[JIF2016] Learning Medical Interpreting by Concept Association
Learning Medical Interpreting by Concept Association
Many doctors and researchers in the 1980s believed that interpreting is not possible in all matters medical. True or not, professional interpreters had to work within that environment and learn a tremendous amount from experts to devise a viable and efficient way to interpret topics of medical or biological nature. This session will explain the thrill and benefit of medical interpreting from the angle of “association mechanism,” and invite participants to take part. The session will also provide specifics insights into how you should devise a strategy, prepare, study, deal with failures, and review.
Yuri Kitayama
Created a drama club at Aoyama Gakuin Jr. High, turned the ESS into a musical club at Aoyama Gakuin High School, and studied European theater and dramaturgy as an English literature major in college. Snuck into Shiki Theatre Company shows as a teenager, worked part-time for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company in the U.K., and Sho Kikaku in Japan, handling a truck load of interpreting and draft translation work including Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark. However, Kitayama has never studied abroad.
A World Congress of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Health one year gave her a start as a simultaneous interpreter in the medical field, and she has since expanded her coverage to include basic science like microbiology and clinical medicine. Kitayama fell in love with molecular biology through a symposium organized in Japan by Nature in 1986, which she interpreted. She has interpreted for numerous Nobel laureates, but lists Dr. Francis Crick, who co-discovered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953 as someone who has had a huge impact on her life. Kitayama started spending a significant amount of time in the field of bioethics since the late 1980s, and currently serves as a member on a number of ethics review committees at various universities and research institutions. Psychoanalysis is also one of her favorite discipline, although it is often criticized for its scientific legitimacy.
So which field is her biggest strength? “I’ve done everything except hemorrhoid,” Kitayama used to say until a few years ago, but now she’s even done that!