Is this a normal workload?
Thread poster: Ragnar Egilsson
Ragnar Egilsson
Ragnar Egilsson  Identity Verified
Iceland
Local time: 13:10
Member (2008)
English to Icelandic
+ ...
Mar 29, 2023

I have just concluded a project as a simultaneous interpreter and I suspect that it may have been outside the norm and I wanted to share it here to get your opinion on it.

The project involved two days of conference interpreting back-to-back. Each day was 9 hours long with two 30 minute coffee breaks and one 80 minute lunch break but otherwise I would be working the entire time in tandem with the other simultaneous interpreter for my language pair, who shared a booth with me. For th
... See more
I have just concluded a project as a simultaneous interpreter and I suspect that it may have been outside the norm and I wanted to share it here to get your opinion on it.

The project involved two days of conference interpreting back-to-back. Each day was 9 hours long with two 30 minute coffee breaks and one 80 minute lunch break but otherwise I would be working the entire time in tandem with the other simultaneous interpreter for my language pair, who shared a booth with me. For those two days, we both translated in "both directions" (from English into the target language and vice versa). The speakers were from 12 countries, with 7 speaking in English but only two of those people had English as their native language (the rest had thick accents and non-standard intonations and rhythms). Finally, we had interpreters there, who were interpreting from their target language into English and I would then be interpreting their English interpretation into my target language (a game of Chinese whispers).

I found those two days to be very taxing and I wanted to know how common this arrangement was and if this could be considered a "normal" workload?


[Edited at 2023-03-29 08:29 GMT]
Collapse


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:10
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Any SI experience prior to that? Mar 29, 2023

This is SI, as you are saying conference interpreting?

It sounds like it's your first time. What exactly was the problem if you managed to successfully convey all the messages? Did you have problems, what kind? Are you trained? Do you know how to take notes as symbols?

Yes, both direction SI is very common. No room for 4 interpreters in a booth. 2 interpreters are cheaper that 4. 2 booths are cheaper than 4. 2 equipments are cheaper than 4.

Yes, relay inter
... See more
This is SI, as you are saying conference interpreting?

It sounds like it's your first time. What exactly was the problem if you managed to successfully convey all the messages? Did you have problems, what kind? Are you trained? Do you know how to take notes as symbols?

Yes, both direction SI is very common. No room for 4 interpreters in a booth. 2 interpreters are cheaper that 4. 2 booths are cheaper than 4. 2 equipments are cheaper than 4.

Yes, relay interpreting happens with less common language pairs. I don't know how common it is but it is very invited with important events that involve rare language pairs.

Those are international conferences, speakers speaking English with a foreign accent is extremely common. If you have a room full of native speakers in a native country, then there's no need for interpreting, and no job for you. Trained interpreters know how to deal with accents.

The breaks you mentioned are also normal, providing you took turns with your booth partner each 15 minutes.

Well with speech dense conferences it's a normal workload.

Sometimes you are paid for a full day, but after lunch they cancel sessions for the afternoon, but you get paid for a full day. Many scenarios are possible, but training helps you with high workloads.

I hope you charged a hefty fee.

Source: I used to be an interpreting project manager.



[Edited at 2023-03-29 09:21 GMT]
Collapse


Anna Dzidowska
Ragnar Egilsson
Dalia Nour
 
Ragnar Egilsson
Ragnar Egilsson  Identity Verified
Iceland
Local time: 13:10
Member (2008)
English to Icelandic
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
not my first time Mar 29, 2023

This is my 5th time doing it. I have over two decades of experience as a linguist, have some training in interpreting as well and I am confident that my work was to a high standard.
However, my previous stints never went over 6 hours of active time in a day and never included relay (wasn't sure what the industry term was here).

My question was mostly regarding whether 2 x 9 hour stints of two way simultaneous interpreting could be considered an industry normal (as well as the
... See more
This is my 5th time doing it. I have over two decades of experience as a linguist, have some training in interpreting as well and I am confident that my work was to a high standard.
However, my previous stints never went over 6 hours of active time in a day and never included relay (wasn't sure what the industry term was here).

My question was mostly regarding whether 2 x 9 hour stints of two way simultaneous interpreting could be considered an industry normal (as well as the other factors I mentioned) and you gave a very helpful response. Thank you

P.S.

Out of curiosity: What would be considered a "hefty" fee?
(keeping in mind that this is a rare language pair)
Collapse


Dalia Nour
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:10
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Hefty fee overexhaustion Mar 29, 2023

Well for what you described you should have charged 1.5k per day. But since you probably went via an agency, that didn't happen. French and German interpreters tend to charge that much (if they are trained). It also depends on a language pair. But with today's trend of online interpreting, I am not sure if anyone is paid that much any more.

As a standard:
8 hrs - full day
4 hrs - half day

You went 1 hour over the standard, and you should have stipulated it i
... See more
Well for what you described you should have charged 1.5k per day. But since you probably went via an agency, that didn't happen. French and German interpreters tend to charge that much (if they are trained). It also depends on a language pair. But with today's trend of online interpreting, I am not sure if anyone is paid that much any more.

As a standard:
8 hrs - full day
4 hrs - half day

You went 1 hour over the standard, and you should have stipulated it in advance. Since anything after 8 hours is overexhaustion, then you say: anything over 8 hours will be charged an extra day or an extra half-day. Take some time to read about this online. Because this is a live event and many scenarios and moving parts are possible, think about them, and stipulate them in advance. Also cancelation fee, etc.

There are no partial fees in SI. It's either half or full day. If they go over a full day, they can't pay for an extra hour. They need to pay an extra half-day or full day.



[Edited at 2023-03-29 09:44 GMT]
Collapse


Ragnar Egilsson
Dalia Nour
Jorge Payan
 
Srini Venkataraman
Srini Venkataraman
United States
Local time: 08:10
Member (2012)
Tamil to English
+ ...
Si issue Mar 29, 2023

Except for the additional fee for the extra time over the full day (8 hours), which may have already been agreed to, I do not find any issue on the long day of work. Unlike the 4-5 or even more hours of consecutive work in case of depositions I have handled where I feel fagged out at the end, in the simultaneous mode , the switching of interpreters every 30 minutes, provides a break and essentially one will be at work only half the time.

Ragnar Egilsson
 
Ragnar Egilsson
Ragnar Egilsson  Identity Verified
Iceland
Local time: 13:10
Member (2008)
English to Icelandic
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks Mar 30, 2023

thank you for the input - this has been very helpful. It's been a little while since I did a live SI and was coming out of a bad flu, so maybe it was just that which made this feel more daunting than usual.

 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
Maybe I misread that Apr 10, 2023

Did you alternate with only half the time on the mic? In that case, it's near the edge of vocal capabilities and sounds exhausting, but doable.

The "both ways" thing is annoying though. Mentally taxing.

[Edited at 2023-04-10 13:51 GMT]


 
Ragnar Egilsson
Ragnar Egilsson  Identity Verified
Iceland
Local time: 13:10
Member (2008)
English to Icelandic
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
live mic Apr 11, 2023

I estimate 7.5 hours of actual live mic interpreting each day and since I was the more experienced of the two people in the booth, I probably did around 4 hours 15 of actual simultaneous interpreting each day.

 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Is this a normal workload?







Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »