9 Awesome Tips for Using Over-the-Phone Interpreters

In business, things happen fast. You could not get a hold of your partner in Hong Kong for a week but now they are here, available and ready to sit down for a quick meeting. It is too late to call an interpreter to come to the office and things are definitely way too important to let your distributor interpret during this particular meeting.

There is something you can definitely do, though – arrange for an Over the Phone (OPI) interpreter. You will eliminate travel time needed for an in-person service and for most business meeting scenarios, OPI works very well.

Working with an OPI interpreter is usually easy but there are a few things that deserve special attention. Here they are:

1. Location. Arrange for the meeting to take place in an enclosed room, preferably with a conference telephone (speakerphone).

2. Noise. Take great care to eliminate background noise. If other people are present, ask them to be quiet. Ambient noise can be very distracting to the interpreter and prevent them from doing their job properly.

3. Use of speakerphone. After you establish connection with the interpreter, let him/her know how many people are in the room and whether or not you will be using a speakerphone.

4. Introductions. Introduce everyone in the room to the interpreter so he/she can write down their names since they will likely be used later in the conversation.

5. Mode of interpreting. The interpreting will be conducted in the consecutive mode, meaning that the interpreter listens to the speaker and after that interprets what was said to the listener. Please, make sure the increments of speech for interpretation are no longer than about 2-3 sentences.

6. First person. Speak in the first person only – i.e. do not say “Interpreter, ask Mr. XY how he is doing today” but instead say “Mr. XY, how are you doing today?” If your client says “I don’t know”, that is exactly what the interpreter will say.

7. One at a time. Make sure only one person in the rooms talks at any given time.

8. Description. Bear in mind the interpreter cannot see visual aids, paperwork, etc. If you are using those, describe them to the interpreter.

9. Slow reading. If reading written passages, do so slowly. When reading, people to speed up their speech, making it difficult for the interpreter to follow.

Most interpreters readily subscribe to the strictest standards of confidentiality and ethics used in our profession but it never hurts to state your expectations at the beginning of the meeting.
Also keep in mind that a big part of every conversation is non-verbal. Not seeing the people in the room and not being able to see what they are looking at makes the OPI interpreter’s job more difficult, in a way. Anything you can do to help the interpreter see what you see will be much appreciated and will, in turn, help make your event a success.

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