Telephone interpreter & remote interpreter solutions
Remote interpreter & telephone interpreter for medical / hospital, business, legal, insurance…
A telephone interpreter or remote interpreter offers language interpreting without the need for the interpreter to be physically present, and is useful where geographical or other constraints make face-to-face difficult. While less effective than face-to-face interpreting – especially for business, public sector, legal and medical (see below) – a remote or telephone interpreter can be a reasonable alternative in the right circumstances.
Remote interpreter solutions can also be used in conference interpreting with the right set-up, but please liaise with your equpipment provider to ensure they can work with this approach – many are not able to do so.
A telephone interpreter is the most commonly requested remote format, but other solutions include Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom and more. Dedicated conferencing systems also exist. We work with all the main formats of remote and telephone interpreting.
Get a Free Quote Ask Us a QuestionBenefits of a remote or telephone interpreter
Firstly, for rarer languages only very few interpreters are available and they can’t be everywhere. For them to deliver face-to-face interpreting outside their local area incurs high costs in travel and time, and takes them away from higher-earning work. For these rarer languages therefore providing a telephone interpreter or other remote interpreter solution enables a basic form of language interpreting to be delivered, although the drawbacks of this format must be borne in mind – see below.
Secondly, some situations – as we saw with Covid – may prevent even local travel. Interpreting is still needed however, and delivering this remotely allows at least an essential service to still be provided.
Cost is a third factor. Since no travel time or expenses arise, a remote interpreter can save the client some cost, although such savings need to be carefully weighed against the drawbacks of the format. That’s particularly the case for a telephone interpreter solution.
Drawbacks of a remote or telephone interpreter
The telephone interpreter in particular is deprived of the normal visual cues – expression, demeanour or gestures – which are so important in conversation. The lack of such cues naturally hinders telephone interpreters – and to a lesser extent, a remote interpreter – from interpreting as effectively as a face-to-face interpreter is able to do. Note that this is equally true for business meetings!
Audio-visual remote interpreting – delivered via for example WhatsApp – is better, but as anyone who’s ever video-conferenced knows the difference between watching someone onscreen, and “being there” in person, is enormous.
That’s especially true for a small mobile phone screen, the commonest remote interpreting presentation. Video also needs more bandwidth than voice alone, so is very dependent on signal quality and often struggles outside a broadband connection.
A further – and important – factor is the reassurance that the presence of a human interpreter can offer service users. We’ve delivered thousands of hours of interpreting to refugees, working with social care and medical staff, and while the feedback is always positive it’s apparent from our follow-up conversations that interviews and appointments achieve far more in a face-to-face format than they do delivered remotely or by telephone.
A final consideration is that a remote interpreter can offer only limited assistance with completing documents or paperwork.