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Telephone interpreting is a service that connects human interpreters via telephone to individuals who wish to speak to each other but do not share a common language. The telephone interpreter converts the spoken language from one language to another, enabling listeners and speakers to understand each other. Interpretation over the telephone most often takes place in consecutive mode, which means that the interpreter waits until the speaker finishes an utterance before rendering the interpretation into the other language.
Telephone interpreting is one modality or delivery mechanism for providing interpreting services. Other forms of delivering interpreting services include in-person interpreting and video interpreting for the deaf and hard of hearing.
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There are many types of organizations that provide telephone interpreting services, including for-profit companies, governmental organizations, non-profit groups, and internal divisions within organizations. For example, the government of Australia operates a telephone interpreting service,[6] as do the governments of South Africa and New Zealand.[7][8]
In the United States, telephone interpreting is widely used by its federal courts.[9] Numerous commercial providers are also available and commonly used. Many of the commercial telephone interpreting providers connect users with interpreters for more than 150 languages. Some providers claim to have the ability to connect an interpreter at any time of day, within a matter of seconds. Some hospitals and health care systems also provide telephone interpreting services.[10]
Major providers of telephone interpretation in the United States include Language Line Services, CyraCom International and Pacific Interpreters. In 2009, CyraCom was the second largest supplier of telephone interpretation in the world behind Language Line Services ranked #1, while Pacific Interpreters was the fifth largest [11].
Language Line Inc. is a commercial interpreting provider that was initially a charity. British social activist Michael Young noticed that language barriers were leading to substandard services for ethnic minorities at Royal London Hospital, so he obtained grant funding to provide free telephone interpreters starting in 1990. Police on the Isle of Dogs became his second client, and he later began serving corporate clients and converted the charity into a commercial service.[12]
World Interpreting is a service similar to Language Line, but it is offered worldwide. Linguist Sean Hopwood started the service in 2005 which provides service on a global basis, including to law firms, hospitals and media.[13]
Language Direct is a similar service provider but specializes in in-person interpreting and document translations. They provide language services in over 150 world languages, mainly to the government sector.
TheBigWord won a cross government framework in the U.K. in 2006, after which they opened offices globally to supply telephone interpreting (OPI) and related services.
Users typically access telephone interpreting services with a telephone or computer with VoIP. However, if the two parties wishing to communicate are in the same location, using a dual handset phone, a phone with two receivers, can relieve the two parties from passing a phone back and forth. Speakerphones are also sometimes used, but these can create challenges both in terms of confidentiality, and for the interpreter, especially due to background noise, which can hinder the interpreter's ability to hear.
The dual handset phone was first offered by a company called CyraCom, a provider of telephone interpreting services, and is now widely available. There is also a variant made specifically for the U.K. Government by their telephone interpreting providers.[14] These companies usually either lease or sell the phones to their telephone interpreting customers but have been known to give them to key accounts as part of a contract.[15] Dual-handset phones can be bought directly by customers, enabling them to obtain the phones without obtaining them through a telephone interpreting company.
Where one party is deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired, communication via an off-site sign language interpreter can be performed using a video link using the necessary video telecommunication equipment.
The provisioning of telephone interpreting generally fits into two main categories:
Telephone interpreting is widely used in a number of settings, including health care,[16] government, financial, emergency telephone call centres (e.g. '9-1-1' or '1-1-2'), and others. Telephone interpreting is especially helpful for settings in which the two parties would communicate via telephone anyway, such as interactions between call centers and consumers, calls between members of the public and emergency telephone call centres, etc... Telephone interpreting can be used to take applications over the phone and help individuals with account issues.
Telephone interpretation via Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) or a Video Relay Service (VRS) are also useful where one of the parties is deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired. In such cases the interpretation flow is normally within the same principal language, such as French Sign Language (FSL) to spoken French, Spanish Sign Language (SSL) to spoken Spanish, British Sign Language (BSL) to spoken English, and American Sign Language (ASL) also to spoken English (since BSL and ASL are completely distinct), etc.... Multilingual sign language interpreters, who can also translate as well across principal languages (such as to and from SSL, to and from spoken English), are also available, albeit less frequently. Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the translator, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction and syntax, which are different from the aural version of the same principal language.
In 2007, the global telephone interpreting market was worth $700 million, with an estimated $500 million generated in the United States. Industry analyst firm Common Sense Advisory estimates that in 2012, the market will be worth $1.2 billion, an increase of 70% from 2007. The market for telephone interpreting is global in scope and includes companies from the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, Norway, Spain, and Hong Kong.[17]