What is Over-The-Phone Interpretation, And How Does it Work?

According to statistics, almost a quarter of the US population speaks a language other than English daily. That way, many businesses get the necessity of working with a client, customer, or a possible partner whose mother tongue is different, which causes certain language issues to appear. This type of complication requires an effective solution that will be easy to provide and meet every party’s requirement for accurate translation.

The greatest answer would be over-the-phone interpretation (OPI), which is considered one of the most common methods of interpreting nowadays. It’s a verbal interpretation, provided with a three-way phone call between two parties and an interpreter as an intermediary. 

It has a pretty simple technique: one speaks into the phone, the interpreter on the other line translates, and the other person hears already transferred to his preferred language speech. It’s a great and cost-effective way of establishing a proper understanding between you and your client, whether standing next to each other or being in different parts of the world.

In this article, we’ll establish the definition of OPI and talk about it with the expert Andrea Renjifo, interpreting account manager at The Language Doctors, who will clear the air about this particular interpreting method.

Understanding Phone Interpreter.

A phone interpreter (translator) is a person who provides OPI and acts as an information transporter between two parties. Their work plays a key role in the interpretation services overall. Telephone interpreters allow people with different cultural backgrounds to communicate and work together freely. 

If you want your conversation to be effective for everyone, the assistance of a proper phone interpreter becomes essential. A person translating your discussion should be fluent in the preferred language or industry’s specifics and able to think and interpret quickly, break the cultural barrier, and adapt to your specific requirements. The interpreter’s work is not only about transferring speech from one language to another but also ensuring understanding between people on a much deeper level, using the language as an instrument.

“For the interpreters, it’s easier to work from home. They can give more hours to the platform, and they can be available for a longer time. So basically, that is what entails OPI; you have an interpreter over the phone who can help you with whatever you need,” says Andrea Renjifo, depicting the possibilities open for the interpreter while working this way. This, however, brings a lot of profit for the client too.

Asking for assistance from the phone call translator will ensure the correctness of the interpretation itself and create comfortable conditions for you and your customer to work in.

What Are the Downsides Phone Interpreter?

Even though OPI is one of the most popular ways of remote interpretation, just like everything else, it has its cons. 

First, a telephone interpreter uses consecutive interpretation to translate the speech. This means that the interpreter interprets the words only after the speaker says them, which results in a more time-consuming conversation. On the other hand, consecutive interpreting allows the translator to be much more accurate with the finished interpretation.

Another complication may appear with the technical aspect of the conversation. Even though a simple phone call is a pretty undemanding way of providing remote interpretation, some connection problems or other errors could become a real issue. It also includes the call quality, which background noises or interferences might ruin.

Moreover, OPI fits a standard two-sided conversation more. If it involves the necessity of working with not one but a couple of interpreters for each language pair, the call may become messier. 

What Are the Advantages of Phone Interpreters?

However, despite all the flaws that have been mentioned above, OPI has a huge number of advantages that define it among other interpreting methods. Here’s what Andrea says about the main OPI benefits: 

“Over-the-phone interpretation offers you not only easy access to it because it’s very, very accessible. You can access it through the web or your phone and download an app on our Connected Care platform by TLD. So that’s an easy way to access it. It’s also cost-effective, so it’s a permanent charge. You can upgrade per hour. There’s no minimums for it either, so that is better for the customer.”

If we put it into order, there’s a list of the OPI’s positive traits:

• Availability. Thanks to its technique, over-the-phone interpretation allows you to contact the interpreter and arrange a call within seconds from any part of the world in any conditions.
• Cost-effectiveness. Among all other interpretation services, OPI doesn’t require much and, as a result, is a much cheaper solution while still staying just as functional.
• Accuracy. Even though it is based on a more time-consuming consecutive interpretation, it raises the translation’s correctness since the telephone interpreter has more time to think about the speech.
• Simplicity. The technological aspect of OPI is clear and easy to understand, using only your mobile device for communication. There’s no need for a professional computer, specified platforms, or even an internet connection, which simplifies the whole process.
• Confidentiality. Using a simple phone call as the main communication method helps you secure your data and ensures that the information won’t slip beyond conversation.

All of this makes the assistance of phone interpreters a great solution for any language issue. Where can you find a proper linguist who will ensure the understanding of the conversation and ease the tension? Language service provider (LSI) is the answer to it. 

The Language Doctors is a highly trusted language provider that offers over-the-phone interpretation and dozens of other services, assisting people worldwide with their issues. It is the greatest option for establishing proper communication during multilingual interactions, which values accuracy and perfection. 

What Can an Over-The-Phone Interpreter Do for You?

Despite OPI’s specifics, many people worldwide are choosing this method of interpretation due to its effectiveness. Let’s look at how a phone interpreter can help enhance the productivity of your multilingual conversation and leave both parties pleased.

One of the main things telephone interpreters provide is a translation of your speech into a language that other people understand. It requires basic language knowledge, awareness of the particular industry’s traits, and an understanding of the subject. The professional phone interpreter is also supposed to take care of the cultural aspect and specifics, delivering the clearest version of the speech to you despite all the linguistic and cultural differences. 

The human factor constantly influences our communications of any type and plays a key role in business-type conversations. With the problem of the language barrier, which causes many inconveniences and uncomfortable conditions to appear, it may be hard for the parties to agree on the subject or reach the set goals. Thankfully, a telephone interpreter is meant to build a comfortable atmosphere for everyone, practicing active listening and encouraging participation in the conversation.

