Interpreting is the activity of orally (or using sign language) translating spoken or signed utterances from one language to another. Many people mistakenly think that an interpreter is simply another term for a translator.
However, while both professions involve translation, language interpretation and written translation are distinct fields. Many professionals work as both translators and language interpreters, but each role has its own responsibilities and ethical standards.
Interpreter from Time to Time
Some sources indicate that interpreted languages have existed since Ancient Egypt in the third millennium BC. Archaeological artifacts depict interpreters as figures with two heads, symbolizing their dual-language capability.
During the Ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman periods, interpreters came from various social backgrounds, including slaves and women—groups considered second-class citizens at the time. Despite the belief in the superiority of their own languages, these civilizations acknowledged the necessity of language interpreters for trade, public administration, military alliances, and religious missions.
The role of language interpretation remained largely unchanged from ancient times until the Middle Ages. Religious institutions such as monasteries and synagogues used interpreters for services and translations of holy texts.
Interpreter’s service was also needed during religious leaders from various areas meeting. Interpreters also translated Jewish holy books to different languages.
Hundreds of years later, when the European nations started to explore various areas around the world, the languages of interpreting such as Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldean were replaced by Spanish and Portuguese. There is a unique story about Columbus.
He used an interpreter for his first voyage only to find out that the interpreter’s service was not needed at all as he landed in the current Caribbean where the people did not speak Arabic, Hebrew, or Chaldean (the languages which his interpreter spoke).
He later caught native people and educate them to be interpreters. Since this time, interpreting to more diverse languages became more common.
In Europe, French started to replace Italian as the language of diplomacy and communication for the upper classes which made demand of interpreter’s service decrease. Those who worked as diplomats and those who were born as part of upper-class families needed to master French no matter where in Europe they were from.
This situation changed after the Paris Peace Conference conducted by the Leagues of Nations in 1919 where a peace agreement to end the first world war was signed. Most countries’ negotiators who were politicians were against the power of French in favor of their own languages.
Two Types of Language Interpretation
1. Consecutive Interpreting
After the war, there were more international meetings, and a lot of international organizations were formed. These resulted to a new method of interpreting which was simultaneous interpreting. Consecutive meetings were more commonly used before where an interpreter translated what the speaker said after they finished speaking.
Consecutive interpreting was not time efficient especially where there were more than two languages were involved in the meeting as one big speech was translated into different languages and all the interpreters needed to speak in turns.
2. Simultaneous Interpreting
As global diplomacy expanded, a more efficient approach—simultaneous interpretation—was developed. This method allows the speaker and interpreter to communicate almost simultaneously, saving significant time. It gained official recognition during the Nuremberg Trials (1945–1947), where it became essential for handling multilingual proceedings.
Challenges Faced by Interpreters
It takes more than mastering two languages to be an interpreter. Interpreting is meant to help two parties speaking two different languages to communicate. During this process, there are a lot of challenges that an interpreter faces.
1. Technical Challenges
The first challenge is related to technical problems when an interpreter could not hear clearly what the speaker says. To avoid this problem, an interpreter usually sits or stands near the speaker where he or she could hear the speaker clearly. There are also meetings that place an interpreter in a secluded room so that the interpreter could interpret without much disturbance.
2. Cultural Challenges
The next challenge is cultural challenge. An interpreter who only masters two languages without good cultural knowledge would find it difficult to interpret things related to cultures such as sarcasms, idioms, anecdotes, etc.
Thus, to be a good interpreter, ones should also understand the cultures of people who speak the language that he or she masters.
3. Lack of Preparation Materials
The third most found challenge is insufficient or even unprovided materials. Before the D day, an interpreter needs to learn what is going to be in the meeting.
Before any event, an interpreter must study relevant materials to familiarize themselves with terminology. Without adequate preparation, interpreting complex subjects—such as legal or medical topics—becomes challenging.
When the materials are not there, it is hard for an interpreter to prepare themselves to get used to terms related to the field that will be discussed in the meeting.
4. Translating Humor and Sarcasm
Next is the challenge related to matters that cannot be translated without context explanation such as humors and sarcasms. As it has been discussed before, cultural knowledge is needed.
However, even with good cultural knowledge, it is still almost impossible to translate humors without context explanation which does not always work. Humors in one area could not always be understood by people from different areas.
