The difference between success and failure for Australian trainers and consultants working in non-English speaking countries often depends upon the working relationship they have with their interpreters and translators. This applies to aid projects, training for multi nationals and general business activities. It applies equally to developed and undeveloped countries, to poor rural areas and modern city environments.

 

Interpreters become the link between consultants and their clients and will be, in many cases, the single most important person with whom they will work. Even those consultants who have a working knowledge of the local language will find their words interpreted for them (sometimes without their knowledge) when accents or nuances of meanings are an issue.

 

Your interpreter certainly becomes your mouth and your ears but they also often act as your eyes, interpreting behaviours and activities that appear bewildering or even discourteous to westerners. If you treat your interpreter well they will be likely to contribute more than they are paid. But it is not uncommon to see consultants treat interpreters with disdain or arrogance and then not get the results they want and, of course, blame the quality of interpretation for poor work outcomes. If unhappy with their employment interpreters may leave at short notice for a higher paying employer or may take the side of the locals in negotiations (which the consultant may never know). Your interpreter will probably know the best and cleanest hotels, bars, markets and restaurants (even if they are owned by relatives!), the best travel routes, where to go for a weekend, where to change money at the best rates, and places where some English is spoken. They may also protect you from beggars, money changers, prostitutes and sexual harassment, corruption and attempts at bribery and from dangerous places and dangerous people.

 

They can also protect you from the killing hospitality that occurs in most countries. They may advise you how to eat and drink enough so as not to offend hosts but how to somehow stay sober and sated rather than bursting with food and alcohol.

 

There are many examples of consultants losing time, money, credibility and contracts because they cannot get their point across in discussions or because they are misunderstood and the audience gets the wrong message. Sometimes the client will do the opposite of what is required or will assume one thing or act on an instruction that is wrongly interpreted. There are many examples of people losing time and money and in the worst case being injured as a result of a misunderstanding due to poor interpretation and translation.

 

These misunderstandings can be limited and valuable time can be better utilised by knowing how to use and work with an interpreter.

 

The situations where the use of an interpreter is essential includes:

 

 

 A poorly skilled or corrupt interpreter can make consultancy very difficult, if not impossible, and give a consult an undesirable reputation as well as make your stay in another country a nightmare – a highly skilled but poorly managed interpreter can do the same thing. If you follow the tips in this article you can make better use of interpreters skills and increase the chance of successful business - and pleasure – in other countries.

 

The difference between an interpreter and a translator is that the former operates verbally and the latter in writing, for the purpose of this paper I will use the term interpreter to cover both roles unless otherwise stated.

 

Select the best interpreter you can or at least understand the skills of any interpreter allocated to you 

You will often have an interpreter assigned to you by a client but sometimes you will be in the position of selecting your own.

 

Develop a rapport with your interpreter and have them understand your accent 

Spend time with your interpreter so that he/she gets used to your terminology and your accent. The interpreter may not have experience with your area of expertise or may feel nervous about dealing with new technical terms. Interpreters maybe reluctant to let on that they cannot understand your accent due to loss of face or income. Also, depending on the country, some interpreters are trained on American or English accents and need time to get used to the Australian accent. (The question “how many people will attend the workshop?’ created great angst in one planning session as for over 5 minutes the interpreter tried to find out what a ‘pipple’ was, the trainer struggled to say people without an Aussie accent but in the end changed the word to persons.) 

 

The best way to do this is to spend some time “getting to know each other” before you start the actual work. Let them know what you will be discussing at meetings and what you expect to achieve at the end of the consultancy. Provide a copy of any information that might prove useful. To test and improve their understanding of your English a general conversation about families, education, homelife etc may give a chance to ask questions, clarify answers and also discover something each others customs and backgrounds. Let them know that it is OK to stop and clarify words and that you understand that Australian can be a difficult accent. Put them at ease, remember that the aim is to achieve quality communications not perfect grammar and syntax. (The interesting thing is that most interpreters understand the structure of English better than most Australians, after all they learnt it at school and university, most of us learnt it mainly from our Mothers and families).

 

Test your interpreter’s skills  

This can be done by asking them to translate some simple text, especially with numbers. This will give you an opportunity to see how long their translating takes and, where possible, to double check with other interpreters or interpretation that might be available. One example of the problems that come from poor interpretation and translation is the situation where a particular interpreter (normally with good skills) was interpreting 10,000 as 1,000 which created confusion for the trainer understanding a groups response to developing assistance for retrenched workers. Similar examples exist for assessment of company profits and losses, budget preparation and negotiating pay rates. 

