Since early March last year, multinational corporations and international associations have had to turn face-to-face events into online video conferences that use digital interpreting tools. Before, many interpreters worked solely or mostly in person at events, courtrooms and in hospitals, which has become less and less feasible as the pandemic continues.

In this episode I wanted to focus on interpreters and how their businesses have changed due to the pandemic. Since I am not an interpreter myself, I have brought on three interpreters to tell their story, Alex Drechsel, Alex Gansmeier and Jonathan Downie, three out of the four hosts of the Troublesome Terps podcast.

Important things discussed in this episode:

• How the business has changed for them during the pandemic
• How they find work, or market their interpreting services right now
• The switch to online interpreting
• Whether the pandemic will affect the future of interpreting
• The importance of referral marketing

Useful links for this episode:

• Alex D: techforword.com
• Alex G: gansmeier.com
• Jonathan: integritylanguages.co.uk
• Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-hickey-terp/

The pandemic will most likely have a lasting effect on how interpreters operate in the future. For interpreting services to evolve and demonstrate value, organizations and professionals need to be resilient, flexible, and able to adapt to today’s digital world. The common conclusion in this interview was that in-person interpreting is still a much needed and valued service, that will pick back up once the restrictions disappear.

I hope you find a lot of valuable insights here. We would love to hear from you. You can comment below or email us.

Listener Shoutout

This one is from Paul Urwin from United Kingdom. He said:

Bio

Jonathan Downie is a consultant interpreter, French to English and English to French conference and business interpreter, researcher and author, trading under the name Integrity Languages. He has written two books: Being a Successful Interpreter: Adding Value and Delivering Excellence (Routledge, 2016) and Interpreters vs Machines: Can interpreters survive in an AI-dominated world? (Routledge, 2019). He co-hosts the Troublesome Terps podcast with Alexander Drechsel, Alexander Gansmeier and Sarah Hickey and runs the Inside Interpreting YouTube channel. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and four children.

Alexander Drechsel works as a conference interpreter at the European Commission. He loves languages and communicating with people and is enthusiastic about technology: Alexander has been an iPad user since day one and also knows a thing or two about Android tablets. As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of techforword, Alexander shares his knowledge in courses, on Twitter, and elsewhere. An avid podcaster, Alex produces two podcasts for language professionals, Troublesome Terps and LangFM.

Alexander Gansmeier is a Munich, Germany based freelance German/English conference and consultant interpreter. After graduating from and lecturing at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, Alexander started freelancing, specializing in digitalization, automotive technology, business and marketing and medical and pharmaceutical conferences and meetings. Alexander is one of AIIC Germany’s two Technical Officers, monitoring developments and standards in conference and remote interpreting technology, as well as a member of the “Konferenzdolmetscher Deutschland” network (“Conference Interpreters Germany”).

Alexander is also one fourth of the Troublesome Terps podcast, the podcast about the things that keep interpreters up all night.

Sarah

As Chief Researcher at Nimdzi Insights, Sarah Hickey analyzes the language services market from all angles. Her experience as a translator and conference interpreter allows her to have a unique view of the industry. Her background in journalism has always led her down the path of critical thinking and objective reporting. Sarah leads the research for Nimdzi’s global market studies, such as the Nimdzi 100 and the Nimdzi Interpreting Index. Her research further focuses on Virtual Interpreting Technology (VIT). Sarah also still works as a freelance conference interpreter.

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