Mandarin Interpreter Solutions for Your Event or Conference

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Are you holding a major event?  Is it an important meeting on a tight timeline? Is it an event where many people will speak in their own language/s (not English) Are there people attending who don’t understand English well? What solutions are available to make sure all participants fully understand, are made to feel important and for your outcomes to be reached? You need an interpreting service that is flexible to provide the best solution and meet the needs of all participants.

A good option to consider is Simultaneous Interpreting – you save time – your participants are all going to be happy.

Variously called Simultaneous Interpreting (SI) or Conference Interpreting – the audience listens through headphones to a speaker in their preferred language.  We have heard delegates say "What a clever device transforming speech into another language!"  High praise, but behind the scenes working tirelessly in a sound-proof booth you’ll find a team of highly skilled interpreters listening intently to the speaker through their headphones while almost miraculously converting it to another language.

When to use conference interpreters

If you are holding an event – conference, forum, dinner, roundtable, incentive awards, or a plain but important meeting and you want to include an audience from overseas – in our case China, you need to put conference interpreting high on your list.  Prospective attendees with limited or non-native English will be put off if they can’t listen to meeting proceedings in their own language.  Even for competent speakers of English it is a struggle to keep up in a room with fast speakers, strange accents and complex subjects. In Asia and Europe, in particular, conferences always use simultaneous interpreters – the work is valued and important and makes the attendees come back next time and feel included and important.

Don’t forget, if you have speakers presenting in Chinese – the audience will need to hear it in English too, won’t they – so a team of SIs translating into English and into Chinese is the only way to manage the flow and give you greater flexibility in your speaker list. Just think, if you can only invite English speakers, your options are greatly limited.

What do I need to do to put on a conference with speakers of various languages?

Identify the language requirements first and foremost and promote the use of SI for attendees in the languages you are targeting in your invitation and promotional literature.

Let’s deal with Chinese.  We not only provide the Translator Mandarin/ English teams, but also assist the organisers with publicity in Chinese to ensure that news of the event is spread far and wide. For an annual or regular event – most important to get this right from the outset, or it will be a struggle to get bums on seats in the future.  SI works for multiple languages too so a mixed audience of say, Japanese and Chinese, Korean or Spanish speakers or all of them at once, can be managed very effectively through SI.

Once you’ve got the speakers locked in and attendee registrations rolling in, we’ll talk to you about interpreter preparation, props to help get the information across, and networking and matching exercises.

How many people do I need attending my event to warrant SI?

A very good question and we have provided teams for events from a roundtable of attendees (a small number) to the Parliament House Joint Sitting of Parliament for the Chinese President Hu Jintao’s address, to the largest China related events held in Australia with close to 1000 attendees.. Normally the larger events must have SI; smaller events depend on their timing and importance.  The issue is that SI runs in real time with virtually no delay – so your conference program can run as it normally would.  Consecutive interpreting (speaker speaks then pauses every minute or so for the interpreter) doubles the time for a speech – so halves the amount of content you can get through – those are the clear options.

How do I organise the technology?

You don’t need to – we can organise the equipment and all technology to get the voice from speaker to interpreter to audience and make it all work seamlessly.  There are a few important steps to take with regard to the venue, but we can guide you through that to make sure it all works on your big day.

What sort of subjects can be covered?

Anything is possible – from dog food to space exploration; AIDS research to world peace; technical mining and resources to the also highly specialised field of Chinese medicine. It is not the obscurity of the subject or degree of complexity, but it is the experience of the interpreters and their ability to prepare for each event.

Where do I find conference interpreters?

Not amongst the backpacking population – we heard this shocking but true story from New Zealand; and then there was an interpreter who claimed to be experienced in SI and once in the booth couldn’t work the equipment, let alone speak and just walked out! Yes, skill in a foreign language is essential – native speaker ability in two languages a must! Training in SI and experience working as a conference interpreter – well, you don’t want a trainee or novice for your big event.  Ordinary interpreters that work in the school or hospital or even in business discussions will in most cases not make the transition to SI – it is extremely difficult work and only the top interpreters in the profession manage it well.

There is only one international organisation for Conference Interpreters – so make sure you have your interpreter from amongst their ranks – AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters).

What preparation is required for the interpreters?

This is important and we’ll help you by advising on what we need and when. First of all, you need to make sure you’ve got your interpreter team and equipment locked in – remember, SIs who are highly experienced are scarce - there aren’t many good ones around.  We’ll need your detailed agenda early on and we can even assist you and your presenters to prepare appropriate materials in Chinese for the delegates – another good selling opportunity for presenters and attendees. We’ll coordinate receipt of materials from presenters and even advise on content for them.

What are the costs?

Interpreters and equipment hire works on a daily hire basis. Travelling costs too – depending where your conference is and getting the team and equipment in place. But you’ll save a lot too – less time required by engaging SIs – your event will run in half the time or you’ll get through twice as much! Our fees include not just the time spent at the microphone interpreting, but also extensive research and preparation time in advance of the event so that interpreters have acquired the appropriate terminology and names required for your subject.

What is the difference between simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting?

You’ve possibly been to a conference or observed on TV proceedings like the United Nations where delegates wear headphones and an infra-red receiver and interpreters sit in glass fronted booths at the back or above the room – everyone speaks normally using microphones and the interpreting goes on in the background – almost invisibly – this is Simultaneous Interpreting.

If you are doing business internationally, you will also have been exposed to Consecutive Interpreting and probably had good and bad experiences. A Consecutive Interpreter normally sits/stands close to the speaker with notebook in hand – speaker speaks and interpreter writes down what is said in shorthand; speaker pauses and interpreter ‘converts’ to the other language what has just been said. There is a lot of very poor Consecutive Interpreting too – so if you need to use this mode of interpreting – make sure you secure an interpreter who interprets all of what is said, accurately and fully and quickly. To have an interpreter fluffing through papers, or going um, um um is not a good look!

What else can I consider

Make sure of networking opportunities – participants from both China and Australia are there to make contacts and establish potential business relationships – you need enough attendees from each side to make this work.  Again, Simultaneous Interpreting helps attract more attendees due to its efficient handling of language barriers.

Don’t forget to have some traditional consecutive interpreters on hand to help with networking, business matching and one-to-one discussions. Lunches and receptions are good for participants to mix and talk – get an interpreter seated at each table. If you are having panel discussions or questions from the audience – please make sure microphones are used – otherwise the interpreters in the sound proof booth will be deaf!

Talk to us about seating and stage arrangements too – provide microphones with stands for presenters and interpreter (consecutive). Make sure you have enough receivers and headphones for all attendees too.

Your event will stand out from masses of others that don’t make the effort or think that non-English speakers don’t count.

As Mandarin Interpreters and Translators, Chin Communications has 20 years of experience providing Simultaneous Mandarin Interpreting Services on the international stage - contact us today for advice to make sure your event is successful and your delegates will come again next time. We can even arrange teams in other languages to work together.

Find out more about working with a Translator Mandarin and English

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Chin Communications

CHINESE TRANSLATION SPECIALISTS

1300 792 446

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