Unable to effectively promote themselves due to the absence of a

9. Interpreting certification.

10 Others. Please relate in detail _________________.

F:Work flow fluctuates greatly. Only interpreters that are at the top of the trade can be spared from the insecurity. Second, the conference interpreting market is small and client education insufficient. Third, clients wish to pay only the minimal fee for interpreting service and generally do not know how to evaluate interpreting quality .

G:There are not enough cases to go around and sustain all interpreters senior or novice.

Lack of communication between interpreters made this professional group one that is hard to come together behind a united front and fight for their rights. Furthermore, presently there is no professional organization to hold the interpreters together, collect data, and establish an interpreter database for future reference, research and as a talent pool for the industry. Instead, every interpreter has his/her own system and conducts his/her business according to one’s own liking.

The interpreting profession is not truly and rightfully appreciated by the society yet. Some clients would ask consecutive interpreters to double as master of ceremonies ( MC) at the times, which is, of course impossible.

Many of the agencies have been working diligently on costumer education, but I think it would take some more time.

H:The topics of conferences become ever more specialized and difficult for interpreters.

Speakers still do not know how to work with interpreters and that makes our job harder than ever.

Most of the times we don’t get power points, materials or a chance for briefing before the conference starts.

Recently there have been less and less international conferences in Taiwan. The workflow has greatly reduced. The reason behind this is not clear.

The rise of conference organizers has actually being really helpful to interpreters.

Interpreters today don’t have to fight single-handedly. These organizers provide a one-stop service window for clients in need of conference equipment, conference organizing and interpreters. They also conduct client education and handle the details of the transactions for interpreters.

I:There are not enough cases for all interpreters. Only when international trade thrives can interpreters survive. In the recent years, Taiwan is gradually loosing its competitive edge. Naturally interpreters face lesser and lesser job opportunities. Without a target market, there won’t be an industry at all.

The industry isn’t mature enough, that goes without saying. There are no set rules in this industry. For example, an interpreter can apply for the same job through three or four different conference organizers. This wouldn’t be fair to the other interpreters or the clients. Furthermore, senior interpreters in the market practically have their hands in every aspect of the industry, including training, market entry, the design of interpreting certification and the judging after that.

These people are truly powerful and if they only have their own interest in mind, the industry will never head towards a health development. The reality of the conference market is that novice conference interpreters will have to take job opportunities away from the senior interpreters. Since senior interpreters have to secure their status, they might try to block aggressive novice interpreters into the market.

Although the total number of jobs isn’t declining, with more and more interpreters wishing to enter the market, the market is bound to grow competitive.

J:There is no steady workflow, so that means no steady income for most freelance

interpreters. As a result, qualified candidates may not feel secure about taking on interpreting as a full time job.

As to the professional status, interpreters are still not receiving the respect they deservice.

Clients usually ignore the presence of interpreters unless something goes wrong during the proceeding of the conference. Not many clients actually value the work of an interpreter.

Interpreters have to rely on themselves for job satisfaction and gratification. In some countries interpreters are highly respected, sadly, that is not usually the case. I guess the nature of interpreting requires interpreters to become shadow speakers, so it is quite natural that they may be overlooked.

It is actually part of the job, part of the parcel of becoming an interpreter.

The market hasn’t really changed that much over the past decade, but there are improvements. Generally speaking, Clients have a better understanding of what interpretation is and are more willing to engage a qualified interpreter, although the pay hasn’t seen a great increase. I do believe that there is still room for improvement in client education and the elevation of professional status.

K:The conferences are getting more and more specialized and the market is getting very competitive. If a conference interpreter is only able to handle conference with general topics, than they would always have to compete with novice interpreters and a lot of other interpreters who is capable of interpreting for all kinds of themes. Therefore, a successful interpreter would either have to excel in a certain field of knowledge or be quick to absorb any professional material that’s given and apply it in the conference. A decade ago, the interpreting market is the seller’s market, now it is the buyer’s market.

Interpreters graduated from interpreting schools abroad would have less advantage in the market. These interpreters are strangers to the other practitioners so they may not get as much referral as the ones studied within the country and made themselves known to the senior interpreters

already.

3.) How do interpreters obtain job opportunities?

1. Advertisement put out by hiring companies.

2. With companies that have worked with before.

3. Referral from acquaintance 4. Internet (ex. www.104case.com.tw) 5. Through interpreting conference organizers 6. Others. Please relate in detail ______________.

F: Presently interpreters are introduced to the market enter by peers or teachers from interpreting schools.

I myself advertised in a magazine that introduces all kinds of occupations. At that time, people from abroad may locate interpreters they need in these advertisements. But nowadays novice interpreters often need to be lead into the market by those senior to them and are willing to endorse them.

Of course sometimes companies and clients will come to school and observice mock conferences or exams intending to seek out potential interpreters. Students may also be recognized and approved by clients during practical training and offered an opportunity once they graduated.