 

 Australian expressions or turns of phrase are often not translatable. Phrases such as "somewhere down the track" probably have local equivalents and are easy enough to translate but if an interpreter has not heard this expression before or is new or nervous then it could create a delay in translation that is longer than necessary or may cause your interpreter to provide the wrong translation and change the subject from training to railways! Most people working overseas for the first time are surprised at how many Australian expressions they use, even expressions such as “its a beaut day”, “she’ll be right”, “this arvo” or “get a grip” (and we do say these things!) will cause a questioning look from an inexperienced interpreter. Naturally using sarcasm or heavy intonation to communicate will often be lost on an interpreter, saying ’yeah right’ (with heavy sarcasm) when you mean the opposite may lead to confusion (the interesting thing is that the audience will often recognise the sarcasm but not understand the words).

 

If an interpreter is presented with a new concept or new words to translate at short notice then this can create an awkward moment in meetings or cause the wrong interpretation to occur. It is best to let the interpreter know before hand what you are going to say and what results you want out of any meeting. If possible provide speech notes to the interpreter well before the event to allow for questions and clarification and the better and more experienced interpreters will also offer advice on how to best present new concepts or procedures. 

 

An example of the value of good preparation includes the consultant who was to address a large group and had briefed the interpreter on what he wanted to say and what were the key points of the delivery the evening before the meeting. The meeting was very difficult, poorly organised and confusing (meetings are the same everywhere?). The consultant was not allocated the amount of time he expected and five minutes into his twenty minute speech was suddenly cut off. After the meeting he complained to his interpreter that he had missed the most important points. The interpreter explained that he had not missed them as, after she realised that his speech was to be shortened, she had provided the key points to the audience, she had interpreted what he wanted to say, not what he actually said. This can be dangerous in some ways but if forethought, preparation and communication (and trust) with an interpreter occurs regularly then this is also a great advantage.

 

Prepare your interpreter for any new or difficult technical terms 

One of the most difficult things for translators is translating technical terms. If your discussions and your deliveries involve terms that may be unique to your area of expertise or not used in normal conversation then give your interpreter time to discover ways of translating this into something easily understood in the local language. Interpreters can spend hours discussing terms among themselves to get the exact translation that is necessary. (Explaining what ‘Human Resource Development’ means at home is difficult enough but translating this into another language can be frightening.)

 

As an example a meeting (held on short notice) involved discussions on small business incubators. This concept can be difficult enough to get across to Australians but was much more difficult to explain to people who have never worked in a market economy. The consultant was having great difficulty describing the concept and eventually the interpreter, with whom the consultant had worked for some weeks, complained that even she did not understand what he was talking about and that he should stop the meeting until it had been explained to her. This gave her the opportunity to develop ways and means of interpreting the concept and eventually she succeeded in having the local people understand. If the concept had been explained to the interpreter earlier then time would have been saved and information delivered more effectively. (Out of interest the words ‘business incubator’ does not translate well in many languages and in the end was translated as ‘Business Nursery’ in Turkey, as a ‘Business Midwife’ in Vietnam and as a “Business Development Centre’ in China, after all incubators are normally associated with chickens - not businesses.)

 

Using more than one interpreter requires coordination 

If you are part of a group and are using several interpreters extra work is necessary. Make sure the interpreters are using the same terms for key words or groups of words, for example in one team it was discovered that one interpreter was translating "to plan" as "to order" and another was translating it as "to predict". This created some problems as neither word was acceptable and the interpreters had to come together to provide a correct translation. This process occurred over two days as there was no specific word that correlated with "planning" as we know it. Eventually a compromise was reached and involved more than one word. Another word that created some problems was "committee". This was an old Soviet country and the connotations associated with committee were not acceptable in the context of the activity. They eventually used "commission" as the new word, which certainly has a different meaning in Australia and is not normally associated with democratic decision making mechanisms, but proved acceptable. The word committee also caused problems in a non soviet country as previous military coups had banned the formation of committees, again the interpreters solved the problem by finding a word that was suitable. Appointing one interpreter as the team leader can assist in problem solving (but may also create antagonisms in the team so be careful.)