This way, you will get a plain linguistic translation and a conversion of the speech to your understanding specifically, which doesn’t have a lack of human intelligence.

How Do You Use a Phone Interpreter?

After all that, the question arises: How do you use over-the-phone interpretation correctly? How do you arrange this kind of language support for your conversation? Here are some tips on how OPI works and how to make your dialogue succeed.

1. Find language service providers that are offering OPI as one of the services. Check the price, the quality of the interpretation, and, most importantly, if they suggest on-demand services to arrange things immediately.
2. Contact the interpreter and brief them about the subject of your conversation and what is expected from this person. Many language providers offer interpretation services, available 24/7, allowing you to reach a phone interpreter instantly.
3. Check the connection and prepare for the call, both with your talk’s technical and informative aspects. Ensure that your phone device works just the right way and that there are no distracting background noises.
4. When the call starts, it usually goes with the typical consecutive interpretation scheme: you share the information on the phone, the telephone interpreter then translates it to the preferred language, and the other person listens to what the interpreter says. And then vice-versa. The method is based on active listening and pauses so everyone can understand the information. And this is what makes OPI so effective.
5. Watch how you talk; your pace shouldn’t be too quick or slow but just enough for everyone to understand. Keep the formal language, but don’t make the text sound too difficult. These small features determine how the talk will go, depending on how the phone interpreter will understand and translate your words. 

Suppose you are still unsure how to enable over-the-phone interpretation for your conversation. In that case, the recent Connected Care subscription pack from The Language Doctors is a worthy option. It allows you to arrange OPI immediately by clicking the “On-demand Interpreting” button on the website. Then, you get to choose one of the three following packages, which gives you immediate access to one-call interpreting for over 90+ languages, contacting the interpreter 24/7 from the web or mobile app, with the best availability. It was created to meet the client’s needs by providing automatic service, saving time. Try it today! 

When is Phone Translating Preferred?

As was mentioned before, over-the-phone translation has a lot of perks, making it one of the most favored methods of interpretation. It is suitable for most of the cases in any industry due to its availability and clearness of use.

• One of the situations where OPI becomes necessary is in long-distance dealing. Instead of wasting so many resources on traveling from one country to another, it is better to use a simple phone call to contact your client and the telephone interpreter, saving everyone the trouble.
• Over-the-phone interpretation is great since you don’t need to use any complicated digital platforms or additional technical devices. Moreover, there’s no need for an internet connection when OPI is provided. This makes it fit for conditions lacking connection or sudden failure.
• People use OPI regularly in emergency situations, where tons of things are at stake. In such dangerous and extreme conditions, there’s no time to arrange a full meeting with an interpreter, and phone translating is handy. It is widely used by hospitals, police departments, and other institutions to save people constantly.
• Customer service is another case in which OPI is preferred. When working with a customer, the communication should be swift and simple, and that’s exactly what over-the-phone interpretation is ready to provide.

What Determines Interpretation Rates?

The interpretation rate is a fixed price for the interpreting services. Numerous factors determine it and set the standard of interpreting on the market. All those aspects influence the phone interpreter’s work and, in return, the price that comes with it.

“What determines our rates is just the language categories (each depending on the language’s difficulty and prevalence) that we have in our services. You don’t have to pay any set of fees. You just pay for the minutes that you use, and the rate that we’re going to charge depends on the language category where the language you need to work with is in,” – mentions Andrea Renjifo about how The Language Doctors determine interpretation rates, based on the language and its difficulty. Despite this, some more factors influence the general price of a service:

• Time. There’s a huge difference between a 20-minute dialogue and a full one-hour meeting, so the telephone interpreter needs to be paid more for the hours this person works.
• Language. Some languages may be more complicated than others, and it’s common knowledge. They may contain specific jargon or other traits the translator needs to handle during the session.
• Industry specifics. The same rule applies to particular language cases connected with an industry. A phone interpreter specializing in travel and another specializing in medicine will cost differently due to these specifics.
• Type of interpretation. Every kind of translation service, whether OPI or video remote interpretation, requires its own preparations and operational costs from the company, usually covered with a different sum.
• Knowledge & Education of the interpreter. It’s no secret that people often choose the most influential and experienced option regarding the interpreter or LSI. The more valuable the service is – the more it will cost.
• Quality. The excellence of the finished product is the most obvious thing that influences the resulting price of this particular service. It contains all the aspects mentioned before, like the phone interpreter’s knowledge and experience, operational cost, and the general time of the session.

Conclusion

In summary, over-the-phone interpretation has advantages, disadvantages, and other specifics that distinguish it from other interpretation methods. It offers a great solution for any language issue, offering the necessary support. OPI is widely known for being cost-effective and time-saving while maintaining top-class accuracy.

If you seek a language provider who can solve your problem, The Language Doctors – the trusted provider of interpreting services in more than 200 languages – is a great option. With the amount of linguist services, possible language pairs, and professional translators it provides, you can easily find an answer to your situation specifically and make a complicated multilingual issue much simpler and more comfortable to deal with.

“Well, at The Language Doctors, we take the time to train our interpreters. We take the time to teach them protocol and teach them not only how to manage a call well but also how to be customer service-oriented for the clients. We try to be very responsive, very, very fast for our clients, and any kind of troubleshooting that may happen on their end, on the interpreters end, we try to resolve that as fast as we can.” – comments Andrea Renjifo.