How to NOT get lost in translation

17 Aug

Let me start this post by telling you that, yes, interpreters have whole categories of people who are difficult to interpret for. And no, you don’t want to (or have to) be one of them. We also have settings, particularly with remote/hybrid events, which don’t exactly help. So it may not even be your fault even if you are the difficult one in the room.

In this post, I provide a few tips on how you can make sure all your message is passed clearly and fully to the non-English speaker who (very likely) needs you and is in a vulnerable situation.

The role of the interpreter

We are in charge of being a bridge between cultures and the language gap. We are not in charge of doing your presentation for you or quickly trying to repeat everything you are reading at supersonic speed or know by heart. We need to be as faithful and accurate as possible, but also constantly improvise.

Summaries

In conferences, we will summarise and leave out information if you go too fast, but we must not do that in settings like court and police. Therefore, you will be interrupted. If you have taken notes at meetings and compared them with other attendees’ before you probably know summaries are never identical; we all tend to jot down what we find most important. By having someone else summarise, you run the risk of things you find important not being said. A few tips to avoid having the repeat yourself in court or having a summary in conferences:

Provide slides and reading materials in advance
Go slowly with the items on your list
If you tend to speak fast, use fillers like “As I have said before”, “I think”, In my view”. We generally leave these out and use the space created to add more.
If you have a presentation about numbers, add them to the slides
When reading, control yourself and take a breath between sentences. Also, make sure the interpreter has a copy of your text.
With bios at a conference, add pictures of the speakers and their names and titles.
Acronyms should have their full-version in brackets.
Please be mindful your audience might not know English names so go slowly when pronouncing them.
Long, complex sentences pose an extra challenge

If you allow enough time and long enough pauses, interpreters will do a much better job. Building rapport with us is also of the utmost importance, yes, but the hard work is mostly on you, the ones who hold all the power. Yes, power. Language is power and you are disproportionally more powerful when you are speaking yours.

The setting

Some settings make interpreting really hard.

Quite a few conference venues do not provide a comfortable setting for us. That makes it quite a challenge even for someone who speaks the language to hear what is being said. In a conference setting:

Interpreters should be placed somewhere they can see the speakers. If that’s not possible, then the ideal thing to do is to provide them with a monitor. Seeing who we are interpreting also enhances the quality of our work.
If you play a video, try sharing it with the interpreter in advance and have the volume high enough.

Please be aware that if your event is face-to-face, it may be trickier than you think to add someone remotely because the sound quality may not be good enough for the interpreter to hear, and there may be feedback if interpreters are using equipment and connect via Zoom. It can be really tiring to connect remotely and face-to-face as we will be hearing. Make sure this is well-organised,

When working remotely, make sure you have a decent enough connected that you use a headset and microphone.

It can be quite tricky for the interpreter to interrupt you during a online discussion when simultaneous interpreting is not an option. I find, as the interpreter, it might work out really well to make suggestions on turn-taking right off at the beginning. Regardless of that, remember: you hold the power. You speak the language. It is your personality, not the interpreter’s, that needs to show itself in the discussion. We are facilitators, not bosses.

Ask your participants to write their names and roles/jobs on their video. And if you’re doing a round of introductions, make sure you start with the interpreter and ask them to set the tone on turn-taking.

Mind your multi-person discussions

If you have one person with limited English proficiency

Face-to-face: make sure the interpreter sits close enough to whisper what other people are saying to one another. You may use tour guides for increased comfort and less intrusiveness.
Remotely: If you can, use the paid version of Zoom to allow interpretation. Otherwise, have the interpreter and client join from a second device.

If you have more than one person with limited English proficiency

Face-to-face: You will not be able to get whispered interpreting for all of them, so it is recommended to use a tour guide set or interpret consecutively.
Remotely: If you can, use the paid version of Zoom to allow interpretation. Otherwise, have the interpreter and client join from a second device.

Consecutive interpreting do’s and don’ts

Break down information into smaller chunks, but always make sure you close an idea before pausing

DON’T

Pause before finishing a sentence. It makes it difficult for people to follow in both languages

Make sure the interpreter gets space to repeat what someone has just said

DON’T

Pause before finishing a sentence. It makes it difficult for people to follow in both languages

Start a discussion with someone else in the meeting without telling through the interpreter that you are arranging X and that does not need to be interpreted. You may say you are now going to quickly deliberate on X and one of you will provide the final summary so the interpreter can let them know. This is a simple, yet vital thing to do in contexts where the non-English speaker needs to be held accountable and/or feel empowered. Additionally, it is a great way to make others feel less left out. If you have got someone who needs to feel like they belong, avoid long turns. Believe me, people will space out even when they are hearing their own mother tongue.

