Working as a professional interpreter may come up with several challenges and you might not know anything about it. There may be various professional and practical issues that you may encounter however a qualified interpreter understands the nuances of the language required for interpretation.
Whether you need to interpret legal content or literature every field has some challenges and requires specific language skills. Choosing the right words according to the purpose of the content is a skill that interpreters have grasped from this industry for many years. Moreover, phrasal verbs, slogans, humor, and isolated words are the most difficult things to interpret. The same applies to industry-specific and medical terminology hence will need research and context, as well as a profound understanding of the language, to maintain the meanings of the original subject and convey it in an easy format in the target language.
Top Challenges Faced by Professional Interpreters
1. Structure
The sentences comprise of object, verb, and subject and every professional interpreter has to look after each thing when it comes to structures. Just because you are bilingual, you are not qualified to be a professional interpreter. The job is more demanding. This is about understanding the cultural aspects of the target languages and source. For instance, the semantic rules and different structures are different in Arabic. The only way to overcome the challenge of language structure is to truly understand the grammar. Armed with this knowledge, you can edit and interpret phrases to capture the desired meaning in the target language.
3. Cultural Values
Many dialects are interlinked with different languages, which affects the content. Cultural values also play a crucial role in the use of language. These languages have unique structures, which directly affect the accuracy of interpretation. These languages have expressions that are related to the culture of their people. These are difficult to interpret when there are cultural differences between the target and source language.
As an interpreter, you must be culturally aware of your native language and the language you are translating. When new slang terms and cultural trends emerge, your customers expect you to be able to recognize them in the target language. Therefore, specializing in different cultural values and languages may be the best approach for an interpreter
3. Compound And Corresponding Words
Another challenge that interpreters face is the lack of suitable words in the target language. Some of the reasons for this are that they may not have equivalents in other languages to describe subtle thoughts and or they may have multiple meanings.
Some languages, such as Arabic, are more complicated which can make interpretations a nightmare. However, if you have passion and knowledge for the source and target languages, then you should be able to accurately interpret the content from the source language to the target language. Some words may simply reflect their meanings however, few words only mean halves of the term, such as boyfriend or bookworm.
4. Evolution
New words and grammar are added with new rules hence language evolution will initially affect texts. Some interpreters believe that because they learned a language 10 years ago hence, they can still master it perfectly today! But this is not the case so it is important to make sure that you improve your understanding of language rules. The best way to do this is to use your second language as much as possible.
Now imagine how difficult it is to overcome the language barrier and still have fun while doing it. Hence, learning new skills, improving your professional knowledge and being up to date is vital.
Final Verdict
Due to globalization and this progressively interconnected world, the customers can now choose from a wide variety of experienced interpreters. Becoming an interpreter is not easy-peasy-lemon squeezy but it should suit your target group and purpose. To have a professional and successful interpretation, you can also contact us at Languagers as we have the specific skills to overcome language barriers.