Clever Voices

Simultaneous Interpreting

The term simultaneous interpreting means at the same time and describes that the interpreter listens and speaks at the same time. She or he delivers a spoken translation of the speaker's words almost as soon as they have been uttered.
Simultaneous interpreting is the most common interpreting technique. Two, or in some cases three, interpreters work in a sound-proofed booth. Since interpreting demands an enormously high level of concentration, the interpreters take turns lasting about 30 minutes each. While the one interprets the other will continue to listen actively and support his or her colleague by, for instance, jotting down numbers, names or abbreviations. The interpreters hear the speaker via headphones and speak into a microphone. The members of the audience wear headphones to enable them to listen to the interpretation.

The tremendous advantage of simultaneous interpreting is that since there is practically no loss of time the entire audience is actively involved in the communication process.

A special form of simultaneous interpreting is the so-called relay system. A presentation given in one language is interpreted by the interpreters in the lead booth (or pivot booth) into another language. This interpretation is then used by all other interpreters as the source language. When, say, a presentation is held in Estonian, it is interpreted first from Estonian into German. This German version is then be interpreted into all the other conference languages.

The advantage of this relay system is that every language spoken during a conference can be interpreted into any language required by the audience, without having to hire interpreters to cover each and every language combination.