Conference Organizers Interview Results

1.)How do you characterize good conference interpreters?

The job description of interpreters is to facilitate communication between two sides. Which means they need to possess core-interpreting abilities, fluent in both the target and the source language and willing to help people understand each other. To this end, participant L and M believe that interpreters should produce faithful and fluent interpretation, able to react immediately, and the most important of all, be prepared at all time. They should read all the materials given to them by the clients and try to gain as much information as possible. Even if the interpreters have done the same topic a few times already, they should not appear over-confident when dealing with the clients and performing their job. Besides preparation, interpreters possessing a more in depth professional knowledge are also more likely to perform well.

Participant M also points out the importance of work ethic. Especially with the highly competitive nature of business market, companies would want to hire someone whom they can trust.

2.) How do you recruit conference interpreters?

All of the conference organizers prefer to work with interpreters whom they are familiar with or are referred to them by active interpreters in the market. These interpreters may be someone with established reputation or are recommended by other interpreters or instructors from T & I schools.

Participant N points out that sometimes they would also ask the clients to employ

interpreters of their own for the reason that only the clients know what they are looking for in the interpreters.

3.) When hiring conference interpreters, what would be taken into consideration?

The deciding factor for participant L is experience. Second to that would be reputation.

Third, if the interpreter have performed well on the previous case assigned by the company, the interpreter will be more likely to be given a second chance. C.V. is also essential for participant N, which means he/she usually avoids working with novice interpreters with no experience, especially if the interpreters ask to be paid like senior ones. Although C.V. is also an important factor for participant M, reputation is rated of top priority.

Professional knowledge in certain domain and whether or not the interpreter is referred by other conference interpreters are all factors that the participants take into consideration. Participant N states that, for highly specialized conferences, the/she tends to hire experienced interpreters with in-depth knowledge in the related area. As for more general topics, they would consider giving novice interpreters a chance. Clients in banking or highly competitive industries will have doubts in interpreters’ discretion if the conference interpreters often brag about what they have done.

Therefore, for these industries, they value work ethic above all other factors such as experience or

knowledge background.

Factors like interpreting degree, interpreters’ schedule, payment demanded, and work attitude all contribute to the decision-making of participant L and N. To participant M, a flexible schedule and fee are not very important, though more cooperative interpreters would definitely make things easier.

An interpreting certificate would not make much of a difference to conference organizers.

They concede that the conference interpreting market in Taiwan is really small and active

interpreters know each other. Therefore, conference organizers value peer review over certificates.

4.) How do you decide which conference interpreters to work with?

Conference organizers interviewed prefer to work with interpreters already accepted by the market. When they are not familiar with the interpreter, they will ask senior interpreters or

instructors from T & I schools for advice. Besides that, they review the interpreters’ degree, prior experiences, and maybe call up references on the interpreters’ C.V. to find out if the previous employers were satisfied with the interpreting service. Certificates from other domain may make a difference to participant M if it is related to the theme of the conference, but most of the time the company cannot be sure if the certificate proves that the interpreter is truly knowledgeable in the concerned area; therefore, it is not a very critical indicator.

Participant M also states that it is not possible for them to design a test of their own. Unlike the conference organizers in Japan, conference organizers in Taiwan do not have their very own T &

I schools. Second, the need for new interpreters every year is not very high. It would not be cost effective to design a test for so few candidates. Third, interpreters form T & I schools have been tested for their professional ability already. There is no need to test them again.

With interpreters without prior experience, participant N claims that the company expects them to accept a lower price than interpreters who have already established their reputation.

Otherwise the company would not consider working with them.

5.) What difficulties do conference organizers face?

Both participant L and M state that the problems are mostly with the case flow and the limited talent pool of interpreters. Sometimes many cases take place all at the same time and there are not enough interpreters. At other times cases are rare and not able to satisfy all the active interpreters. Conditions like this will lower the chance of sustaining a larger pool of conference interpreters. Participant L also points out that the number of interpreters in language combinations other than Chinese-English are scarce. The company has a hard time locating qualified experts.

At the client end, participant L complains that some clients do not fully understand the job content of interpreters and may have unreasonable demands. For example, clients might ask interpreters to interpret during conference rehearsals or even interpret for the pre-meetings of the conference without extra pay. There are others who refuse to provide materials for the conference, claiming that being a professional, the interpreters should be able to interpret everything.

Participant M reports little problem with clients. Most of the clients who engage conference interpreters to facilitate communication recognize the significance of interpreters and their

contribution to the smooth functioning of the event. That is why they have no problem with the prices asked for by professional conference interpreters.

Surprisingly, participant N claims that the company do not see any problem in the industry at all. They think the issues they encounter in work are not serious enough to be called problem. Of course there are things that can be done to motivate business, but that does not mean there is anything with the present condition.

6.) When hiring conference interpreters, what makes recruiting difficult?

Both participant L and N state that clients are often reluctance to pay a high price for good quality interpreters or to work with novice interpreters even when they possess interpreting degrees.

Furthermore, participant L reports that conference interpreters tend to form little circles and it is hard to get interpreters from other circles to work as booth partners.

The problem identified by participant M is the lack of steady workflow. Without steady workflow, many conference interpreters may consider taking on other jobs after a while. And it is hard to recruit new interpreters when the company cannot promise to refer enough cases to them.

Is implementing interpreter accreditation a necessary step for the conference interpreting industry?

