Graduation speech

I am honored to speak to you on this very important day. // First, Id like to thank the administration and faculty of University for their hard work and dedication on our behalf. // I think that college students often take their college experience for granted, // as just the step between high school and the real world. As the first member of my family to graduate from college, // I do not take one bit of it for granted. // So I thank every one of you who has made this university what it is and every one of you who has supported me and my fellow students along the way.// We have got a great education here which makes it far more than a step between high school and the real world // but rather a stepping stone to our futures. On a personal note, being the first college graduate from my family, // I would like to honor my parents in the audience who encouraged me and supported me and without whom this would not have been possible. // Thanks Mom and Dad! Fellow graduates, today we have finished something. // Sometimes I think it is ironic that in each endeavor in our academic lives // we learn and grow and achieve the highest level possible in that institution and then we graduate.

The workshop was set in two sessions, led by Dr. Barry Turner and the moderator is Romel Noverino. First session was on elaboration of interpreting and second session was on discussing questions from participants and training on interpreting. On the first session, Dr. Barry Turner conveyed theoretical and practical explanation of consecutive interpreting through his paper entitled Automatisation in note-taking for Consecutive Interpreting Indonesian and English. Dr. Barry explained that consecutive interpreting is closely related to ability of note-taking namely ability in taking note of utterances which will be interpreted into target language. The purpose of note-taking is for consecutive interpreter not missing words, phrases, clauses or sentences which will be interpreted. However, it does not mean that form of utterance which must be retained. What must be retained is meaning. In order to retain meaning successfully, a consecutive interpreter should take note of the key words of an utterance. Since a consecutive interpreter could not ask speaker to speak slowly, hence regardless of how fast the speaker utters, at the very same time a consecutive interpreter takes notes as s/he listens to the utterance. To help consecutive interpreter in note-taking, s/he uses abbreviations which, recently, are mostly derived from the style of writing text message and e-mail, and symbols which, recently, are mostly derived from emoticon. From his years of experience as interpreter in many countries, he acknowledges that Bahasa Indonesia is a language of which many words can be abbreviated. Next to it, Dr. Barry explained another ability which a consecutive interpreter must have namely cohesion understanding so that s/he can get references within and outside the utterance to make the interpreting structured and understandable by listeners. To have all of the above qualifications and competence, one must go thrugh series of theoretical and practical education. The second session was started by discussing questions from participants. After responding to the questions, Dr. Barry continued with training on consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. On consecutive interpreting training, he played video of speech in English and asked participants to listen to it and take note. Then he asked the participants to interpret it into Indonesian. Vice versa, he also played Indonesian video and asked participants to listen to it and take note. Then he asked the participants to interpret it into English. Overall, the workshop was successful as it met the purposes of holding it, namely to provide discussion for participants on preparation and requirements to become qualified and competence interpreter, also to provide opportunity for participants to have learning on interpreting from academician and practitioner of interpreting from overseas; and for participants to have training on interpreting.