Simultaneous interpreting

There is a common fallacy that simultaneous interpreting is just another name for interpreting. However, simultaneous and consecutive interpreting are two different types of interpreting. Keep reading to find out what simultaneous interpreting actually entails.

Simultaneous actually means at the same time—the speaker and interpreter talk at the same time, which is not the case with consecutive interpreting, which involves turn-taking.

However, the word ‘simultaneous’ should not be taken literally, since the speaker is always ahead of the interpreter. What does this mean? In order to start with their translation, the interpreter must allow the speaker to talk for a while to secure enough material to be translated. Usually, a single clause would suffice.

Spoken language is notorious for its long and complex sentences, full of digressions and filler words. It is also not uncommon for the speaker to change their mind and simply give up on the original beginning of the sentence, and finish it in a totally unpredictable way. This unpredictability is the exact reason why the simultaneous interpreter should aim for simple sentences in their translation, and the way to achieve this is by dividing a long, complex text into short clauses. This is called the salami technique, because the text is sliced like salami.

Simultaneous interpreting requires the interpreter to translate the spoken source text, while at the same time ensuring the target word choice and grammar are correct and listening to the source text they are yet to translate and keeping it in their short-term memory until the translation of the previous segment is done. Since this is a complex and tiring task, the industry standards require pair work, where two interpreters alternate every 30 minutes.

As is the case with consecutive interpreting, here too the interpreter strives to produce a digest by making a decision on which information is relevant and which can be left out, so that they can keep up with the speaker. To complicate matters further, the spoken source text can also include jokes, culture-specific words, and other words with no readily available equivalent in the target language, making the interpreter resort to descriptive translation, which compromises the economy of words.

Due to its complex and specific nature, simultaneous interpreting usually requires employment of additional equipment—an interpreter booth, headphones, and a microphone. This ensures that all outside noises are blocked, allowing the interpreter to direct their undivided attention to the speaker, with the headphones covering only one ear that listens to the speaker, while the other one is busy checking their own output is correct. It is also worth mentioning that, if clients want to hire us for this type of service, it is their responsibility to procure this equipment.

Alternatively, the interpreter can perform chuchotage, which is French for ‘whispering’, where the interpreter sits by the listener without any equipment and whispers the translation in their ear. This type of simultaneous interpreting is common in court and at meetings.

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