Overall, an interpreting degree does not play a critical role. It is the reputation one built that counts. After all, many clients are not familiar with interpreting schools and what they can achieve.

G:Interpreters sometimes obtain job opportunities through conference organizers or contacts built during practical training. Some interpreter would start out as an in-house interpreter and later join the free-lance interpreting market after they have accumulates enough experiences.

Although I must admit that without peer or teacher recommendation, it would be hard to obtain conference interpreting opportunities..

H:Through conference organizers or be referred by peers or people in the industry. But the most important of all is that one must be prepared and competent in order to secure any kind of opportunities.

I: Word of mouth. Fellow interpreters, conference organizers and clients will eventually form an opinion about certain interpreters after a while.

Many interpreters nowadays would choose to engage the service of conference organizers and relay on them to obtain job opportunities. An increasing trend even see interpreters working solely for one conference organizers. Interpreters who work for many different conference organizers may be cut off after a while.

Another way to obtain cases would be referral from other clients. Clients from the same industry may recommend interpreters to one another.

J:There are several ways. One is to obtain endorsement from teachers or peers. Another is to send C.V. to conference organizers and clients.

K:Mostly referrals from other interpreters or clients. Some interpreters would send their C.V. to conference organizers.

4.) What would give conference interpreters a competitive edge?

1. Certificate 2. Work experience 3. Interpreting degree 4. Membership of a professional organization.

5. Referral from peers or teachers from interpreting school 6. No idea 7. Others. Please relate in detail ____________________.

F:Being certified means that novice interpreters have one more thing to present to their clients. Also, the high failure rate of the certification test may give the clients an idea as to how difficult interpreting really is.

Common misunderstanding is that bilinguals know how to interpret and can do it well.

Novice interpreters can use certification to introduce themselves. Clients may not know how to differentiate one interpreting degree from another and the quality implied by interpreting training, but a certificate is issued by the government is a another story. The clients will be more responsive to the implication of quality. In other words, an interpreting degree has more effect on people from within the interpreting field, and accreditation or certification makes more sense to the general industry and clients.

G:Curriculum vitae ( C.V.) is really important to novice interpreters.

Without relevant interpreting experience in a certain field, relevant translation experiences would also help. The clients will be more apt to believe that the interpreter knows something about the theme of the conference if there is any kind of related experience on the C.V.. Interpreters should not be afraid to touch upon new territory and explore new professional domains. It is a good way to build up a convincing C.V..

As for agencies and clients, they may take a different approach. To agencies, professional exams held in interpreting schools, in-school performance and peer( teacher) review are at the top of the list of factors they take into consideration. Agencies understand the nature of the interpreting schools and interpreter cultivation, so they know how and where to seek professional advice when it comes to recruiting a new interpreter.

However, if the clients ask for C.V., then it will still be a determining point in the hiring of interpreters even if the agencies have confirmed the capability of the interpreters’ skill through other channels.

H:In my opinion, the acquirement of formal interpreting training in interpreting schools opens a lot of doors. Teachers in these institutions are mostly active interpreter in the market and some schools have already had a long standing relationship with certain companies or conference organizers. To my knowledge, interpreters who possess an interpreting degree from schools abroad do not enjoy this advantage and has a more difficult time trying to enter the market.

Interpreting schools wield more influence than professional association for they do institute quality control and their professional expertise in doing so have already being recognized by the market.

As for the interpreters themselves, it is very important to be able to perform a satisfactory job. Everything else goes from there.

I:I would say a strong interpreting skills. Second, one must know how to leave a strong and positive impression on the clients. There are so many interpreters in the market, so if the interpreters cannot distinguish themselves from others, they won’t have another chance. In other word, interpreters have to believe that they are professionals and convince the clients so.

Professionals will be able to predict how the events will unravel and what the potential problems

are. Be assertive and ask the clients for cooperation in very specific details. Interpreters who fail to exert control of the interpreting event will loose clients’ trust and plant doubt as to the proficiency of interpreters. Another important thing is never agree to a conference case that is beyond one’s ability to interpret. In others words, interpreters should know how to present themselves and how not to expose their shortcomings in front of the clients. That would be the greatest advantage.

J:I believe that an interpreting degree makes a difference. Of course so is maintaining a good relationship with others. Certificates from other areas might help but if they have those certificates they may not choose to become a fully committed interpreter anyway.

A professional organization would help promote the professional status of interpreters and conduct client education. Many people have put some effort into this, but so far not much has come out of it. I believe that has something to do with the nature of interpreters. They do not come together as a integrated group easily.

Certification is not always the resolution, but it seems that our society looks to certification and testing to earn public trust and confidence. It is not easy to evaluate interpreters, especially conference interpreters.

