When I was a child, I wanted to be an interpreter. It was all very clear in my mind. So at some point I grew up – but not quite, and became an interpreter.
Actually I celebrated my 20th birthday on my first assignment on a trip to Shandong province. From then, during 5/6 years in parallel of my studies/jobs I worked on different missions as a consecutive interpreter. I did it all: medicine & acupuncture, business & trade, crisis management, culture, tourism, books, travel, antiques, shopping, cinema, politics..This taught me a lot about China and I experienced amazing situations.
It is such an exciting job to do : never the same, always challenging. It taught me to work for very long hours with a high level of focus and pressure. I loved it. But (there is always a but) despite meeting interesting people, having access to a lot of information and doing a very much respected – and sometimes well-paid – job, well an interpreter is constantly sleep deprived, under pressure and cannot eat at lunch/dinner because that’s the time people keep on talking and talking. Although I was always speaking, I never was speaking my mind : nobody wants the opinion of the interpreter and it is not your job anyway. So at some point, I moved to a different direction : media, but that’s another story.
As an interpreter in a past life, I feel entitle to share a few insights with those hiring translators and interpreters
- Please consider this job is exhausting. Think about how tired you are at the end of the day. Multiply by 3 and you’re not even close to the level of exhaustion of an interpreter
- An interpreter is not a machine nor a robot.
- Briefs are very much welcomed if not mandatory. I once had a client saying “We’ll talk about environment”. Turned out the topic was oil trading. This is just annoying.
- Don’t be cheap. I had clients who said “What?? But somebody just asked me for 10$”. 10$ job gives you 10$ performance.Period.
- Make sure you hire the right person for the right job : don’t expect simultaneous interpreting with a student.
- Simultaneous can only be made by professionals who had a special training (2 years at least).
- Interpreting (oral) and translating (writing) are different jobs. One translator cannot necessarily interpret and vice versa.
- Just because someone is fluent in a language doesn’t mean this person is able to interpret.
My best to all interpreters in the world xx
