The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
The Five Qualities An Interpreter Needs
Hiring the professional interpreter for court proceedings, medical appointments, conferences, job interviews, or leisure travel is becoming very common due to globalization. Interpreters for leisure travel would require the knowledge of the local history, tourist attractions, and the languages involved. Mostly this is the unilateral communication, where the knowledge of the foreign language is more important than the local language. However, all other instances mentioned above would involve bilateral communication and thorough knowledge of both the languages involved.
While hiring professional interpreter for official, legal, or medical purposes, you will have to look for the following qualities to ensure effective interpretation.
Listening Skills – Interpreters listen to what is being said and then translates the same into another language to convey the correct meaning. The correctness of the interpretation would be affected if the listening is not done properly. This is the reason why a good interpreter should be a good listener. Accuracy is an important part of the interpreter’s job, hence don’t compromise on the listening qualities of the interpreter at all. Even the proficiency in both of the involved languages won’t offer accurate results if the interpreter is not a good listener.
Subject Specific Proficiency – However proficient you are in speaking a language, you may always find yourself short of words while communicating on certain topics that would involve technical or corporate terminology. While hiring the services of interpreter, you should aim for the subject specific language proficiency. Either the person should be qualified in the given field or must be experienced in the given area for satisfactory results. Professionally qualified interpreters are trained on various subjects to take up any interpreting job efficiently.
Sensory Skills – Language is not always spoken in words, there are many body signals involved too! A blink of an eye, movement of the head, sparkle in the eye, and smile on the face may also talk along with words. The interpreter is the one who understands both verbal and non-verbal expressions proficiently to convey the exact meaning. Motor skills, cognitive skills, and sensory skills are as important as the lingual skills. Experience and skills would ensure that the interpreter would read exactly what is being said and translate the same in another language to convey the same to the other party.
Patient but Swift – These two qualities may be contradictory in nature, but good interpreter should have both. As an interpreter, you would come across various kinds of speakers. Some would use foreign accents that are difficult to interpret, while some others may have typical speaking habits that would call for lots of patience from interpreter’s side to keep up with the flow. At the same time, the interpreter’s job requires real time translation done swiftly. The speaker would not change his speaking pattern according to the interpreter’s pace, hence it is interpreter’s job to match his interpreting pace with speaker.
Elaborate Multilingual Vocabulary – Extensive vocabulary of the language makes interpretation easier. No time is lost in finding the right words for interpretation and hence there are no pauses involved in the interpretation. Good knowledge of words, jargons, and abbreviations would make this real-time translation job easier. When the correct meaning is known, there are lower chances of error and that is quite an important quality of interpreter.
These 5 qualities are important for the professional interpreter and compromising on any of these qualities would result into poor interpretation. When you hire the services of professional interpreter, you can be sure of getting all these qualities for efficient interpretation. Interpretation service providers work with the team of interpreters proficient in various areas to ensure flawless interpretation.
