Telephone Interpreting Jobs – Career Options as Telephone Interpreter

(Last Updated On: June 15, 2015)

Why consider telephone interpreting jobs?


Telephone interpreting jobs are becoming more and more popular as phone interpreting can successfully replace face to face interpreting. If you do not know for sure if one of the telephone interpreting jobs is the right option for you or not, you should carefully weigh the pros and cons of this system. It has certain advantages over traditional interpreting.

The main purpose of telephone interpreting is to facilitate communication via phone among people who do not speak the same language. Otherwise said, interpreting helps in putting aside language barriers and ensures an effective communication. The interpreter can actually be located anywhere in the world as long as there is a telephone connection between him and the speakers. There are a number of telephone interpreting jobs already available for anyone having the necessary skills for language interpretation.

Telephone interpreting is usually consecutive. Still, there are cases when simultaneous interpreting is required. This is more complex and requires specialized equipment. Consecutive interpreting is easier to perform and can be available almost instantly. The interpreter however needs good headphones with adjustable volume and with an amplifier. This way, the volume of the interpreter and the speakers can be adjusted so that everyone understands what is being said.

Telephone interpreting is easily available. Customers can have almost instant access to an interpreter as long as there is a three-way phone connection available. Moreover, some clients prefer telephone interpreting over the traditional one because they do not want the interpreter to be physically present. This might be the case in various cultures or religions. The downside of telephone interpreting is the fact that the interpreter cannot see the body language of the speakers. Nevertheless, the tone, the hesitations in speech, or other nonverbal clues are still available. This might make telephone interpreting jobs more difficult than face to face interpreting.

Most people prefer to solve their problems in their native language. Many people who do not have an excellent command of the English language would rather use the services of telephone interpreters in their relationship with authorities, banks, hospitals and so on.

Given the fact that there are hundreds of spoken languages, the demand for telephone interpreters is going to increase constantly and more telephone interpreting jobs will be available on the market. Most popular languages include European ones (French, German, Spanish, etc.), Arabic languages and Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese. It is estimated that the demand for telephone interpreters will increase by over 40% by 2020. The demand for sign language interpreters is also on the rise because thanks to video calls, people using sign language can have easier access to interpreters nowadays.

The evolution of computer software is threatening to replace the work of humans in what concerns translations. However, there is still a long way to go until computers will be able to knock down language barriers in the same way that human interpreters do.

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