Language interpreters need to possess communicative as well as linguistic skills.

Professional interpreters are, of course, language experts. But they must be communication experts as well.

If you look at a list of communication skills,  a great number of them apply to interpreters – except those involving reformulation and expressing one’s opinion, because an interpreter’s job is to convey as precisely as possible what a speaker has said.

Think about these skills, which are just a few from the above list:

·         Taking responsibility for one’s messages

·         Preparing to listen

·         Assessing without being judgmental

·         Conveying to others a message without commanding or dictating terms

·         Being aware of the information coming in

It’s undeniable that all of those competencies and more are crucial in interpreting, and intertwine inseparably with language skills to make for a professional and accurate language interpreter.

See: Language Inc Blog