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

Presenter: What do you think a good interpreter must be like? 

Liza: I’d say that truly successful interpreters never editorialise. You must resign yourself to expressing only what the speaker is saying. You can learn a lot as an interpreter by being a fly on the wall through whom the whole conversation flows. However, you need to keep your own thoughts silent, acting only as a voice for others. Even if you strongly disagree with what’s being said, your job is to render it accurately, without commentary. And it’s not just the words you say. You’ll need to control your facial expressions as well, so that you don’t colour the speaker’s meaning in any way. And it goes without saying that the conversations you interpret must remain confidential.

Ayla: I do, but I never force it out of myself. I’m kind of trying to explore writing as a practice, so you know, I journal every day. I try and do kind of something for the art every day, whether that’s reading or practicing the guitar. But when it comes to writing poetry or songs, I really have to have an idea or have that desire to get something down. I feel like the best art comes from a sense of necessity and urgency. Like I can’t help but talk about this.

Presenter: Sounds like a fun childhood, Bob. I guess your dad is a true role model for you. You have a son of your own now, don’t you? 

Bob: Yes, I do. When I was becoming a dad, I thought naturally I would be a good dad like my father, just because that’s what I was exposed to. But he set the standard pretty high, almost too high where it’s hard to do the same for my own kids.

Michelle: Acting years ago, writing, directing, composing music and designing. I’m very grateful to still have my voice, which has been there to serve me when I want to work, and I’m grateful to have such loyal fans who want to come see me perform. Ultimately, I regret not playing all the parts I wanted to play — Juliet, and a few more.

Paul: Well, if ever you are in London, I’ll take you to a football match in New Cross. You can watch Millwall playing, and then you’ll find out. My old school friends are actually doing rather well as amateur footballers now. But in the past, they had a reputation as the most badly behaved supporters in the country.

Presenter: Do you have any advice for the yet to be published writers listening to you right now? 

Alyson: Well, my major piece of advice is to learn how to steal yourself for criticism and rejection. Try not to turn it into something personal because it’s not personal actually.It’s not easy but it will make your life better if you can. Taste in writing in literature is subjective. I always remind myself that there isn’t one book out there so brilliantly written that it doesn’t have its staunch detractors. I know who are happy to detail for you exactly what they don’t like about it. The other thing would be to make sure that you’re getting your work out there where people can see it. It doesn’t have to be a major publication. I have writer friends who have editors or agents contact them after reading their work in smaller journals. Opportunities can arrive from places you never expected. You want to give people the chance to find you.

Judy White: I think I’ve almost always felt like something of an outsider, no matter how much I appear to belong to a particular group. I’ve spoken to other writers who’ve experienced this kind of psychic detachment, where externally you are a part of the scene, but internally you might as well be alone, and on some level, you’re always observing. It’s an interesting paradox because most of the time, unless you tell them, nobody else knows how you’re really feeling. I used to live in the place described in the book. I no longer live there, but I have some friends and colleagues who still live there.

Maggie: I think that my looks through the years have served me well because I was never a great beauty and I was never cast as a great beauty. So I never leaned on it and I never really made that a high value. I’ve always been kind of androgynous and it’s one of the reasons why I love being an actress. I love experimenting with the male and the female in any character. That balance, the yin and the yang of that, is always in play, because everybody is male and female.

Presenter: In your opinion, what should a young person take into consideration when choosing an artistic career path?

Brenda: I think a young person should keep an open mind and try out as many things as possible. Don’t limit your options when starting out because there are so many things to learn from in all the fields of art. That’s not to say that specialising is not good, but I think it will be beneficial to be open to different possibilities, as there is a lot of crossover among them. I think if you keep exposing yourself to various types of art, you will eventually find out what really resonates with you and keeps you motivated, and that will lead you to your artistic career.

Vanessa: You’ll find the point when the character takes off and does their own thing. You need to recognise that and not refuse to let the character do what they want. Don’t use the character as the puppet, be a tool to the character.

Presenter: Why do you think it’s important to have writers talking about their own pathways and careers at events like How to Get Polished? What is it that writers can offer that is different from the advice of editors and agents?

Julia: I think writers can offer a completely different perspective to editors and agents. Agents and editors can talk about the process, the mechanics of getting published. But only authors can talk about the emotions involved. We know how it feels to be rejected and to doubt ourselves. And we can share the joys, too. A publisher or agent may feel proud when their author’s book is published, but what we feel is so much greater than that. And we all have such different experiences.

Kim: Yes, and I will be starring again as Lisa, but this will be our last season. My contract is for two years. I am looking into some TV journalism, doing some talk shows, or hosting some show of my own. I have a university degree in media, so this is something I’ve been dreaming of since I finished studying.

Peter: I want to be with my family more. I want to be a dad. For the last two years, I’ve been hosting my own show about hunting. My parents always taught me to use all that I’ve learned for the next stage in life, and to be the best I can be in it. So, I guess that’s what I will be doing with this show now. I have always enjoyed the outdoors, so this kind of work suits me well.

John: I’ve always said that pictures have power. They have the power to illuminate, to illustrate, and they certainly have the power to educate. They have the power to convince the unconvinced. And for me, they have the power to open people’s eyes to the sea. We are fighting, as environmentalists, against one of the most difficult things, human apathy towards the ocean.

Lisa: When teenagers feel that they are facing a problem, but it is not an actual crisis, there may be some room to play worst-case scenario. If a kid comes home and says: ‘There will be no one for me to sit with at lunch tomorrow,’ the parent can think through with the child. Let’s say that happens. What would you do? The key thing in this is the tune, not the lyrics for the parent. The tone in which they engage this conversation must be one of interest, yet comfort with the reality that their child may arrive at school and have no one to sit with at lunch.

Presenter: Your recent story The Pull has enjoyed tremendous success. Why do you think the readers loved it so much? 

Stacey: Well, I tend to explain it by the fact that the story traps together two incompatible characters. Though I can’t say I did it on purpose. When it comes to drafting fiction, I always like to say that my subconsciousness is way smarter than my conscious brain.

Peter: A friendship is a supportive union between two people. Is there anything you can help your friends with? However, when you help your friends, don’t do so with the expectation of being helped next time. Rather, help unconditionally. Treat them with emotional generosity. Give because you want to, not because you feel obliged to.

Carl. It depends on what personality you have. I’m kind of numb to many things because of football. We get critiqued hard in football. Cussed out, kicked, whatever. When it comes to modelling and someone tells you you’re this and that, it rolls off me. I have a thick skin. A lot of the other contestants who weren’t in sports took criticism a whole different way, and it breaks them down. Mentally, some of them don’t recover from it. The modeling industry as a whole is a hard industry for some people, because models constantly get criticism.

Presenter: Tell us the unique opportunities writers have for networking at this upcoming conference.

Alice: Besides meeting and talking with authors, events like this bring kindred spirits and like minds together. Screenwriters from all over the country will be there. Friendships form and even new collaborations too.

Paul: The comic strip and Disney artists etc. I mean all those great artists from the 50s, the 60s and the 70s. I can’t think of a favourite design as I love lots of their works and I will never come close to that.