Professional language translation and interpretation can be an extremely important part of your company: affecting employment, work culture, and your business’s bottom line. An important part of the language translation process is making sure your employees receive professional interpretation from a non-biased third party. At Your Language Connection, we provide experienced and well-trained staff who translate appropriately, accurately and efficiently.
Here are some of our top dos and do-nots that we teach to our staff.
DO:
- Maintain Neutrality at all times.
- Introduce yourself as the interpreter.
- Disclose if you are acquainted with, friends, or related to the client.
- Interpret in the first person.
- Interpret everything faithfully and accurately and at all times.
- Maintain confidentiality at all times.
- Ask for repetition if you did not hear a term or statement.
- Maintain a professional and respectful relationship and demeanor with all the
parties.
DON’T:
- DON’T accept an assignment if you know that you cannot
remain neutral with regard to the subject matter. - DON’T give advice, explanations, opinions (cultural or
otherwise), or engage in private conversations with the
client. - DON’T try to solve the problems yourself.
- DON’T take it upon yourself to respond on behalf of the
client, but rather limit yourself to interpreting what the client
says. - DON’T preface your interpretation with “She said or he said.”
- DON’T summarize, explain, paraphrase, clean up, change,
or simplify statements made by any of the participants. - DON’T speak with anyone about a situation for which you
are, or have been, the interpreter. - DON’T try to guess what was said if you did not hear or
understand a term or concept. - DON’T help the client make any decisions.
**Food for thought: Do you have a way to measure and verify your current means of translation and interpretation? Do you have a program to train the bilingual employees you use for interpretation and translation? If not, contact us for information about our services.**