Precautions to take at a meeting with consecutive interpretation

Often, due to the nature or logistics of the meeting, it is not possible to justify simultaneous interpreting, so it is suitable to hire a consecutive interpreting service. 

What is the difference between the two? As the name suggests, in former case, the words are translated as they are spoken; in the latter, the interpreter waits for the speaker to stop before interpreting. The speaker begins speaking again, pausing along the way to allow the interpreter to do their job.

The nature of this service requires some care to be taken:

  • the interventions must be short and precise: the interpreter will take notes and then summarise what was said. Very long discourses, with ideas that are not very clear, will make it difficult to transmit the message;

  • special care must be taken with time management at the meeting: the pauses for translation will take up almost the same amount of time as the original intervention, so this should be taken into account when planning the meeting;

  • the documentation used at the meeting must be made available to the interpreter beforehand: the better prepared the interpreter is, the better their performance will be. Understanding what is at stake is vital if the message is to be conveyed well;

Traductanet can help advise you on the service best suited for your meeting. Ask us for a quote

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