Common Mistakes when Interpreting

Interpreters have to be very careful when are re-expressing the message in another language. Confussion and malinterpretations can occur and have severe consequences.

For example this video:
If you are describing pain or symptom to a doctor, the interpret cannot "summarize" the state of the patient. This can cause that the doctor have a prognosis to another condition or disease. Also, you as an interpreter, even if you know the patient or the doctor, you cannot answer as if you know the answer, even if you do. You have to interpret everything both people are saying to be clear in the statement.

Links:

Top 5 Mistakes When Interpreting

How to Avoid Mistakes in Medical Interpreting

Nine common errors when Interpreting Biblical Narratives

Over the phone Interpretation

Over the phone or Telephone Interpretation is a type of consecutive interpretation in which two people who speak different language are talking through  a third person who listens first one person and waits until he/she finishes the phrase or statement and then translate it to the second person and vice versa.

This is often used to provide costumer services, healthcare or public safety. United States uses this type of interpretation for federal courts.

Videos and links:

Over the Phone Interpretation (OPI) 

Over the Phone Interpreting

Over the Phone Interpretation Services

Optimal Phone Interpreters 

Medical Interpretation

One of the largest fields to interpret and translate is the Medical. In Panama, they have created a Medical Tourism system, in which a patient can come to the country and have surgery and stay to recover. This is where interpreters enter.

It is important that Interpreters know the correct medical terms in both languages, because the prognose can change according to what you are stating a patient has. A mistake can be fatal in some cases. Interpreters must perform an accurate interpretation.


Videos and links:

Health Care Interpreter

Medical Interpreter Career Profile

The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters

Judicial/Legal Interpretation

Every field, whether if it is medical, financial, business, etc., have their own jargon and technical terms. It is important that interpreters keep in mind that some combination of words might mean something entirely different according to the study or word fields.

Judicial and Legal is one of those fields. Interpreters must re-express the message clearly to avoid further malinterpretations, for example, from juries or judges in a testimony.

Videos and links:

Intertranslations: Legal and Judicial Translations

Court Interpreter - State of Connecticut Judicial Branch

All you need to know about Legal Translation

Difficulties Faced in Legal Document Translation

Short term memory

Interpreters must have a well-trained short term memory to retain important details like, name, places, dates, among others, to re-express the message in the second language. In order to develop it, there are several techniques and exercises that can be done. 

Short-term memory, also known as primary or active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about.



Videos and links:

Memory Training in Interpreting

Memory and Interpreting

Escort Interpretating

Interpreting has many branches in which you can work. Escort Interpreting is one of them. Escort interpreters should now not only about the target language, but also about the culture of the client. It is very important to understand the culture and customs in order to do the interpretations with trust, and professionalism.

In escort interpreting, the interpreter is there to interpret (or orally translate) everything that a client says into the target language and also to interpret everything else that is said from that foreign language into the client’s language. In other words, the escort interpreter is there to make sure both the client and those around the client understand everything that is communicated.


Videos and links:


What is Escort Interpreting?


Escort Interpreting

False Cognate

Has it ever happened to you that, you tend to take a word in one language and "translate" it into the second language, it may sound "right" but the word might not even exist in the second language?
That is false cognate!

A short anecdote: I say in English "I realized it was Saturday" and it is okay, but sometimes I found myself talking and saying in Spanish "yo realicé que es sábado".
Realizar in Spanish is to do or make something, but in English realize is to become aware of. The correct way is to say "me di cuenta" instead of "realicé", because it does not make any sense in Spanish.

False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are unrelated.

Interpreters must be aware of this condition, even though is something common for ESL students and people who study more than one language, in order to not do these mistakes.

Videos and links:

False Cognates

40 Falsos Cognados (page in Spanish)

Top 20 False Cognates for ESL students

Note Taking

Interpreters can use a very useful tool, which is note taking. In this way, interpreters can take notes or words and link them in order to re-express the idea in the target language.
Sometimes this is not an easy task to everyone, because it requires excellent concentration and link between writing, understanding and listening.
For me, note taking is one more tool. It helps in certain situations (for example, using an specific vocabulare area such as medical or finantial), to have a "smoother" experience.
There are different ways in which you can learn note taking, you can use the symbols that already exists, or you can create your own system.

Video and links to understand more about note taking:

NOTE TAKING IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING

Note taking