A Study of Interpreting Methods of Numbers in Business Conferences

Abstract：“One belt， one road” and the promotion of the concept of “human destiny community” have made China's relations with other countries consolidated and promoted. Translation plays an important role in this process. Professional translators and interpreters are widely welcomed and loved. The content of business cooperation is inseparable from all kinds of figures， and they also become the key influencing factors for the success of business cooperation. Their misinterpretation or omission of figures not only reflects his poor professional skills， but also brings great losses to both parties.

This paper analyzes the preparation before translation and the translation skills used in figures translation. It is hoped that this paper can help interpreters in digital interpretation.

Keywords： preparation before interpreting， methods in number interpreting， business conferences

Chapter1 Preparation Before Interpreting

Before general business conferences， interpreters must be well prepared， so as to avoid some mistakes as much as possible， strengthen confidence and even be more relaxed. Generally speaking， preparations can be made from these aspects in chronological order： content， personnel， appearance and place .

1.1 Content and Personnel

Interpreting tasks usually be sent to Interpreters a few days earlier. After that， it is better to know as much as possible about the theme and general content of the conference， whether there are relevant contributions and areas involved. understanding some of the previous conference content and form will reduce the tension and strangeness of the interpreter on the working day. In addition， personnel is also an important part. It is better to know the identity of the other party or speaker in advance， whether he has an accent， and the way of cooperation together with his speaking characteristics. Master the language level of other participants as much as possible， which can reduce certain differences and misunderstandings. If most of the participants are leaders in the field of conference content， interpreting can be more terminologically.

1.2 Appearance and Place

On the day of the conference， the interpreter should pay attention to the appearance： Ladies are supposed to put on light make–up and tie her hair. Dress on more formal clothes such as shirts or long dress over the knee. Never wear slippers with open toes. It is also better for men to keep clean wear formally. The color of interpreters clothes should be no more than three. Another important point is place. If possible， the interpreter should arrive at the conference place two hours in advance. Familiar with the layout， and location of restroom， stair and elevator. If interpreting in a large business conference， the best position of an interpreter should be mastered， which will reduce communication time and facilitate the interpreter to deal with emergencies more calmly and quickly.

Chapter 2 Skills in Interpreting Numbers

Business conferences are basically related to business cooperation， which means that both parties communicate around a certain commodity， and formulate and sign a win-win purchase contract on the basis of ensuring their own interests. Interpreters need to interpret the figures accurately and completely. Once there is an error， it will affect the cooperation between the two sides. Here comes to several skills.

2.1 Fixed Interpreting Methods of Fractions， Decimals and Multiples

First of all， a fraction indicates how much of a number is in another number， or the proportion of an event to all events. In interpreting， numerator is translated into cardinal number， while denominator is translated into ordinal number. If the numerator is larger than the number one， the denominator is plural. For example， 1/3 is interpreted into one third. While， 3/5 is interpreted into three–fifths. However， some fraction interpreting methods do not fully conform to this rule and followed by a certain word. For example， 1/2 is interpreted into one half or a half. 3/4 is three quarters. If there is a number that combines an integer with a fraction， it should be connected with the word “and”. Take the number 2 1/2 as an example， it is interpreted into two and a half. 4 2/3 can be interpreted into four and two–thirds.

Secondly， another form of fraction is decimal， which is Separated by decimal point in the different locations. If the number before the decimal point is zero， the interpreter can use point or zero point and add the later figures， like 0.7， 0.56， which can be expressed to （zero） point seven， （zero） point five six respectively. If the number before the decimal point is not zero， the mode of “number plus decimal point plus number” can be used directly. For example： 4.3 is four point three. 5.56 is five point five six. 87.32 is eighty–seven point three two.