K:Word of mouth is the most deciding factors in securing job opportunities. If an interpreter has no prior experience at all but is endorsed by the teachers from interpreting schools, it would give them a head start. It goes without saying that to enter the market, interpreters must possess interpreting proficiency and the ability to make yourself known to fellow interpreters or teachers

If there is a credible certification test, it will also help clients to find interpreters that suit their needs.

An interpreting degree is also something that can introduce interpreters to the public.

Senior interpreters and teachers from these schools have earned client trust and respect and in turn elevated the status and credibility of the schools. Therefore, degrees from certain schools would be persuasive to the clients.

5.) Is implementing interpreter certification a necessary step for the conference interpreting industry? Why?

F:The reality of the conference interpreting market is that veteran interpreters do not need a license to proof themselves. These senior interpreters service as a screening mechanism to the market already. Some would look up to them for professional advice, for they are the insiders and know how the evaluate the quality of interpreting which in turn lower the risk of messing up a conference interpreting job.

Senior interpreters are effective screeners because every time they recommend an interpreter, it is their reputation that’s on the stake. And once a novice interpreter entered the market, it is up to the market mechanism to decide if he or she can stay in. To interpreters, the obtainment of a license would not help them become a better professional. For it takes more than basic skills to become a good interpreter. In the sense, an interpreting proficiency test is really not essential for interpreter qualify control, but it services as an indicator for the interpreting industry for potential candidates.

Personally, I think that the existence of interpreting courses and professional exams held by inter school are good enough, but the rest counts as additional reference. This does not mean the certification should not be implemented, but that it is not the most essential link for talent cultivation and selection.

G:Yes. I believe that it is necessary. Some interpreting schools such as GITI or GITIS

knows how interpreters should be trained and has being working to set up clear standards, but other interpreters who do not come from these schools may be low in quality and damage the profession image of the interpreter industry as a whole. Certification can service as a basic requirement for interpreters. The clients would be able to tell qualified interpreters from unqualified ones even if they do not know how to assess interpreting quality themselves. Of course, the effectiveness of the interpreting accreditation system is the key to this progress.

H:No, it isn’t.

The interpreting industry as a whole may benefit from a certification system. It is designed to test basic interpreting ability for all practitioner who wish to perform other types of interpreting services or simply prove themselves capable of such skill for occupations like tour guides or escort.

NATTI has an accreditation system that is design to test different levels of interpreters, but none of it can be called fit for conference interpreting. Personally, I do not believe that interpreting ability can be verified by one single test. Conference interpreters on the market have to work with all kinds of different topics. In addition, conference interpreting requires more than basic interpreting skills. The ability required for conference interpreting cannot be standardized and skills that cannot be standardized cannot be certified. The evaluation of the quality interpreting is highly participantive and involves all kinds of professional knowledge that is impossible to apply to all candidates. Therefore, there is no need to certify conference interpreters and not possible anyway.

Market mechanism is good enough for the purpose of selection. Interpreters who perform poorly would not be given another chance. Even if interpreters are certified, it still doesn’t mean that they will be able to cover conferences on all sorts of topics.

I:I don’t believe any interpreting accreditation established at this stage can be reliable and

valid. The professionals participating in the development and judging of the test are mostly active interpreters or teachers of potential interpreters. There might be doubts as to the equality and credibility of the test.

Furthermore, the interpreters and the researchers in the field know too little about the participant. The interpreting discipline is still too young and without a firm theory foundation. If interpreting cannot even be defined, how can it be tested? In other words, the line between pass and fail is vague and inconsistent. Building a test on such a premises only leads to shaky results that can hardly be examined.

Interpreting schools have been training interpreters for decades now, and they have done a pretty good job producing interpreters that’s acceptable to the market. That is quite enough to satisfy the market.

As for the clients, some says that an accreditation system will help clients locate interpreters. The assumption is based on false premises. Clients that are unable to locate professional interpreters for the job is not because they lack the channels to approach and contact interpreters or professional proficiency indicators to determine the competency of the professionals, it is because they are not willing to pay for high quality services.

J:It would be hard to achieve quality control by implementing an interpreting certification system. Interpreting is highly complex and hard to be tested, especially simultaneous interpreting.

Simultaneous interpreting is the most complicated form of interpreting and the testing is laborious and capital intensive. To design a simultaneous interpreting test that accommodates more than a dozen candidates would cost a fortune. The difference between the school professional exam and the national accreditation test is that the schools put a lot of money and human resources into the professional exam for a limited number of students. As the candidates enrolled in the test increases, the costs could be too dear and far too complicated.

Furthermore, certification would only be able to verify the existence of the very basic skills, but even that I doubt will be easy. No country so far has designed a nationwide interpreting accreditation because it is truly quite an impossible task. I am quite pessimistic about the future of the present interpreter proficiency test.

Accreditation can act as an indicator for conference organizers and clients who wish to engage

Accreditation can act as an indicator for conference organizers and clients who wish to engage