Participant L and N think that an accreditation system gives candidates who wish to become conference interpreters an opportunity. Also, it provides conference organizers another source to determine whether interpreters are fit for the job or not. There are many T & I schools and each one of them has different standards and evaluation methods. Thus, it is hard for conference organizers and clients to base their decision on the school performances of each individual interpreter since the performance may not translate to similar proficiency levels. Interpreters endorsed by a nationwide test, which every eligible candidate is allowed to take part in and everyone is judged by the same set of rules would give conference organizers and clients something more credible and concrete to take into consideration. Also, participant N adds that the accreditation could give senior interpreters an idea as to how to continue improving themselves. In addition, all the developed countries have interpreter accreditation tests. Therefore, they believe that Taiwan should implement certain regulating mechanism as well.

Contrary to the point of view expressed by the other two conference organizers, participant M claims that an accreditation will make a difference in the escort or in-house interpreting market if the certification test verifies basic professional skill and service as an entry quality control for the whole interpreting market. However, the conference interpreting market is too small to sustain an accreditation test. There is no need to design a test just to test a fairly small group of people.

Furthermore, no single test can determine whether the candidate are a good conference interpreter or not. Potential candidates still need to be tested by the market and reviewed by the clients before they can be deemed truly qualified as a good conference interpreter. In short, T & I schools are competent enough to the training potential conference interpreters and the rest should be left to

market mechanism.

8.) Should interpreters be certified or licensed if a regulating mechanism is to take place?

Participant L cannot decide which one would be more beneficial.

Participant M believes that certification is a better mechanism than licensure. The reason is that most of the interpreting jobs do not concern public or personal safety; therefore, licensing is unnecessary.

On the contrary, participant N values licensure more. Licensure translates to the strictest quality control and implies that the government also views the profession as highly specialized.

Licensed profession enjoys high prestige and is respected by the clients. It is one way to convince the clients that conference interpreting is a true profession. However, to achieve this goal, licensure needs to go hand in hand with continuing education. Which means the authority holding the

accreditation should review the activities of the licensed interpreter every few years, forcing them to continue learning and stay active in the market so as to remain sharp and maintain high quality interpretation.

9.) What purpose should an interpreter accreditation system achieve?

Participant L states that an accreditation test should verify core-interpreting proficiency, provide novice interpreters a weapon to convince the agencies or the clients that they can do the job, and serve as a screening mechanism for qualified interpreters for the market, especially when conference organizers cannot evaluate the level of proficiency themselves. Participant M and N agree that the accreditation system can be used as a tool to evaluate professional proficiency and adds that it will set a clear standard for client education and thus give the interpreters more bargaining power on payment and working condition.

The accreditation system should also lower the search cost for interpreters. To achieve this purpose, conference organizers emphasize the importance to divide the accreditation test into different participant areas and level of proficiency. The interpreting market demands interpreting

services in different subject areas and require different levels of proficiency. An accreditation test focusing only on the basic interpreting ability would not be a very informative indicator for

conference organizers and clients. Interpreters who have passed the accreditation test and their C.V.

should further be included in an interpreter database so that conference organizers and clients would know where to look when they need interpreting services. Participant N also points out that the certificate should be revalidated every few years so that the interpreters will continue to learn new things and keep sharpening their professional skills.

10.) How does interpreter accreditation affect the conference interpreting industry?

Participant M does not believe that the accreditation will have impact on the conference interpreting industry.

The present conference interpreting market is quite closed. Students graduated from T & I schools are not likely to secure job opportunities if they are not referred by their instructors. As participant L indicates, an accreditation system may give these students another channel to prove their proficiency and open other doors for them.

Participant L believes that an interpreting accreditation will give the general public a clearer idea of the nature of conference interpreting and what level of proficiency is required of conference interpreters. This in turn improves the professional image of the industry. A common

misunderstanding shows many believe that good language skills equals high interpreting proficiency. A test open to all that is interested in the industry gives bilinguals and the society a chance to see the difference between the two.

In all, enhancing the visibility of the industry, lowering the search cost for conference interpreters, and providing interpreters with another channel to prove themselves are the impacts a certification system can have on the conference interpreting industry. Participant N agrees to these advantages an accreditation could bring if the test is credible, valid, and recruits experts from all areas to judge the quality of the outcome and establish an interpreter database for the ones passed.

He/she then adds that clients would be more willing to hire conference interpreters when they are convinced that interpreting is not an easy task since only a very privileged few can pass the test endorsed by the government.

11.) Are you familiar with the translation and interpretation proficiency test held by the Ministry of Education last December? What do you think of the test?

All the participants have heard of the translation and interpretation test held by the Ministry of Education in December, 2007, but none of them are sure about the details. Participant L

expresses doubts but are willing to wait and see how the test would turn out, whereas participant M clearly states that the company will not consider working with those who have only passed the test because the company just could not afford to take any risks and disappoint its clients. When it comes to working with novice interpreters, the company trusts the judgment of the senior interpreters as the most informative and accurate assessment source.

Others:

Participant M argues that the number of translators or escort interpreters needed are much larger than that of conference interpreters so the search cost might be higher and it is more difficult to find out about the quality of these experts beforehand. Therefore, the general interpreting market may benefit from an accreditation test even if the conference interpreting sector cannot.

The quality guaranteed by the accreditation test may leave a deep impression on the clients and motivate the clients to use interpreting services more often and may one day be willing to engage conference interpreters when the need arises. As a result, the accreditation test would increase the bargaining power of interpreters.

However, there are risks involved as well. A poorly designed and advertised accreditation system may turn out to be misleading to clients. The clients may tend to think that interpreters who passed interpreting accreditation test are capable of performing all kinds of interpreting jobs

arranging from escort to simultaneous interpreting. When this happens, clients who are not familiar

with the interpreting industry may then not be pleasantly surprised and begin to doubt the expertise professed by interpreters.