White House Interpreter: The Art of Interpretation

Harry Obst interpreted for seven American presidents. This book takes a look at five of them from the interpreter's perspective inside and outside the Oval Office: Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Most Americans have very little familiarity with professional interpreting, a profession known fairly well in Europe and Canada. After finishing WHITE HOUSE INTERPRETER, the reader will understand what interpreting is all about and why this profession is of considerable importance to many segments of our society: from the White House to the courthouse, from the military battlefield to our hospitals. Many thousands of highly trained professional interpreters and translators help the European nations and other highly developed countries successfully export large amounts of goods and services and keep millions of jobs at home. Obst examines the dismal training picture in the United States and urges remedial action. The book is written for the general reader. The author avoids the linguistic jargon. He mixes the technical information with interesting anecdotes, many of them never published before.