Interpreters meet history

The profession of conference interpreter developed at the United Nations in parallel with the organization’s language policies, and the introduction of new technologies. These allowed for new modes of interpretation. Consecutive interpretation was the first mode of interpretation widely used at international meetings. By the end of the First World War, when the League of Nations was established, English had achieved parity with French as a diplomatic language. In consecutive interpretation, the interpreter takes notes on the speech being delivered and – only after the speaker has completed the speech – the interpreter renders the speech into another language. This is called consecutive interpretation because the interpreter waits for the speaker to finish, and then proceeds...
You can read more at http://www.unspecial.org/UNS678/t21.html
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