Interpretation and Working with Interpreters

Reading

Common courtesies of an efficient use of an interpreter:
8. When staging international meeting, first step is to designate
    the official language for the congress, convention, meeting.

9. Simultaneous interpretation is often used for plenary sessions,
    and consecutive interpretation is for workshop or smaller groups.

10. Special care should be taken when producing name tags, titles,
     conference proceedings, program agendas, program book, handout
     material in languages.

11. When possible, provide simultaneous interpreter text of presentation in advance.

12. Find a way to thank interpreter and translator in public or privately, due it is not an
     easy job to make communication through interpretation.

Do not forget to include cost of equipment, technician, personnel required to coordinate
distribution and collection of headphones during session, when charging simultaneous
interpretation service, due we are responsible for any loss and damage caused.

You get what you pay for.
Always look for the best and the most professional experts. This is one area where lack of
experience and professionalism can destroy the most important meeting or trade show.

Letter of suggestions of how to work with interpreters:

Dear speakers/panelists,
In order to deliver your message accurately, with a quality translation to your non-English
speaking audience, the following suggestions may remind you on conditions which you might
not aware of:

Diversity audience,
Clear articulation and slower delivery (not too slow) would be beneficial to audience who would
like to listen in English and helpful for translation when speak through the microphone.
Tempo is critical for audience to understand.

Linguistic approach,
A complete Mandarin interpretation is almost double of length of English speech. (English 120/min, Mandarin 200-250/min), so, speak slowly.
Sometime are carried away speaking fast to audience with same professional background.

Technical issues,
Do not flip to next slide immediately after done with last bullet point of PowerPoint slide.
Leave a 3-5 seconds time gap between English and the translation and a few seconds before
going to the next slide.
Try not to give too much jargon. Jokes are also impossible to translate properly.

Help us to prepare your speech.
Provide speech draft, PowerPoint, outlines, etc. 3-5 days in advance for our preparation.

Q&A
Duty of moderator or the chairperson to manage the Q&A as follows:
1. Make sure the participant is given a wireless microphone before he/she speaks.
2. Ask audience if the question is in English or in Mandarin so that you have time to
    put on headset.
3. If you do not understand the question, ask the participant to rephrase or repeat
    the question.
4. Spontaneous translation does not give the interpreter spare time to explain, only
    to produce a sound translation of the question, so, sometime you will hear a
    strange translation.

As you are our valued customers and your attendants are your valued clients, the above
observations may help everyone in the team to render an outstanding performance bridged
by two languages, leading to win-win customer satisfaction for all parties.