(Almost) The whole truth about Telephone Interpreting for the Community
Looove the Ericofon!
(c) 2012 Laura Monzon-Storey
This article follows a presentation I made to Ineke Crezee's interpreting course at AUT . I update it as my work in telephone interpreting progresses.
Community interpreting is a service provided by some governments to help new migrants settle in the new country even if they do not speak the local language. Free access to a service of this kind tells the user that they are
welcome in the new country and that their integration within the local society is important. In this way, interpreters, by means of their skills, contribute to a better society.
Telephone Interpreting is a branch of the interpreting profession and works similarly to face-to-face interpreting. For obvious reasons I like to call it 'pyjamas interpreting'. While this form of interpreting has many advantages, it has many difficulties, too, not always apparent to the eye. Let me draw you a picture:
While you have the great advantage of managing your own working hours and need no extras to professionally perform this task (no travel time, no bus fares, no waiting, no petrol, no parking, no dress clothes -no clothes at all!- and no takeaway coffees -is that a good thing?), you require a great deal of other, less tangible resources at hand.
Besides the indispensables, i.e. a phone, a jotter and a pen, you will need a second set of tools, not less indispensable: for instance, a suitable environment and sufficient time.
But this is by no means the complete list of what is required of someone to be a professional telephone interpreter.
Ours is a highly skilled job that requires extensive training and experience (your employment agency will make sure you provide proof of these, plus some formalities like confidentiality agreements and police clearance certificates before sending out a contract for you to sign) as well as a great deal of common sense.
If you become a telephone interpreter, you may receive a call at any time during the opening hours of the agency you work for. Therefore:
Decide in advance whether you are available or not
If you answer a call, that should mean you are available for work. You shouldn't pick up the phone and decide on the spot whether you are taking a call or not. You need to, in your mind, constantly put yourself on and off call. Sometimes you will have to let others know, too. If you are looking after young children, you need other people in the house know that you would like to take calls, so that when you get one, the children are automatically under someone else's eye and you don't have the agent hearing details of your circumstances at the time of receiving the call.
Have your tools at hand
Keeping the agent or, even worse, the client waiting for you to find pen and paper is not professional. It is not necessary to wear your jotter and fountain
pen as jewelry items but you need to know where to find them quickly. No pen and paper during a call is a no-no. Calls are packed with numbers that have to be translated and names that need to be spelled in both languages. During a call you will need to write and read aloud content all the time.
What YES to do
Now you are ready to start taking calls. Upon accepting an assignment:
Greet the client and the caller
This is polite and makes the other two parties aware of your presence (remember they cannot see you). Greeting and thanking are probably the only two
instances in which you will say something that has not been said in another language before.
Speak clearly and in a professional manner
Regardless of who the caller is or how old they are, I always address them using the (Spanish) polite form of address. I also use 'señor', 'señora' and
'señorita' before their name. This is important, because you need to call their attention before starting your rendition. In a face-to-face conversation, you can call attention with a quick glance at a person, but on the telephone, you need an alternative way. By starting your rendition with 'señor Villagra' or 'señorita Julieta', you gain their attention and your message is more likely to be understood right from the beginning. Ditto when rendering content to the English-speaking party: best if you start by saying 'Mrs Jane' and then render.
Listen attentively
You have to concentrate on what is being said. You cannot see mouths, hands, gestures, so you are relying on voice only. Plus the quality of
sound is lessened over the phone in comparison with face-to-face communication. You cannot have distractions, loud noise, children climbing
on you or demanding your attention. You are there to assist in communication and your job starts by listening attentively.
Observe professional detachment at all times
As in any interpreting job you must speak in a clear, emotionless voice and you must not become emotional or involved in a discussion. You shall not hold
personal conversations (in the unlikely event that you must do so, you ought to explain to the other party what is being said). Never intervene, argue, clarify or give opinions. The rule of thumb shall be you don't need to say anything that has not been said before in another language, other than brief greetings and a short 'thank you' towards the end of the call.
Do not answer questions
Questions are not to be addressed to you but if they are, do not answer them. Try to get out as soon as possible from a situation in which your detachment
may be compromised.
Stick to your role and observe the Code of Ethics to the profession at all times
Render all that is said
If you are being interrupted, you may ask them to allow you to complete the rendition. You will have to handle this on a one-to-one case.
Ask for clarification if needed
You will need to do this more often than on a face-to-face scenario, as you cannot see faces, plus voices on the telephone may not be crisp enough or there
can be noise. If you think you have understood or you think you can guess what is being said, you are taking a huge risk.
