Phone interpretation differs from translation in a couple other ways. For example the who translation process is very different. With a textual translation you will receive your text, you will send your text to your translator or translation service firm Traduzione Simultanea, and within a specified period of time they will provide you with a full translation of the text. It is a very regimented, cut and dry process, and there is little to no back and forth between anyone involved. In fact, it is extremely uncommon for the translator of traditional text translations to ever speak with or contact the writer of the original text.
Phone interpretation works considerably differently. With phone interpretation your interpreter will be simply acting as a link between yourself and the person who you are speaking with on the phone who uses a different language. So instead of providing a translation on their own, a phone interpreter is going to be translating your speech and your partner’s speech in real time. You will say something, your interpreter will translate it for you and speak the translation to your partner on the phone. Your partner on the phone will speak and your interpreter will translate their speech to your language and tell you what they said. As you can see, this is a very different process than most text translation.
This also means that phone interpreters need to have different qualities than traditional translators. They need to be conversationally fluent within their needed languages, which actually isn’t entirely necessary with a textual translator who just needs to understand the languages written down. They need to be able to work and interpret and translate in real time, and they need to be able to make sure that both parties fully understand each other as the conversation moves on.
Remember that a conversation is a two way street of speaking, listening, understanding and responding, and this is very different than the one-way conversation of most static texts. You’ll also need to make sure that your interpreter or interpretation service is available around the clock, as phone interpretation needs are considerably more unpredictable than textual translation needs.
Take your time finding a good provider of phone interpreting. Test them out with some small-scale conversations that have relatively small stakes. This will not only allow you to make sure your interpreter is good enough for your needs, but it will also give you the opportunity to develop confidence and comfort with the process yourself.