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?

According to Wikipedia, the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be translated is called the source text, and the language it is to be translated into is called the target language.

As a translator, you have to be a language expert in both the source and the target language, in order to understand fully what you need to translate, and what you have translated. Though there are different expressions to the same word, how you manage to crunch those source words and bring out the gist of the message across is very critical. With globalisation, more people are beginning to speak more languages than what they used to a few years ago.

Not too long time ago, when I was on a trip in US, an American reporter was interviewing a group of Chinese. What impressed me was that he did not speak English! He was using Mandrin to converse with them! For the Chinese, and as a Chinese myself, in order for an American to learn Mandrin is way too difficult, not to mention converse eloquently! He was praised by that group. What matters most was that he was able to ask questions very well, and could totally understand what the responses were. He could laugh and joke with the Chinese too.

Then I realised that the world is becoming smaller. We can no longer stand in the current location and speak only our own language. In order to market ourselves to the world, we HAVE to be able to speak the other languages! And with so many people moving across the globe, all the more we have to be able to understand them in order to live and work with them!

Of course it is not possible for us to learn all the languages of the world. That’s why translators and interpretors exist.