Interpreting is more than just rendering words from one language to another. Instead, it’s like seeing the world through new eyes, requiring you to have a strong grasp of cultural nuances in both languages and being able to convey them instantly.
❔ How important is intuitive sensitivity when interpreting?
At conferences, interpreting teams pick up on the mood and non-verbal communication in the moment and can react appropriately.
❔ Does the underlying message need to be present in the interpretation, or does this risk compromising the interpreter’s objectivity?
When passionate speakers or presenters give an emotional speech, interpreters mirror that energy and adopt the same tone as the speaker.
❔ Doesn’t the monotone computer voice of a machine interpreter actually encourage people to focus on the content?
We naturally recognise idiomatic expressions, anecdotes, indirect references and jokes in our native language – and human teams are equally familiar with them in the language being interpreted.
❔Can’t we teach AI to do that?
Presentations are rarely delivered in formal written language and dialects can be a real challenge, even for the best interpreters.
❔ Don’t speakers want to avoid dialects?
Meetings and negotiations often involve discussions, ideas are developed on the fly as people speak and sentences are not fully formed. This all happens quite regularly. Our teams are familiar with this and can complete sentences, add missing verbs or insert references that were left out in the heat of the moment.
❔ Should a machine interpreter be able to infer the missing part of the sentence just as the professionals do?
During panel discussions with different speakers taking turns, human interpreters often have to work at high speed so they may omit filler words to avoid falling behind.
❔ Is human interpretation delayed?
Much of the content in speeches and presentations is strictly confidential. Our teams are trained to respect confidentiality and follow ethical guidelines. For sensitive topics (legal, medical, business contexts), human interpreters are the best choice.
❔ Should we be worried about data breaches and the risks posed by AI platforms?
People don’t interpret according to algorithms – they do it with care and understanding. They don’t provide a word-for-word interpretation, but skilfully reformulate the sentences to sound natural in the target language.
❔ Wouldn’t it be better to follow the spoken word to the letter?
What we think
AI interpretation is a spin-off from machine translation and is basically a spoken translation. A machine translation is usually proofread by a human translator in a process known as post-editing. That is not possible with the spoken word. Therefore, we are convinced that the use of human interpreter teams is a much more effective choice than AI – despite the significantly higher costs associated with it.
Our clients decide – we adapt to your needs and your budget, and are happy to advise you.
And last but not least – even the tech companies developing AI use human interpreters for their most important events!
