(Last Updated On: March 21, 2018)

Providing a simultaneous interpretation service is probably the most challenging assignment for interpreters. Besides the regular skills needed for all interpreters it is necessary to have an exceptional ability to listed the speech while providing interpretation. The interpreter must have a great mental capacity for perceiving, listening, memorizing and coordinating at the same time. If one of these elements fails, problems immediately arise and interpreters must overcome them in unique ways to keep the quality of the interpretation. Here are some of the most common problems that arise during a simultaneous interpretation service and some of the solutions.

Issues with a simultaneous interpretation service

Fast speech

There is a limit of what an interpreter can produce in a specific period of time. If these limits are exceeded they may produce misinterpretations and loss of information. Every language has an optimal speech rate to guarantee the quality of the interpretation; for instance, English is about 100 to 120 words per minute. There are four potential solutions for this: ask the speaker to slow down, interpreter speeds up, summarize; if none of them are appropriate, then termination of the simultaneous interpretation service is the only solution left in order to limit the damage one could do by either misinterpretation or loss of information.

Humor during a presentation

Most of the times, it happens when the speaker tries to relax the audience. In this case, understanding the culture of the audience is more important that finding an exact equivalent. Interpreters should be familiar with pieces of common humor to both languages to overcome the situation easily. If there is no equivalence, humor should not be interpreted at all, and sometimes saying "the speaker made a joke" could be humorous in itself.

Limited mental capacity available

Human interpreters have a limited mental capacity and in some situations that capacity may be exceeded. A simultaneous interpretation service could encounter issues when the discussion is related to decision making, numbers and complex names. In all these cases interpreters should avoid extra efforts that diminish the quality of their work. Exact numbers should be skipped and complex names can be abbreviated in order to avoid making a bigger mistake. Interpreters should reinforce their training in order to assure they know exactly how to act when making decisions about the most important part of the speech that needs to be interpreted to guarantee the accuracy of the interpretation they provide.

Are you aware of some more issues that may be encountered in a phone interpretation session? Let us know in the comments.