STEPS OF THE INTERPRETING PROCESS

Steps of a conference interpreting process (everything depends on the client’s needs and your own way of working). Here’s an example of possible steps: 1. Inquiry/Request for quotation. 2. Defining the actual need for interpreting and presenting the alternatives to the client. 3. Arranging a pair or a team (searching for suitable colleagues, ensuring schedules, negotiating the price with them). 4. Offer. 5. Negotiating/Accepting the offer. 6. Managing the practicalities and asking for the material and delivering it to everyone who needs it. 7. Preparation – in other words, getting to know both the content and the terminology of the material. In a way, an interpreter must become an expert in the field for that precise situation, so that they can both understand and produce the language of the field. 8. Travel arrangements and scheduling for the interpreter(s) to be in the right place at the right time. 9. Interpreting and potentially working as the head interpreter in the actual interpreting situation. 10. Handling the invoices of the pair or the team. 11. Delivering the collective invoice to the client. 12. Follow-up and bookkeeping (collecting the payment etc. if necessary). 13. After-treatment of terminology, for example, adding the new information acquired during interpreting to an electronic lexicon. 14. Filing or destroying the material received from the client in accordance with what has been agreed and how confidential the material is.