Short answer: yes. Using your German, Spanish or French interpreter online is a cheaper, easier and just as effective solution.
Hiring a professional interpreter can be an effective way of meeting new customers or communicating with an audience across borders. But simultaneous interpreting is a skilled work and as such, it comes with what can come across as a hefty price tag. Historically, it also came with travel, accommodation and subsistance expenses, which made it a very elitist service.
Well, here is the good news : just like many other services, remote working tools such as Zoom or Teams have transformed the profession and made interpretation services a lot more accessible.
In recent years, many of my clients have managed to reduce their interpreting costs by:
Booking their French interpreter online for one hour or two, rather than have them travel across Europe and charge for a 3-day trip even if they’re only needed for an hour or two…
Using a Zoom, Translinguist or Kudo plan to arrange hybrid or purely remote events. The interpreter can still be paid fairly, yet not incur the extra travel or hotel costs and carbon footprint.
Is remote online interpreting as good as the real thing?
Remote interpreting is to in-person interpreting what remote meetings are to in-person meetings. Once people have accepted the limitations and adapted their behaviour, it does the job fairly well. As I write, Zoom with interpretation is the main platform to have made extra efforts to integrate interpretation functionalities such as separate language channels, reverse languages or handover tools, but most remote meetings interfaces can be adapted to work with consecutive interpreting.
How much does a French interpreter online cost?
As an English to French interpreter, you could book an hour of an my time online for as little as £60, with no other additional cost than your Zoom subscription.
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Can I run a whole conference with a remote interpreter?
Technically, yes. If you’re hoping to run a hybrid event, whereas your speakers and guests are in an auditorium but your interpreters are working remotely, you’ll need to give extra care to the quality of your sound system and to training your speakers to work with interpreters. Start by working with a sound technician and making sure all speakers talk into a microphone connected to the Zoom meeting. You’ll also need to have headsets connected to the Zoom audio for your non-English speaking guests. There are many providers who specialise in hiring interpreting equipment.
Since simultaneous interpretation services have become much more affordable, there's no need to let the language barrier stand in the way of communication with your clients, partners or target audience in their own language.
Get in touch to book a french interpreter online now.