Turn-taking

Some people’s minds tend to travel quite quickly. The thing is, you want the other person/people to follow you. The main issue with that is many times people who think quickly tend to also compile quite a lot when they speak and some want to barge in when they shouldn’t. Please don't.

If you hear something you want to comment on, you may take notes and you have to wait for your turn to speak. Turn-taking is essential in normal conversations; in an interpreted one it is even more so. If you have a client who does that, make sure the interpreter can whisper what they are saying to you so you know when to interrupt them
Avoid asking more than one question one one go if you can.
Avoid asking a question and then speaking for a long stretch of time right after
If you’re negotiating or trying to understand something, avoid long turns. The other party will have unanswered questions and you will have to go back. Or even worse: the feeling of powerlessness of sitting through lengthy nonsensical sounds being uttered might leave the other party feeling excluded and shy about asking questions.

Be objective

Set out a clear agenda for yourselfIf you are one of those people who talk about several different things at the same time, you might be difficult to keep with even in your first language. Being interpreted means a lot of what is on your mind and doesn’t get said, but you will require a third party to get that out and then passed on to someone else. I often find the most difficult people to interpret for are those who don’t set out a clear agenda of what they want to say, or people who want to discuss multiple concerns and issues at the same time. The interpreter can not help you with that.
Lists should never consist of more than three items in one go. (That I learned from being a teacher by the way; parents of small children might have come to the same realisation).
Avoid asking more than one thing in the same question, or asking a question and then explaining something right after, before you get a response. The other party will be confused even if you do that in their first language. Those who do not formulate questions in a way that will get them the answers they need are often a handful to interact with and translate for. If you want people to be objective in their answers, guide them. You may want to specify how you want your questions to be answered. Do not get frustrated if they start rambling because you didn’t tell them all you required was yes or no, or one-line responses.

Numbers, names and dates

Be clear and calm on your numbers
Does that person need to pay for something? Is it a fine? Is there a surcharge to that? Do you want to break down costs for them? Are you trying to ascertain when something serious happened? Is them knowing someone’s name or the name of a street important? Well, make sure you chunk these up slowly to avoid misunderstandings.
Go slow on dates, deadlines, costs. It is considerate. And kind. And effective. They might need a second to even handle the emotions of going through that. Or to work out the maths. It’s not just about language in itself, you know. Much of what gets lost in translation would get lost in monolingual interactions too.
The same goes for names. The non-English speaker might pronounce names incorrectly, which means they might not understand your pronunciation and you theirs. For British addresses, I always recommend starting off with the postcode. Spelling words helps a lot. And please, if you are hearing a non-English name, do not assume you know what the spelling is going to be.

Mind your language

Flowery language is beautiful. Idioms and expressions are wonderful. Ahhh Shakespeare! I remember when my mother once told an American friend who had been learning Portuguese that he should heat his head not fool, esquentar a cabeça não bobo in our beautiful regional dialect. That was an easy one. I quickly told him she didn't want him to worry. But then I also had a speaker once at a legal conference who spoke mostly in rhymes and alliterations. Brilliantly pedantic! And also certainly not tailored for an international audience. Or the acronyms that do not translate as the words do not start with the same letter in the target language.

Sometimes, as rich as things like that may seem and sound, and as clever as you will come across to other English speakers, they are untranslatable and if you ask any multilingual person they will tell you about the pain of having the perfect word in one language but not in another.

Use objective language, speak plainly and simply. Avoid playing too much with words or using terms that are too regional. Or do so at your peril. I would personally recommend leaving the jargons and legalese to a different occasion.
Please beware of the fact you are not talking to the interpreter; we are just a bridge.
Still on the topic of language, mind how you behave, as that’s also part of communication. It might be uncomfortable to be trying to talk to someone whose language you don’t know, yes. But some people also tend to not look at each other and address the other party in the third person. Don’t do that. They are right there speaking to you. They are all ears. I try as much as I can to make people aware they should speak in the first person, and that they should look at each other. It might be awkward at first, but it works much better and I know that. I will always translate in the first person anyway. This builds rapport. This bridges the biggest gap which is the canyon where fear blends in with isolation.

So here’s the final tip: body language is also something we read and it often matters much more than we care to acknowledge. So at the risk of being cheesy: actions speak louder than words. Remember that!

Good luck!

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