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The interpreter, especially the consecutive interpreter should not put up with so many losses of the
information. Thus there appears the necessity in some helpful means which would preserve the sense markers of
every sentence. These helpful means are notes.

Notes have nothing to do with the synopsis, report or stenography. They are only effective when the
immediate reproduction of the ST follows. The interpreter does not put down the words but the thoughts of the
speaker. According to H. Van Hoof, the literal reproduction would follow the word-for-word record and this
violates the basic principles of the interpreting. Thus the stenography cannot be used here. It is the system of
records based on a word. The interpreter would not be able to concentrate on the main thoughts of the speech. As
a result the interpretation would not be successful.

While making notes in the consecutive interpreting the most important thing is to find those sense parts in
the speech which would fix the basic meaning of the thought. In most cases these are the subject and the
predicate expressed by the corresponding noun group and verb group in the sentence. In the consecutive
interpreting figures and proper names are the most difficult things to remember, thus they should be always
noted. The author points out three major types of notes:
1. Method of choosing words with the biggest sense load.
2. Transformation method using a number of lexical changes.
3. Method of choosing the key word (for example emotionally bound or lexically incomplete).
We consider that the system of notes is not absolutely identical with all the consecutive interpreters. In
the long process of interpreting the interpreter works out his/her own system of notes which first of all depends
on the sphere of the interpreter’s specialization, terminology he uses in this sphere. This can even depend on the
personality of the very interpreter.

There are certain demands to the notes in the consecutive interpreting. These are the following: visuality,
economy, and fast writing. Visuality is not just the accurate graphic representation of every note but it is also the
certain order on the sheet of paper where the borders of every sentence (thought) are distinct.

The vertical representation of notes is the most economic one as the interpreter uses the narrow strip of
paper that already wins the time because the hand does not move from the left to the right and vice verse.

R. K. Min’iar-Beloruchev suggested a number of exercises that should be trained by the future
consecutive interpreters:
1. Written translation of the record
This is the exercise that can be successfully used for the systematic training of the learners using the
foreign texts of different complexities. The texts chosen should be recorded in accordance with the gradation of
the difficulties according to the following parameters: the size of the text, the temp of the speech, the speaker,
the degree of the text difficulty.

The number of syllables should measure the size of the text. The size cannot be too short but at the same
time it cannot be too long because the students will do the written translation which takes much time than
interpreting. Thus the increase in the size of the text should vary from 600 to 1000 syllables.

The temp of the speech should be the average at the beginning with the option of increase in further
training. The learners should be taught to understand the speech of any temp with possible phonetic changes. The
temp of the speech can fluctuate between 200 and 230 syllables per minute. If the learners are the beginners in
the interpreting/translation the teacher can use the recordings done by him/herself but further the speeches of the
native speakers should be used. To define the difficulty of the text is an extremely tough task.

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