Interpretation at the Seminar and Conference
You are going to take part in a seminar or conference abroad. And the working language of the conference is, say, English, German or French. And you don’t speak any of them well enough to do without the services of a translator.
First option: you are flying to a seminar or conference as a participant and you need a translator. If you are not going to make a presentation from the podium and sit and listen in the hall throughout the conference, then the interpreter you invited will interpret only for you personally (except for those cases when you want to ask a question or make a short comment from the seat).
In order not to disturb other participants in the seminar or conference, the interpreter will quietly whisper the translation into your ear. This type of translation is also called “chuchoutage”.
The second option: you fly to a seminar or conference as one of the speakers who has been allocated some time.
The translator you invite, as in the first option, will whisper the translation in your ear for most of the seminar or conference, using “chuchoutage”.
But in this case, the most crucial moment is translating your speech to everyone in the audience. Depending on the size of the room, the acoustics and the number of participants, this may be a speech from the podium using a microphone or simply speaking in a loud voice without any technical means.
The translator usually stands nearby during the translation so that he can not only clearly hear every word you say, but, if necessary, also have the opportunity to ask something back. Ideal when there are microphones. Even if the room is not too big. Then neither you nor the translator will have to strain your voice too much. And listeners will hear everything equally well even in the last row.
To successfully interpret a seminar or conference, a strong consecutive interpreter is needed. A weaker and less experienced person will take much longer to translate. And there is usually not enough time at conferences.
A pure interpreter who rarely translates consistently will find it difficult to memorize and translate large passages from memory.
In any case, when translating a seminar or conference, successful translation is usually impossible without a good knowledge of the relevant topics and terms by the translator. If the topic is unfamiliar to the translator, he/she will need additional time to prepare.
When translating a speech, the appearance of the translator is important. This has a lot in common with translating a presentation.