Learn to spell with confidence and speed in both languages
Memorise a simple, everyday word for each letter of the alphabet, in both languages. Use those words that are already established for this purpose in the
minds of speakers. E.g. B for 'Brian', M for 'mother', S for 'Sugar' of for 'Susan' (others come from the aeronautical code, e.g. A for 'alpha', B for 'bravo', C for 'Charlie', D for 'delta'). Pretty much every call requires spelling at some stage, meaning you need to be a pro and spell clearly and fast. If you do, not only
you will be of great help to both parties but you will sound very professional and experienced, too. It is not good enough to delay the call looking for a word and
thinking 'M for ... which words start with M?'
Familiarise yourself with the most usual procedures
Learn about immigration applications and forms, requirements to obtain an tax number, types of documentation required for the different procedures of the
different government departments, the list is endless. In that way when the client present their explanations, you are knowledgeable about the subject and
can render with confidence.
Familiarise yourself with the required terminology
Soon you will notice that, in most cases, it all revolves around the same topics, conversations repeat themselves and so does the terminology applied (which
makes your job much easier). As soon as a new word shows up and you are forced to work your way around it, look it up in the dictionary ahead of the next
call. (During an Accident Compensation Corporation call the patient said the word 'injerto', which I had to render as 'reconstructive surgery'. Later on I looked it up
and, of course! 'graft' was the right word.)
What NOT to do
Do not accept a call if you have distractions around you
You need to be in a suitable environment, with no people under your care and with low noise levels.
Do not accept a call if you are in a hurry
This you need to plan in advance. Calls can last from five to about 45 minutes. Usually they last some 20 minutes. It is advisable to have sufficient time before taking an assignment, sufficient time being about 30 minutes. It would be unprofessional to get distracted in the middle of a call (say your children come back from school). Having to end the call before you have completed your job would be even worse and the client will not be impressed.
Do not multitask
If the conversation is being conducted at a slow pace you may want to pick up something left on the couch or return scattered books to their locations on the
shelves, provided these tasks take a few seconds and no brain effort. It is best to just concentrate on the call and leave your hands free for note-taking rather
than try to do dishes, hang out the laundry or straighten your hair. For various reasons, driving while interpreting is an absolute no-no.
Try not to become emotional and never get involved in a discussion
If someone living in this country cannot understand its official language, well... chances are their circumstances are not the happiest (they probably did
not come here on an exciting OE or with a great job opportunity or scholarship). My point is, callers may not be the most highly educated people (some may be,
please do not get me wrong) or have the best financial situation. They are probably quite vulnerable and in need of help. The reasons for their call may
touch your emotions, which may interfere with your performance as a communication facilitator. I cannot ask you not to become emotional, we are
humans after all, but can advise you to try and control your emotions, particularly towards the end of the call, when you have already heard many details of their
case. Self control will help you do your job well and will make you appear professional and human in front of both client and caller.
Do not answer questions
Questions should be treated as a burning ball of fire. Pass questions by the caller on to the client quickly and vice-versa.
If something is being repeated for the tenth time, interpret it for the tenth time
Do not be ashamed of appearing ignorant or slow, it is not you who is asking for repetition.
Try not to interrupt
Do not try to bring the call to an end
This you should manage at the time of accepting the assignment. If you are running out of time, there is nothing you can do but hope the conversation will
end soon, but remember you have no say on when this happens.
Difficulties and challenges
Depending on your country, possible clients are government agencies and some private companies. Examples are the Inland Revenue Department, Ministry of
Justice, police officers, immigration services, state housing and tenancy services, Department of Labour, power companies, accident compensation
corporations, health lines and various Dirstrict Health Boards.
Different clients present different challenges. I will only explain the general difficulties here, if you have a burning question in regards to a
particular type of client, please feel free to email me.
Clients do not fully understand your role
This is common with both face-to-face and telephone interpretation. I had a very anxious caller once, who was trying to get the client to tell him what he wanted
to hear. He asked the same questions over again, until the client got frustrated with me: 'I have already told you, Laura!'. If you come across a situation
like that, I would suggest you take a few seconds to politely explain why you are participating in this conversation and, if necessary, briefly clarify to the other
party what you have just said.
Another common scenario is the client asking you whether you can go online. That should not be your job and it is not necessary. It is the caller who has to
go online, you can only interpret the instructions the client wants to give a caller.
