Cultural and linguistic differences present among several regions in the world negatively impact the growth of business relations and ties. However, the major technological developments in internet and simultaneous digitalisation of the world has ushered new advancements in the translation industry as well. With a faster internet connection and efficient gadgets, it has become easier to receive real-time solutions from any parts of the world for your business problems. Interpreter service is one of such real-time solutions offered by the translation industry to overcome communication barriers present among the companies situated across different regions.
Businesses that are planning to expand their operations in foreign land need the assistance of interpreting agencies to communicate their brand voice to the international business partners and targeted audience. Therefore, amidst the industrial revolution 4.0, where technology plays an important role in defining the business strategies, interpreter service provided by translation industry ensures a smooth flow of communication between the businesses and the clients/customers.
What is Interpreting?
Most of us confuse interpreting with translation services; however, they aren’t the same. Interpreting is a verbal or oral form of translation that ensures real-time communication between the individuals that speak different languages. While interpreting, the interpreter verbally translates the words spoken by the speaker in a different language, and this happens on a real-time basis.
During business meetings, conferences, meetings of the government delegates, etc. that takes place in some other country, it becomes necessary to hire an interpreter to ease the flow of communication between the parties involved. Nonetheless, depending upon the context, an individual or a company might want to hire one of the following types of interpreter service:
Simultaneous Interpreting:
During simultaneous interpreting, an interpreter listens to what the speaker says and simultaneously translates the sentences into the targeted language. It doesn’t mean that the interpreter just paraphrases in the destined language. They have to understand the crux of the sentences uttered and convey the same in a different language.
This type of interpreter service is demanding and requires a good presence of mind on the part of the interpreter. An interpreter usually sits in a booth wearing headphones and speaks into a microphone. They have to be quick and decisive in their usage of words and idioms as any delay in the translation process would result in missing out on important ideas uttered by the speaker. This would ultimately alter the message conveyed to the targeted listeners.
Simultaneous interpreting is especially used during big business conferences, meetings and trade shows. The best example of simultaneous interpreting is the interpretation that takes place during the UN meetings and conferences.
Consecutive Interpreting
In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter has to translate every time the speaker is done presenting his/her thoughts and ideas. The interpreter waits for some time, usually 5-10 minutes, and after formulating the accurate sentences, translates the speech into the destined language for the targeted listeners. An interpreter indulged in consecutive interpreting should be able to take notes efficiently and memorise important elements of the speech to convey the exact message. This type of interpreter service is usually used during small business meetings, court proceedings and meetings of the government delegates.
Whisper interpreting
As the name suggests, whisper interpreter services require an interpreter to simultaneous translate the speech softly to the person or a group of people sitting next to him/her. During this form of interpretation, the voice of the interpreter is audible to just a few set of people and it is usually difficult to comprehend the interpreter’s voice by the larger audience. Whisper interpreting usually takes place when just one person requires interpreting during a business meeting or court proceeding.
Over-the-Phone Interpretation (OPI)
Also known as scheduled telephone interpreting, OPI can occur in both simultaneous and consecutive modes. During OPI, the interpreter is not available in person among the speaker and the targeted listener(s). The interpretation takes places over the scheduled phone call and if parties involved have no problem in just hearing the voice of the interpreter, OPI can be executed in a simultaneous manner. Nonetheless, OPI is usually conducted in consecutive mode.
On-Demand Phone Interpreting
Often used by customer care service providers and call centres, on-demand phone interpreting assists the clients in getting the interpretation done within a few minutes. During this type of interpreter service, an interpreter is connected with a phone to a client looking for a translation in a particular language. The interpreter comes on the line and assists the client in interpreting the conversation.
On-demand phone interpreting takes place instantaneously, and hence the interpreter doesn’t have any idea about the background of the conversation. Consequently, interpreting quality might be impacted. On-demand phone interpreting is mostly used by companies, medical and legal institutions that engage with the non-English speaking population that require interpreting on-demand. The biggest flaw of phone interpreter services is that the interpreter is unaware of the context in which translation takes place and hence, the accuracy of interpretation might be compromised.
Interpreter service is used for various purposes, be it for business meetings with international clients, court proceedings, government official meetings, or interpreting medical conversations of a larger non-English speaking audience. With growing interactions among people based all around the world, language barriers can easily be reduced by opting one of the interpreter services.