The last one is the expression of multiples. On one hand， there are similarities and differences in the expressions of multiples in English and Chinese. In interpreting， the interpreters should pay attention to the differences between the two languages. In English， the word “times” is used to express multiple. There are three sentence patterns to express the sentence “A 的（大小，長度……）是B的N倍”in Chinese： A is N times （larger...） than B， A is （larger...）than B by N times， and A is N times as （large...）as B. Chinese sentence “地球的大小是月球的49倍。”can be interpreted like these： The earth is 49 times larger than the moon. The earth is larger than the moon by 49 times. The earth is 49 times as large as the moon.

On the other hand， interpreters are supposed to be careful while dealing with Chinese expression “增長了/增長到”. “增長了”is always use the phrase “increase by”， while “增長到”is “increase to”. The former means that the corresponding number is increased on the basis of the original number， while the latter means that the corresponding number is finally reached. For example， the sentence “到2010年，我國的國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值增長了50%。”is interpreted into “By 2010， China's GDP has increased by 50%.”. Similarly，“減少了/減少到”can match the phrase “decrease by /decrease to”.

2.2 Interpreting Methods for Dealing with Large Numbers.

2.2.1 Interpreting of vague numbers

In some business conferences， speakers often give a brief introduction to their companies with inaccurate figures. There are some common collocations. “幾個”means some ，several，etc. “十幾個”means more than ten or no more than twenty. “幾十個”is “dozens of”. “幾百個/成千上萬/幾十萬”is expressed by “hundreds of /thousands of /hundreds of thousands of” . Apart from these， “二十剛出頭”can be interpreted into “in her/his early twenties”. While “三十大幾了/快四十了”is the same with “in her/ his late thirties”.

2.2.2 Interpreting methods of large numbers

Due to the different segmentation methods between English and Chinese ， it is not easy for interpreters to interpret large numbers. English numbers are separated by three digits， while Chinese numbers are separated by four digits. These are the different and certain expressions of English and Chinese： “萬”in Chinese is equal to “ten thousand”. “十萬”is equal to “one hundred thousand”. “一千萬”means “ten million”. “一億”is “one hundred million”. While “一千億”is “one hundred billion”. The interpreter needs to change in his mind and interpret the correct corresponding numbers. Time can be saved by adroitly using these fixed combinations in the work.

Interpreters can write down some symbols together with numbers on the note in accordance with different segmentation. For one thing， In Chinese–English interpreting， interpreters can use symbols to separate three digit numbers in a group from the end to the beginning. For example， when dealing with the number“二十五萬五千一百三十二”，interpreters could write down all the numbers：2 5 5 1 3 2. And then， use a symbols to separate numbers from the end： 2 5 5 |1 3 2. The number in front of the symbol can correspond to the number unit word in English， and the final number can be obtained by corresponding to the table in memory： Two hundred fifty–five thousand one hundred thirty–two. In the same way， “三千六百五十萬四千五百八十”means “3 6 |5 04 |5 8 0”，interpreted as “thirty–six million five hundred and four thousand five hundred eighty”.

For another thing， in English–Chinese interpreting， it is better for four digit numbers to be in a group. For example， when dealing with the number “five hundred sixty–one million three hundred ninety–two thousand five hundred ten”， interpreters could write down all the numbers as well： 5 6 1 3 9 2 5 1 0. Then， use the symbol ：5| 6 1 3 9 |2 5 1 0. The digit numbers behind and in front of the symbol can correspond to the number unit word in Chinese.After matching with them， the number can be finally interpreted as “五億六千一百三十九萬兩千五百一十”。Similarly， the sentence “It achieved combined sales of 400，350，000units last year.” can be interpreted into “去年它的總銷量達到了四億零三十五萬臺。”

The two groups are very suitable for English and Chinese interpretation. It reduces the corresponding time of interpreters' organization and is more in line with the thinking mode of the two languages. Help interpreters to translate large numbers as accurately as possible in a short time. Only through a large number of repeated digital interpretation practices can interpreters master the different characteristics and rules of digital translation between English and Chinese， so as to make digital interpretation stand out and achieve a fast and accurate degree.

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作者簡介：崔悅（1997），女，漢族，遼寧省法庫縣，碩士在讀研究生，哈爾濱理工大學(xué)，英語筆譯，150080。