocational education establishments, trade associations – in field or online.
Contents of the Training Courses
Basically, the first step is always the initial learning of the concept of the note taking technique: The participants learn what exactly and how much they have to note down, what role their memory plays and how they can train it, how and for what purpose they make a preliminary analysis of the original speech.and how they can take compacted notes.
In the second step, the participants will study the technique, that is the structure of the notes written down on the writing pad, the way of noting down important references and links, so that they can recognize them immediately, how to note down insertions, verbs, various tenses, figures and numbers etc.
I will teach about the role symbols and signs play in the note taking technique for interpreters, to the extent their use makes sense and when they are rather obstructive but helpful. The participants will be given a pool of practical and useful basic symbols and they will learn how to develop symbols on their own for their daily work routine.
In all my training and teaching courses, I attach much importance to the need of giving simple and clear explanations, creative examples and practical exercises.
My particular concern is about the practical implementation – the participants are expected to learn how in quite concrete terms they begin to apply the note taking technique and how they can progress continuously then.
They also learn what they should do in difficult interpreting situations, when they lag behind, have not caught a word or an utterance or do not recognize or recollect their own notes.
As a rule, one part of my trainings and workshops is also dedicated to practical exercises specifically adapted to the participants’ state of knowledge. In the 1st step, we take notes from the sheet without any stress and pressure of time, in order to interiorize the structure of the notes. In the 2nd step, we train on very slowly spoken speech sections, and in the 3rd step, we train on speeches spoken at a medium rapidity of speech. Only in the 4th step, we will tackle the realistic rapidity of speech. For advanced students, I always include exercises for critical situations such as a very high rapidity of speech, high information density etc.
Moreover, my offer includes workshops that deal with the right presentation of the personal interpreting performance. In these workshops, the students learn how to act with self-assurance and recognize any personal “quirks” and give them up.