3 tips to work with interpreters when you like to speak fast

I’ll start with a personal anecdote: a few years ago I told my monolingual mother to speak more slowly to my foreign friends in Portuguese. She said she would, but guess what? She didn’t. And it wasn’t through unkindness; it’s just her personality. To her, speaking slowly means she is not quite herself.

So let’s face it: you have promised to slow down, but will not speak more slowly. Why? Because it’s just not who you are. Now that we are being honest about it, let’s see what we can do so you won’t get lost in translation and your interpreter won’t be awfully drained after your speech.

Fillers galore!

The best way to get your interpreter to follow you without anything being lost is, of course, being cohesive, right? So why use more fillers? Well, because that creates what we call “space”. Every time you say things like “as I said before”, “I think”, In my view”, “As we have already covered” or if you repeat the same subject and verb a few times, you give us a split second to think and/or to add more content. That means if you are a supersonic speaker we will be able to catch up.

Things to avoid

• Listing items at the speed of light

  Does every single item on your list matter to you? Do you want ALL of them interpreted? Then try using your hands when listing them. Every time you mention an item, publicly use the index finger of dominant hand to count them on your fingers on your other hand. This will slow you down a bit and give your interpreter a split second to think.

• Forgetting your acronyms might not be common knowledge

  Not everyone from other countries knows the acronyms you use on a daily basis. Don’t assume your audience or interpreters will know them, especially if you haven’t sent study materials in advance. When mentioning an acronym for the first time, also say what they mean and don’t be too reliant on the fact that in English you have a sequence of identical starting letters.

• Sentences within sentences (aka dependent clauses)

  You know when you start saying something, then you add something in the middle, then you finish what you started to say? Yeah, that’s a nightmare and may result in inaccuracies or information being left out. If you can, try speaking in shorter, more cohesive sentences and keep digressions to a minimum.

• Metaphors, sayings, expressions and wordplay

  These are often Culture Specific Items, which means they are untranslatable. Drop them if you can. Unless you belong to that culture, some or all of it will be lost. I have had instances where clients wanted to use a metaphor or a play with words and then relate it to the rest of the content of their presentation. However, that only worked in English, which meant the whole thing because tricky to interpret. And I dare say: the English speakers who were less advanced struggled to follow the English references too.

• Assuming everyone understands the names you are pronouncing

  It is so inefficient to quickly say proper nouns! Your interpreter might have never heard those words before, or they might not understand your accent if you are pronouncing a foreign name in your accent. I once had an assignment where a British person kept bringing up someone called Abreu and someone called Abraão. It was tough to figure out which one was being mentioned. Going slow on names helps a lot. If you have slides, try adding them as well.

Numbers and dates

Pronounce them slowly, show them in writing, allow people to take them in. The quicker you go, the less the results you desire will be produced. Speak slowly, enunciate.

I hope this helps!

When reading

Provide interpreters with a copy of what you will read. This will enable them to sight-translate and be almost as fast as you. And beware: different languages have different pacing and intonation and the interpreter requires a bit of space to reproduce that. If you want more intonation and feelings, I’m afraid you will need to go a bit more slowly.

I hope this helps.