Speaker 'speaks a bible'
Many times a speaker says 300+ words with little or no regard to the difficulties of assimilating a lenghty monologue and accurately rendering it (whether it is in another language or not). At this point (maybe when the speaker takes a breath in their speech), you are allowed to politely break in to apologise and say that you need to render. Most speakers are fine with this.
Speaker cannot spell
This is very, very common. Some people are not used to spelling and are completely lost when you ask them to. I once had to say to a client who could not find a
person in the system: 'I am sorry but the caller cannot spell her name' (her pronunciation of the surname and her spelling of it didn't match). I know I wasn't being the nicest person in the world, but I need to protect myself. Eventually the caller found a bank statement and spelled her name correctly.
Difficult accents
No wonder they need an interpreter! I need one too! Even us interpreters may find ourselves struggling to understand a (gorgeous) Northern England accent or
(a not so attractive) one from Wichita. This is when you most need to have a quiet working environment and may need to ask for clarification. But it doesn't end there. You may find that you also have difficulty understanding an accent in your language or that you are not familiar with certain colloquialisms. There is only one solution to that hurdle: ask.
You understand a point that one of the parties is missing
Of course. You grew up in the country of the LOTE* and you have lived in this other country long enough to be well immersed in its culture and society. I.e., you
are familiar with the dynamics of daily life in both societies. But caller and client aren't. So a concept that is crystal clear for you is an enigma for one of the parties, and then kah-boom! Communication is broken. So, what to do? Intervene?¡Jamás! Explain? Nie im Leben! You just carry on interpreting and hope
they will sort it out.
The caller understands English quite well
This is somewhat contradictory. A caller that understands English does not necessarily contribute to good communication, quite the opposite. Many times
callers ask for interpreters because they lack confidence speaking or because they want to make sure they get all the information they need. This is great,
except when they decide not to wait for your rendition and start talking over you. When this happens (it all gets quite confussing and) I feel I am not doing my job
properly. I somehow feel anxious that there could be dangerous misunderstandings. Imagine the caller gets the wrong message, whose responsibility is that? Exactly: the interpreter's.
The caller is frustrated
It is inportant to note that by the time you jump on board, the call has been going on for a while already. Chances are communication was difficult and the
parties were confused and therefore it was decided to use the interpreting service, i.e., you. Many times the caller is tired, frustrated or upset. Sometimes the client is not happy either. In such cases it is easy to take in that frustration and get upset. Well, they have called you to facilitate communication so my advice is try not to get affected and do the best you can to help.
You are a blind interpreter
You cannot see faces, gestures, movement, body language. So you only rely on words and voices. This is a disadvantage in itself, but it is particularly bad
when the other parties can indeed see each other, like when interpreting a medical consultation. Often the practitioner puts you, the interpreter, on speakerphone and conducts the medical examination. They may be gesturing or doing Heaven knows what with their hands and you are missing on important information. The practitioner may start reading a written report and you wonder why his voice has suddenly become monotone and his vocabulary so technical. If you are in doubt of what is going on at the doctor´s room, explain your role and ask.
You get stuck on a word
Isn't that... what's the word? Oh, yes, annoying? It happens to all of us in all our languages. Well, the more you work, the less often it happens. You only need to handle the situation by means of an explanation around the missing word. Don't worry, it will come to you in time for the next call!
Wrapping up
I bet that when you decided to become a telephone interpreter, you didn't think about many of the issues I have just bored you with here.
At least you now have in front of you some guidelines that may assist you in having a successful telephone interpreter career right from the start. You will soon have your own experiences to add to these guidelines.
Me myself, I had some suggestions supplied by my employer and the all too well known Code of Ethics of the intepreting profession. I didn't know any telephone interpreters nor had I read anything about the job. It just seemed an interesting way to use my skills for contributing to society and, due to my passion for words and languages, it sounded like the right job for me.
I sent my application and, formalities completed (contracts,qualifications, forms, references), I got accepted and got sent some information about other
formalities like payslips and requests for account numbers. The next thing I heard was a call from the agency asking me whether I could take an assignment. I
had just finished a face-to-face interpreting job and was walking towards my car to drive home and the request came totally unexpectedly. I got in the car and
said: 'Glup, sure!', and that was it, I was inside the fighting ring. I was terribly lucky to have pen and paper at hand (which I only seldomly carried then and always have with me now). Yes, I was very lucky. ❒
* Language Other Than English
This article follows a presentation I made to Ineke Crezee's interpreting course at AUT . I update it as my work in telephone interpreting progresses.
