28 April 2010

What's the difference in translating and interpreting?

This is a repost from last year as it is something I am writing about a lot as I prepare for the European Conference and providing interpretation into various European languages.

This is a question I have been asking myself for a while as I have noticed in CEF that we tend to use the terms interchangeably. The quick answer is:

Interpreters deal with spoken language and translate orally, while translators deal with written text...

What we do in the Autumn CMLCs and at conferences is not translation, it is interpretation! Or to put it more accurately, it is consecutive interpretation! Simultaneous interpretation occurs when the speaker doesn't make any breaks and the interpreter listens and talks at the same time (usually by whispering or while in a cabin).
When a CEF literature worker takes an English Bible lesson text and works on putting it into another written language, they are translating.

On the surface, the difference between interpreting and translation is the mode of expression. Interpreters deal with spoken language and translate orally, while translators deal with written text, transforming the source text into a comprehensible and equivalent target text. Both interpreting and translation presuppose a love of language and deep knowledge of more than one language. However, the differences in the training, skills, and talents needed for each job are vast. (Read more)