What is interpreting?


Skilled, trained interpreters provide a bridge between participants in some type of interaction where not everyone speaks a common language. It might be a doctor consulting a patient; an academic delivering a paper; a well-known identity facing a press conference. Through the interpreter, knowledge and understanding are achieved as the message gets through and barriers are removed.

Interpreting, simply defined, is the rendering of a speaker's words into another language, conveying the meaning through appropriate word choice. The interpreting may be consecutive - the speaker speaks then pauses for the interpreter to interpret; or simultaneous - where interpreters work in teams with the use of headphones and sound-proof booths, as occurs in the United Nations, for example.