For any consecutive interpreter, fast-paced environments are a daily encounter. Working in courts, hospitals, or community settings, the interpreter gains important skills, becoming increasingly resourceful in times of stress. Their training prepares them for many future settings. Nevertheless, a consecutive interpreter should also can slow down in order to break down difficult concepts for certain patients. One example is when interpreters are hired to translate for children. Certainly, every professional uses a lower register when speaking to a child. However, the challenge lies in expressing the ideas of a child. Especially in healthcare settings, it’s important for the interpreter to grasp the whole message in the sense it was expressed.
Some of the main factors affecting a professional’s understanding of what a child says can be physical, like a speech impediment or a craniofacial abnormality. On the other hand, it may be due to an array of behavioral or psychological factors such as: crankiness, willingness to talk, mumbling, emotions, or trauma. Comparatively speaking, conference interpreting might seem like a walk in the park. Children are fickle and may not have the tools to verbally explain what they are feeling, not to mention that they’re likely to feel confused or even overwhelmed when relying on consecutive interpreting services. Considering all of this, one of the most important characteristics for any interpreter is the ability to remain calm, empathetic and understanding.
When working with children, language service companies must assign a company interpreter that has experience providing consecutive interpreting services for children since there are different techniques. These include:
1. When communicating with a child in the 2nd person, the interpreter should use the informal pronoun rather than the formal. For example, in Spanish a child would be addressed as “tú” vs the formal “usted” used for adults
2. Normally, consecutive interpreting services require the interpreter to render the message in 1st person. However, saying “I” to another person is an abstraction for most children. For this reason, it is recommended that the interpreter use the 3rd person in healthcare translation for the child to clearly understand who has said what.
3. Lastly, when working with children, the only option is to provide consecutive interpreting for life sciences translation. It is highly unlikely that a child can handle listening to two people talk at the same time. Oftentimes, it can be confusing for the child and it may cause them to become agitated.
About Language Connections:
Language Connections is one of the top language service companies in the US. Over the last 30 years, we’ve focused on providing the best business translation services, interpreting services, as well as interpreter training and customized language training programs. In addition to top-tier corporate language training, we offer certified corporate interpreters and professional business translation services in 200+ languages. Our network includes linguists with backgrounds in all major industries. They’re ready to meet your needs, whether they’re for technical translation services, legal translation, government translation services, international development translation services, education translation services, life sciences translation, or something else. Reach out to us today for a free quote on our cost-efficient and timely translation services, interpreters, or other linguistic services.
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