But I had committed to doing the translation, and there are no other students here at the moment who are at the level of translating (well, there's one, but she was sleep deprived after her work on the elections, so she wa sout), so I did it, and after all, I'm really glad I did. First, it was easier than I expected it to be. I spoke with the lecturer beforehand and asked him to speak slowly, but I think his natural pace as a speaker was reasonably slow because he occassionally forgot himself and apologized, but I was always able to understand what he was saying, so that was good. Second, it was a really INTERESTING topic, and I would have missed it for class if I hadn't been translating. Third, it gave me confidence in my translating skills because I really did manage to translate all the main ideas and examples and such (we don't do word-for-word translation, but conversational/conceptual translation for students who aren't at the level of understanding on their own).
I got several compliments and thank yous afterwards, and now I feel more confidence about future translations. I'm a long way from being a professional translator, but, hmm, that could be interesting work...