With events and meetings drawing from around the world, you might soon find yourself struggling to find the best approach for translating a presentation into various languages. Our sister publications group, MeetingsNet, recently took a look at this challenging topic:
Let’s look at the two types of interpretation encountered during meetings: consecutive and simultaneous. During consecutive translation, a speaker presents for a few minutes or until they have completed a thought; the speaker will then pause while the interpreter relays the information to the crowd. Think safety announcements during international flights. Consecutive translation is likely only conducive to one other language and can double the length of the meeting.
Most planners will use simultaneous translation instead. As happens during a United Nations meeting, during simultaneous interpretation, a presenter will continue the meeting while interpreters, usually seated in a booth in the rear of the room, will interpret in real time to attendees wearing earpieces. As you can imagine, this is a more difficult task than consecutive interpretation. An interpreter is concurrently receiving information, processing its meaning, translating it, and relaying it to attendees. Due to this fact and the need for … MeetingsNet
