Interpreting Skills Map

1. Professionalism = There are many aspects to this. One, for instance, is that certain meetings have to be kept confidential. Imagine if you are working for the police, for instance. 2. Teamwork = If you are a conference interpreter, you might be working in a booth with two or three other people, so you need to be able to, for instance, share the documents between you, or help each other out with difficult words, or even coordinate so that you take turns. 3. Note-taking = Some interpreters reproduce speeches that last, perhaps, five or ten minutes and they cannot rely on memory alone to do that, so they have to develop skills in notetaking. 4. Flexibility / Adaptability = Interpreters work in all sorts of different meetings sometimes a different meeting for every day of the week. They talk about different topics, they might be working in very different settings for instance, one day for the police and the next day on hospital, so you need to be quite adaptable. 5. Sense of Initiative = You will need to organize your own time as an interpreter particularly if you are a freelance interpreter and you will have to do your own research and decide what it is that you need to know. 6. General Knowledge and Interest in Current Affairs = Again. This is something that helps you understand what people are talking about, the background to the points they are making. 7. Calm under Pressure = Many people rely on you when you are an interpreter, so you have to be able to stay cool and think on your feet. 8. Stamina = Sometimes there are long days in interpreting and they require a great deal of concentration, so you have to build up your stamina for those. 9. Analytical Skills = This is about really understanding what someone is trying to say; being able to distinguish between important points and trivial points, or being able to follow their arguments so that you can reproduce it. 10. Good Cultural Awareness = As well as having an excellent knowledge of your foreign languages and your mother tongue, you must also have good cultural knowledge. Sometimes, a speaker will use culturally-specific words, expressions or phrases, which your listeners will not understand if you give a literal interpretation. You may have to add extra information to help your listeners out. 11. Picking up New Ideas Quickly = You have to be able to think on your feet, you have to be able to pick up ideas quickly; as soon as the speaker says something, you must be able to grasp it.

12. Good Public Speaking = This encompasses many things for instance, making eye contact with your audience; avoiding intrusive noises, like um., s and Errs when you are talking; avoiding fidgeting; using the appropriate register; and using a natural intonation when you speak. 13. Mastery of Mother Tongue = This means things like: having a very wide vocabulary; being able to adapt what you say to the correct register, depending on where youre working and who youre working for. 14. Excellent Knowledge of the Foreign Language = This sounds obvious, but it doesnt mean conversational German or being able to chat to your friends in French, for instance. You must have a very thorough knowledge of your foreign languages. 15. Curiosity = Interpreters tend to be a lack-of-all-trades; they need to know a little bit about everything, so it helps if youre naturally curious and you like learning. 16. Tact & Diplomacy = As an interpreter, you might be called on to work in very delicate situations for instance, in court, or for the police, or for someone whos in hospital and cant communicate with their doctor. So you must show some tact in those situations. 17. Empathy = If you really want to understand where someone is coming from, why theyre saying what theyre saying, you have to be able to put yourself in their shoes. 18. Research Skills = You might need to research the topics of the meeting that youve been employed to interpret at. You might need to look up terminology or acronyms, or maybe you want to find out something about the organization that youre working for; or even doing some research on flights, on accommodation that you need.