How To Enjoy A Business Trip With An Interpretation Services Professional In Tow

As your company faces a global demand for your services, business trips are needed to explore partnerships, localise approaches, mitigate potential risks, and more importantly, dominate the new market. In all these activities, interpretation services may be required to break down communication barriers. Read more…

Meanings And Perceptions Vary – Correct Interpretation Augurs Well For Effective Communication

When dealing with people who speak a language different from yours, it is imperative that you ensure a complete and thorough understanding of a specific message before taking any action or giving any reaction. Read more…

Interpretation Is Imperative, Because Talk Is Never Cheap

Interpretation is crucial for any communication to be successful. After all, the message is successfully transmitted if the receiving party understands its essence, as intended by the sender. Read more…

This headline was written by ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN on June 28, 2009 for the New York Times at:

Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour.

It says this: “About half of the 42 million members of LinkedIn, the online professional networking Web site, are outside the United States, and to further expand internationally, the company hopes to be translated into more than its current four languages — English, Spanish, French and German. But when LinkedIn asked thousands of its translator members to complete a survey this month that asked whether they would consider volunteering to translate the site into other languages, many said “nyet.””

If it were you, would you do this job for free? It really is a controversy. Right now, I’m even having a split mind whether I would do it. It takes up much time and effort. If I get more sales and recognition from doing this, yes, perhaps I would.

For those who would accept the job, I salut your courage and time, but hope that you can consider twice or thrice or even ten times, because everything we do, these intentions can be interpreted differently along the way.

I have tried interpretation myself, be it simultaneous or consecutive. It feels as if you are a split person, having the left side working quite differently from the right side of your brains! The ears would listen in 1 language, and the mouth would reproduce the words in another language, almost at the same time.

A good interpretor does not allow for a lag in the speech. He or she will start almost at the same time as the speaker. It is as if the interpretor is the speaker! It takes a lot of knowledge on the topic as well as understandingof the speaker. If the interpretor has worked with the same speaker for some time, he or she will be able to guess what the speaker want to say in the next sentence. This takes a lot of practise, and not to say, much more energy and concentration on the matter.

Why more energy? A good interpretor not only translates verbally the words, he or she would transfer the emotions of the speaker to the audience too!

Not all translators can be interpretors. For translation, you have all the time in the world to slowly “digest” the source and “spit out” the translated words. It is not so for interpretation. Even for consecutive interpretation. You would only have that sentence length of time to process the source and form the correct words.

It is a very challenging job and I did enjoy my experiences as an interpretor. So, for those who would like to try out interpretation, you can start with listening to some audio and translate on the spot. You can record what you have interpreted, so that you can check back on your translation later on.

Have fun!

To follow on the topic of the difference between translation and interpretation, there are several kinds of interpretation in the industry. However, the two main kinds of interpretation are simultaneous and consecutive.

For simultaneous interpretation, the interpreter would have to verbally translate the message that the speaker is saying almost as quickly as how he or she can understand from the source language. This kind of interpretation normally occurs during a seminar or a large event whereby the target audience who needs the interpretation would be using earphones. The interpreter would normally be standing behind a sound-proof booth, so that his voice would not interfere that of the speaker.

In this case, it would be good if the client/speaker can provide reference materials for the interpreter to prepare the topic in advance, in order to also make sure the content is correctly delivered.

Sometimes 2 interpreters is necessary for this kind of job as it calls for much concentration and energy.

As for consecutive interpretation, the interpreter has ample time to digest or take notes of what the speaker is saying, then translate it out after the speaker has finished his sentence(s). This type of interpretation is not as tiring as that of simultaneous one. Of course it would still be good if reference material can also be provided. In this case the interpreter may stand beside the speaker during the seminar, and the audience do not need earphones.

If you know what kind of event your company is having, you can easily define what kind of interpreters you require, so that the interpreters know what to expect.

Often, we will get client inquiring for translation service when in fact, they require interpretation service. Then we will spend the next few minutes explaining to them what is the difference between the two terms.

So why people get mix up with the 2 terms? People associate translation as “converting” from one language to another language. So anything to do with language conversion, it will mean translation whether it is for document or verbal. Interestingly, interpretation means oral translation.

I will usually explain to them that if anything that is to do with writing or brochure, it is translation. And if anything that is verbal, it is interpretation. Upon hearing this, our client is more aware of the difference. Hence they can tell their inquiry to us clearly. In this way, we can also tend to their inquiries faster.
This is what we call effective communication and good services to our clients.

So do you know the difference between translation and interpretation now?