 

Where possible consultants should use the same interpreter during the length of the consultancy 

This creates a better level of consistency and the trainer/interpreter team can become very powerful in pursuit of results and in speed of delivery.

 

Try to put key words on a noticeboard with acceptable translations to obtain consistency 

This allows for better coordination and also assists any new interpreters or those on “one off” interpretation or translation activity.

 

As in Australia there is extra effort required for large meetings or training seminars but extra thought will be required with an interpreter. There are several types of interpretation for meetings, one requires the interpreter to provide interpretation after the speaker has finished a phrase or sentence. Another is “simultaneous interpretation” where the interpretation occurs as the information is provided, often this involves the use of headsets for the audience but can also involve direct, and very loud, interpretation. The former method can provide a disjointed delivery while the second method is preferred but can be disruptive if no headsets are provided. Simultaneous interpretation also requires a highly skilled interpreter. You should be aware of the type of interpretation that will occur and where possible let your interpreter have access to your speech notes well in advance.

 

During smaller meetings it is almost essential to be next to your interpreter as this assists with the flow of information and also with the more quiet clarification of points. It also allows your interpreter to give advice or offer corrections of interpretations with quiet "asides" and to provide interpretation of other peoples conversations with a minimum of fuss and disruption for others.

 

An example of poor preparation for group delivery involves a consultant who addressed a large group of business people in an amphitheatre. He had consulted with his interpreter and prepared his address the previous evening but when he finally started his speech he soon discovered that his interpreter had to use a microphone which was located on the opposite side of the stage. He found that the audience had to watch him and then turn to watch the interpreter as they spoke. It was very much like a tennis match and distracting for the audience and speaker alike. The next time he spoke in that situation he ensured the interpreter was able to stand beside him.

 

Better time management through an interpreter 

In many countries you may receive unsolicited visits from local people seeking general information on Australia, asking about partners for businesses, wanting information on migrating or just wanting to talk to a foreigner. This may sound OK but in many cases it is a nuisance and can eat into valuable time. Most consultants do not want to be rude and offend but need to be rid of these people unless it is of definite interest. The briefing of your interpreter is the best way to handle these situations. In some ways you end up treating your interpreter as your "secretary" and letting them vet potential visitors. If visitors are allowed free access to consultants it can also create extra work for the interpreter as he/she is asked to provide free translation for documents and proposals.

 

Clarify with your interpreter how long they will take to translate a normal page of text. This will provide an idea on the time needed to complete final reports or large documents and present them to clients. (It is no use finishing training notes on the evening before a training seminar if it will take another day to translate and prepare handouts in the local language).

 

Translation 

The translating of documents is an important task of any consultancy activity. Often the translator will not be an interpreter as their oral English or their confidence is not at the level necessary but they have the necessary skills for written translation. Also quite often the documents that require translating will be large (perhaps hundreds of pages) and the translation will be required urgently so you have no choice but to employ several translators. With important documents it is wise to have the initial translation translated back into English by a different interpreter to get a feel for what your client group will be reading and ensure you are happy with the work. Also your “head” interpreter, if you have one, should proof the translations for accuracy and consistency. There are many examples of translators missing whole paragraphs in a document or guidelines or leaving out words such as "not" or translating "acceptable" instead of "unacceptable". Interpreters can get very tired when working long hours with short deadlines. If you put in a days work preparing a document for a meeting the next day it is likely the translator will be up half the night, if not all night, preparing that document and then will spend the next day interpreting for you at the meeting. Their tiredness will increase the likelihood of mistakes within the translation so double checking is imperative.

 

Discipline 

You will find that after some time working through an interpreter and talking to people whose English is rudimentary that you will slow down, you will start to talk very efficiently, you will not use superfluous words and sentences and you will quickly find the simplest way to describe a concept or an event. (It can be very cathartic to learn to communicate simply again especially if you have just finished a Masters or have worked in a large government department for many years) But it is very easy, especially once you are comfortable, to revert back to old ways, to suddenly start talking in idioms or to talk faster or use long phrases when one word will do. If you are inclined to do this then ask your interpreter or work colleagues to let you know, remember communicating is the aim.

 

Finally if you treat your interpreter with the respect you would show any other team member and as an essential part of your activities then you will have improved your chances of successful communications and further work.