5. Аудирование: поиск запрашиваемой информации в интервью: все задания

Presenter: Is it hard to become an interpreter then? 

Liza: In order to become an interpreter, you would need at least a bachelor’s degree in a foreign language or a specific area in which you want to work. To improve your job prospects, you can consider getting a master’s degree or taking some postgraduate courses, which takes about two more years. In case you want to work in a specific industry, you should consider undergoing specialised training, which means extra expenses. For example, a medical interpreter certificate will cost you around $500 and take about 40 hours of training.

Ayla: It can be dangerous to kind of try and target your art to a certain type of people. You don’t know who’s going to gravitate towards your work. You never know what people are going to get out of the work. So, I just try and create music that feels true to my taste and then see what happens. I collect words and lyrics and kick drum sounds and filters and autotunes, and this becomes a kaleidoscope of truly everything that I like. All I can do is put that together and put it out, and at least I know that it’s me.

Presenter: Did you start working in the business at a young age? 

Bob: Growing up, when we worked, we worked inside the business. Other kids were mowing lawns for their summer money, and my brother and I were making fishing gear, as long as I remember really. We started in the garage when I was three or four I think.

Michelle: I follow what’s in my heart, and what I feel are urgent, important issues that deserve attention. Whether it be afterschool programs for underserved kids in Los Angeles, helping to restore arts and music programs in schools, encouraging people to vote, or preserving the fourth estate so that we can continue to have journalism that educates the public and holds our leaders accountable.

Paul: No, I had far too easy a time of it in my first year. I’d done very well in Bristol. I joined the repertory company of ‘The Bristol Old Vic.’ … Luckily, it has never happened to me.

Presenter: Have you always wanted to be a writer and was there a particular moment you thought — I can do this? 

Alyson: I think my literary aspirations began when I was about ten years old. I had a teacher that year that used to give us an hour every week to write stories or poems.We were allowed to work on anything we wanted to and I loved it. It was the highlight of my week. At the end of the hour we had the opportunity to read our compositions in front of the class. I was a pretty shy kid who didn’t get much attention but when I got up in front of the class and read everyone would get quiet, genuinely listen and clap enthusiastically for me when I finished. I think they were particularly impressed by the fact that I could make up poems that rhymed. So I developed what was probably a very niche role for a fifth grader. I was the girl who could write. From that point on, writing was what I wanted to do. 

Judy White:  The content and structure of ‘If I Knew’ almost had a life of its own. I wrote the last story first and knew it was going to be the last story, but really had no idea what would come before. I just started writing the stories pretty much out of sequence, and I would send them to my agent as they were completed. I was simultaneously working on another novel at the same time. I still didn’t know if it was going to be a novel or a story collection until the manuscript was finished, and then the linked stories made the most sense, particularly within the location they have in common. I liked the idea of stories about these connected lives that didn’t necessarily have neat conclusions and might haunt readers a little after they’ve finished reading. This seems to have been achieved, according to some of the reviews.

Maggie: Well, speaking about working with good directors, that has always been a certain kismet with me. I was lucky. There was a period in the 1980s where you had people who were born to direct, born to shepherd stories. Like David Lynch, who was so unusual, such a rare storyteller, so personal and private, and dream-like from his subconscious. You know, people ask me why I don’t direct. Well, it’s because I’ve worked with people where that’s what they were born to do, and it’s a little intimidating after you’ve worked with a rash of those people one after another. Then it’s like, “I like acting. Acting is good.”

Presenter: What suits you better, working for a company or freelancing?

Brenda: I enjoy being able to do both because of the variation I can get in terms of clients, pacing and type of work. However, I do prefer working for a company a bit more because I enjoy the process of collaborating and bouncing ideas back and forth with other talented people.

Vanessa: I remember I was once shopping in Brighton during a thunderstorm. I dashed into a bookshop and I picked up a random book. I drove home, sat down with some tea in my wet trousers and I didn’t get up again until I had finished it. 400 pages! I have to thank that man so much! That’s when I turned from someone who had bought a book to someone who would become a writer. It pushed the switch, it unlocked the feeling of «I want to do this».

Presenter: At what stage of the writing process does this floating enter the structure of your novels and how does this affect your overall writing process?

Julia: My writing process typically involves a what-if idea or scenario. I’ll run it past my agent and editor to see if it gets their approval. Then I’ll start to brainstorm it. I’ll ask questions of my main character. Who is he or she? What happened in his or her past that shaped his or her personality? And most importantly, what does he or she want more than anything else in the world? Then I’ll think about supporting characters, particularly the antagonist. Once I’ve got my cast, I’ll begin thinking about structure. I’ll plot on a whiteboard using the four act structure and add post-it notes for scenes. If I’ve got time, I’ll then run that past my agent and editor in case they have any concerns. And if they give the thumbs up, I’ll start writing the first draft.

Kim: It’s ironic, really, but in this last sitcom, I play a hockey player’s wife. But at the same time, that’s who I am in real life as well. My husband is a well-known hockey player, and we have three kids.

Peter: I had a choice to start working as a news reporter, since that was my major, or continue as a football player. I chose the second option. I joined the professional team a week after my graduation, and played with them for the next seven years. In those seven years, I underwent seven serious surgeries, and had three head injuries.

John: You know, it takes hours to witness and capture those exciting and unpredictable moments of the underwater world. I mean, I probably have thousands and thousands of photos of the rear ends of fish swimming away. To take a picture of fish is really a question of waiting and looking and thinking what they’re about to do. In our brief time underwater, every underwater photographer is always after that moment. And that moment is a product of time, persistence, knowledge of how the fish is behaving, and of course, the most important ingredient, which is luck.

Lisa: You see, stress is good and healthy as long as it is neither too little nor too great. You don’t want a stress-free environment for yourself or your children. You also don’t want to be overwhelmed by stress. There is chronic stress. There is traumatic stress. There are forms of stress that are over a line that is no longer healthy.

Presenter: You’re currently spending much time editing other writers’ work for American short fiction. How does it affect your own work? 

Stacey: I think my time at American short fiction had a huge impact on my learning curve as a writer. <…> For some reason it is so much easier to see the flaws in our own work after we’ve seen them in someone else’s. My primary agenda though was always whether or not I thought the story would be a good fit for the journal, but subconsciously I was probably filing away plenty of things to steal.

Peter: Absolutely. One simple example is how I open myself to all of you fully on my blog, and in return I attract readers who are genuine, supportive and kind. I’m not sure about other communities online, but I know my blog readers exude authenticity and love.

Carl. I wasn’t very much interested in studying, avoided going to classes, and got kicked out of school in the end. My mother was very much worried about me and my future, and somehow it came down on me that I had to do something about my life.

Presenter: What exercise do you recommend for writers to improve their dialogues?

Alice: The best exercises to practice writing conflict are to put two characters in a situation where one person wants something and the other doesn’t want to give it to him. Try writing a five or ten-page two-character script with only these two characters. Another good one is to have two people who hate each other get stuck in an elevator.

Paul: The process can be longer or shorter. When you become a professional artist, you have to devote yourself to art and give clients the best work possible. I’m an artist who starts a commitment right away, focusing on it full time, if possible, and not counting the hours, days or months.The most important thing is imagination and creativity, always trying to think outside the box.