At translation companies, project managers can become interpreters’ indispensable lifesavers. A big part of the organizational issues falls on their shoulders, allowing linguists to focus on the translation process. After all, interpreters are humans too. They are no androids always prepared for everything, with an onboard computer instead of their head.
In one of our previous articles, we went into the skills an interpreter should have. Today, we will focus on additional points that help linguists complete their work successfully.
In order for the event to go smoothly and for the customer to be satisfied, the manager and the interpreter work together. The preparations go through several stages.
First, all the details of a request are discussed, such as language pair, topic, nature of the event and number of participants, type of interpretation that is needed (simultaneous, consecutive, whispering), date and venue, working hours, equipment, payment, and compensations (if needed).
After the conditions are agreed upon and the contract is signed, the manager continues collecting information for the interpreter. The more linguists know, the more they are prepared! It may seem obvious, but that’s exactly the reason why people keep forgetting crucial things like these. The event program, schedule, speeches, and presentations of the participants – everything that helps immerse in the context. We recommend taking care of all available information two weeks before the event so that the interpreter has time for good preparation.
Also, a face-to-face or online meeting helps establish contact between the client and the interpreter, and discuss the upcoming project once again.
On the day of the event, the manager has to check equipment – either at a venue or during a test online conference – and notify the interpreter of all changes in the program.
Of course, these steps will not prevent all the possible failures that may occur at an international event, but they will significantly increase the chance of success. The managers are the interpreters’ trusted partners. Therefore, please be ready to keep answering their questions all the way to the event if you are its organizer, or make sure to collect information thoroughly and provide reliable support if you are a project manager yourself.
For more details, please check out the source article on the topic here.
We have had the pleasure of working with Elena and her team at Lingvista for the past 2+ years on projects including written translation, consecutive and simultaneous interpretation from English to Russian...
