Modes of Interpreting

There are two types of interpreting: consecutive and simultaneous. Simultaneous interpretation requires the interpreter to listen and speak at the same time. The interpreter begins to convey into a target language a sentence being spoken in the source language while the speaker is still talking and usually with only a brief lagging period between the speaker and the interpreter.

One of the key skills of the simultaneous interpreter is decisiveness: there is simply no time to weigh the merits of variant translations or to recall just the right idiom in the target language. Any delay in the interpreter’s rendition may cause him to lose a few words (and possibly an important thought). Since the speaker may be far away or even in a different room than the interpreter, this loss can be significant. Simultaneous interpreting requires a high level of concentration; interpreters usually work in teams of 2 and they alternate every 30 minutes.

During consecutive interpreting the speaker stops every 1-5 minutes (usually at the end of every "sentence" or complete thought) and the interpreter then steps in to render what was said into the target language. A key skill involved in consecutive interpreting is good note-taking, since few interpreters can memorize long sentences at a time without loss of detail. There is no generic training program or certification test in the United States that prepares and validates all interpreters for all venues. Training is available through various programs for different types of interpreters and there are tests that apply to different interpreting institutions.