Best practice

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BEST PRACTICE
Guidelines for Speakers

To ensure clear, high-quality interpreting, it is important for speakers to follow some simple best practice principles. The guidelines below outline essential points to consider to ensure effective communication and guarantee your audience a complete and professional listening experience.

Documentation
It is essential to send interpreters all relevant materials and documents related to the topics to be covered well in advance.
This includes presentations, agendas and any supporting documents. Adequate preparation allows interpreters to familiarise themselves with the content, thereby improving the quality of interpreting service.

Speaking at a moderate pace facilitates listening for both the audience and interpreters, avoiding errors during interpretation.

Using microphones is fundamental if interpreters are to hear clearly and to ensure good interpretation quality.

During Q&A sessions, providing the audience with a sufficient number of microphones is essential. For remote events, we recommend using a professional USB headset; otherwise the use of a quality external microphone connected to a USB port is crucial here.

Built-in computer microphones do not provide sufficient audio quality.

For anyone organising a remote event, it is essential to ensure that all speakers use a wired Ethernet connection rather than Wi-Fi.

This ensures a more stable connection with lower latency, both fundamental conditions for successful interpretation.

Interpreters must have full visibility of the speaker as well as the content being presented, whether in person or remotely.

Breaks approximately every 2 hours are indispensable, as simultaneous interpreting is an extremely intense and demanding activity.

Breaks allow interpreters to rest, so maintaining high levels of concentration and ensuring high quality standards throughout the event.

For both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, it is preferable for speakers to talk naturally, without simply reading out their presentations.

When speakers need to read their speech, they must share the text with the interpreters beforehand and read at a pace that both the audience and interpreters can follow.

Impromptu presentations are more natural and engaging for the audience.

Pronouncing names and numbers clearly is fundamental here. Interpreters need precise, well-articulated information about people’s names (e.g. list of participants and speakers), place names and numbers.

This information should be provided to them in advance whenever possible.

When using uncommon acronyms, it is important to explain them. Interpreters and the audience may not always be familiar with internal, technical or specific abbreviations.

Jokes and wordplay are often untranslatable. Simultaneous interpreting requires immediate translation, and such elements can easily be misunderstood.

Use an anecdote or a joke not based on double meanings if you want to bring a smile to your listeners’ faces.

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