Even when you understand all words in them, it does not mean that you would understand why they are funny. In such cases, instead of translating the jokes, an interpreter is allowed to explain to the audience that the speaker cracks a joke and that people who understand laugh.
5. Ethical and Professional Challenges
The other challenge that might be faced by an interpreter is related to interest. An interpreter’s duty is helping two parties who speak different languages to communicate by translating their messages. An interpreter is not allowed to interfere the communication process by adding more or reducing the main messages.
There are chances where an interpreter is assigned to assist in matters related to public interests such as arresting criminals, transferring refugees from one place to another, conducting trials, etc.
Even when an interpreter sees that one party gets into trouble just because he or she does not understand the language spoke, the interpreter should not help that party other than by translating what is stated by the other party.
As an illustration of this challenge, we can see the case of one grandma from Indonesia who came to the USA to visit her daughter’s family. She explained to the border security officer that she would take care of her granddaughter, an action that could lead to suspicion that this grandma would work illegally in the USA and this action could lead to deportation. An interpreter is assigned in the hearing process.
The interpreter could see clearly that the grandma did not understand that taking care of her granddaughter could be interpreted as working. During the hearing process, the interpreter tried to give some advice to the grandma on what she needed to do.
By doing this, that interpreter has violated codes of conduct of an interpreter and as a result, he or she should face consequences. The interpreter’s duty is only to convey messages from the authority in that hearing process to the grandma who got into trouble and vice versa.
What are Needed to be an Interpreter
After looking at the challenges faced by an interpreter, we could conclude what one needs to be an interpreter.
1. A Good Mastery of Two Languages
A language interpreter needs to translate about 150 words per minutes. As there are so many words to translate within very limited time, an interpreter does not have the opportunity to open dictionaries.
This is unlike a translator who has more time to work on a translation project. When an interpreter spends too much time to translate an expression, he or she might miss the next thing spoken by the speaker.
2. Good Knowledge on the Materials Discussed
Without good understanding on the materials discussed, an interpreter might find it hard to translate specific terms in the area of discussion. We can see the example in a labors union meeting discussing the freedom of assembly, where an interpreter needs to have good understanding on issues related to labors’ freedom of assembly as well as special terms that are often used.
Those terms a lot of the time could not be translated word per word. There are special terms agreed by people in the area.
3. Ability to Listen Carefully
An interpreter needs to train themselves to focus on listening to spoken utterances. Without listening well, no one could translate what is spoken well. The ability to listen should also go together with good short term memory.
An interpreter should not easily forget what they have just listened as they need to translate what they have listened.
4. Salami or Segmentation Technique Mastery
The salami or segmentation technique has different meanings depending on contexts. In the context of interpreting, salami refers to a technique to divide and take the main meaning of a chunk of spoken utterances.
By using this technique, an interpreter does not need to translate the spoken utterances word by word. An example of this technique could be seen as follows, when a speaker said, “What I love about this job is that I could do it remotely.” The translation using the salami technique would be “I like this job because I don’t need to go to the office.”
5. Good Communication Skills
An interpreter should have good communication skills such as using intonation to express emotions or emphasize meanings. When someone is communicating, there are nonverbal cues that an interpreter needs to understand too in order to convey messages well.
6. Note-Taking Skills
Note-taking skills are highly needed especially when an interpreter needs to do consecutive interpreting where a very big chunk of spoken utterances need to be translated. Without notes, an interpreter might forget what have just said by the speakers.
Interpreter Association
There are many interpreter association in the world. Here is the list of only some of them.
- International Federation of Translators
- International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters
- International Association of Conference Interpreters
- Association of Indonesian Conference Interpreters
- Himpunan Penerjemah Indonesia (part of International Federation of Translation)
Need a Professional Language Interpreter?
That is a little bit about an interpreting job. If you need an interpreter’s service, PéMad is ready to serve you. Please contact us to find out more about the interpreting service we provide.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_translators_and_interpreters_associations
- https://thatinterpreter.com/when-lagging-behind-is-a-good-thing/
- https://telelanguage.com/blog/top-4-challenges-interpreters-face/
- http://www.translorial.com/reference/a-brief-history-of-interpretation-and-translation/
- https://www.thecommunityinterpreter.com/what-is-interpreting
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