Briefing
A Mandarin-speaking man has been arrested by the police who have asked him to describe his previous drug conviction. You will be interpreting what he says into English in real time.
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Simultaneous Interpreting Practice #1 – Drug Possession (Mandarin into English)
Transcript and reference translation
事情是这样子的。我当时误入歧途。那个时候我还是大学生,然后我经常跟朋友一起出去玩,也经常嗑药,后来就成了习惯,很难摆脱。So, here’s the story. I had fallen in with the wrong crowd. I was a university student and I often went out with my friends and used drugs. It’s such a slippery slope and I kinda got caught up in all of that.
我被逮捕了,然后我立刻就请了律师。我被拘留了仅仅一个晚上,然后第二天早上我就得去上法庭。我的律师帮我跟检察官协商,起草一份认罪协议。他们告诉我说,如果要受审的话,我可能要坐八年牢左右。I got arrested and then immediately after hired a lawyer. I went to jail for just one night and then had court the next morning. My lawyer helped me cut a plea deal with the prosecution. They told me that if I had gone to trial I could have gotten around eight years in prison.
检察官给我起草的认罪协议要让我坐一年牢。我当时感觉我不能接受,可是我的律师一直说,我觉得我应该可以帮你谈到更好的条件,我们继续努力吧。可是,检察官寸步不让。有一次我跟她见过面,这种情况好像比较少发生吧。我跟她解释了我的个人情况,想劝她考虑让我上毒品犯罪法庭,因为那种法庭一般只会让你上一些戒毒相关的课,然后判你缓刑,也不会给你案底。但是她不能接受。The deal that the prosecutor gave me was a year. I didn’t feel I could accept that at the time but my lawyer kept saying, “I think we can get something better. Let’s keep working on it”. But the prosecutor would not budge. I met with her, which I guess is pretty uncommon. I explained my situation to her to try to get drug court or something where it’s just like, you take drug classes, and then it’s probation and there’s no offence on your record. But she just wouldn’t go for that.
我被逮捕的时候,警方告知了我的大学,所以我的学校让我停学了两个学期。我当时感觉非常郁闷,因为我被逮捕之后,马上就改过自新了,因为我太害怕,不想再犯法。而且,说实话,这种事情发生在我身上,我感到很幸运,因为我惹了这种麻烦才有今天的我。我感觉凡事都有它的好的一方面。When I got arrested, the police told my university. So I got suspended for two semesters. It was very frustrating because immediately after I got arrested, I cleaned up my act. I was too scared to ever do anything illegal ever again. And I honestly I feel lucky that this happened to me because who knows where I would be now if I hadn’t gotten in trouble. So there’s a positive to every situation.
可是,检察官并不承认看到我有所好转,我感到非常沮丧。我在一家很好的公司里找到了一份实习。然后,在春季学期时,我完成了我的本科学业,然后毕业了。可是,检察官没有把这个当回事儿。所以,最终我签署了认罪协议。在那一刻,我已经意识到了,我得面对现实,没有其他选择。量刑日期是11月8号,也就是下周一。But it was very frustrating that the prosecutor wouldn’t see that I had changed. I’ve gotten an internship with a really good company. Then during the spring semester I finished university and graduated with my Bachelor’s. But it didn’t matter to her. So, eventually I just took the plea deal. By that point I was already starting to realize that it is what it is and I can’t change it. I get sentenced on 8 November, next Monday.
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