Community interpreting is a service provided by some governments to help new migrants settle in the new country even if they do not speak the local language. Free access to a service of this kind tells the user that they are
welcome in the new country and that their integration within the local society is important. In this way, interpreters, by means of their skills, contribute to a better society.
Telephone Interpreting is a branch of the interpreting profession and works similarly to face-to-face interpreting. For obvious reasons I like to call it 'pyjamas interpreting'. While this form of interpreting has many advantages, it has many difficulties, too, not always apparent to the eye. Let me draw you a picture:
While you have the great advantage of managing your own working hours and need no extras to professionally perform this task (no travel time, no bus fares, no waiting, no petrol, no parking, no dress clothes -no clothes at all!- and no takeaway coffees -is that a good thing?), you require a great deal of other, less tangible resources at hand.
Besides the indispensables, i.e. a phone, a jotter and a pen, you will need a second set of tools, not less indispensable: for instance, a suitable environment and sufficient time.
But this is by no means the complete list of what is required of someone to be a professional telephone interpreter.
Ours is a highly skilled job that requires extensive training and experience (your employment agency will make sure you provide proof of these, plus some formalities like confidentiality agreements and police clearance certificates before sending out a contract for you to sign) as well as a great deal of common sense.
If you become a telephone interpreter, you may receive a call at any time during the opening hours of the agency you work for. Therefore:
Decide in advance whether you are available or not
If you answer a call, that should mean you are available for work. You shouldn't pick up the phone and decide on the spot whether you are taking a call or not. You need to, in your mind, constantly put yourself on and off call. Sometimes you will have to let others know, too. If you are looking after young children, you need other people in the house know that you would like to take calls, so that when you get one, the children are automatically under someone else's eye and you don't have the agent hearing details of your circumstances at the time of receiving the call.
Have your tools at hand
Keeping the agent or, even worse, the client waiting for you to find pen and paper is not professional. It is not necessary to wear your jotter and fountain
pen as jewelry items but you need to know where to find them quickly. No pen and paper during a call is a no-no. Calls are packed with numbers that have to be translated and names that need to be spelled in both languages. During a call you will need to write and read aloud content all the time.
What YES to do
Now you are ready to start taking calls. Upon accepting an assignment:
Greet the client and the caller
This is polite and makes the other two parties aware of your presence (remember they cannot see you). Greeting and thanking are probably the only two
instances in which you will say something that has not been said in another language before.
Speak clearly and in a professional manner
Regardless of who the caller is or how old they are, I always address them using the (Spanish) polite form of address. I also use 'señor', 'señora' and
'señorita' before their name. This is important, because you need to call their attention before starting your rendition. In a face-to-face conversation, you can call attention with a quick glance at a person, but on the telephone, you need an alternative way. By starting your rendition with 'señor Villagra' or 'señorita Julieta', you gain their attention and your message is more likely to be understood right from the beginning. Ditto when rendering content to the English-speaking party: best if you start by saying 'Mrs Jane' and then render.
Listen attentively
You have to concentrate on what is being said. You cannot see mouths, hands, gestures, so you are relying on voice only. Plus the quality of
sound is lessened over the phone in comparison with face-to-face communication. You cannot have distractions, loud noise, children climbing
on you or demanding your attention. You are there to assist in communication and your job starts by listening attentively.
Observe professional detachment at all times
As in any interpreting job you must speak in a clear, emotionless voice and you must not become emotional or involved in a discussion. You shall not hold
personal conversations (in the unlikely event that you must do so, you ought to explain to the other party what is being said). Never intervene, argue, clarify or give opinions. The rule of thumb shall be you don't need to say anything that has not been said before in another language, other than brief greetings and a short 'thank you' towards the end of the call.
Do not answer questions
Questions are not to be addressed to you but if they are, do not answer them. Try to get out as soon as possible from a situation in which your detachment
may be compromised.
Stick to your role and observe the Code of Ethics to the profession at all times
Render all that is said
If you are being interrupted, you may ask them to allow you to complete the rendition. You will have to handle this on a one-to-one case.
Ask for clarification if needed
You will need to do this more often than on a face-to-face scenario, as you cannot see faces, plus voices on the telephone may not be crisp enough or there
can be noise. If you think you have understood or you think you can guess what is being said, you are taking a huge risk.
Learn to spell with confidence and speed in both languages
Memorise a simple, everyday word for each letter of the alphabet, in both languages. Use those words that are already established for this purpose in the
minds of speakers. E.g. B for 'Brian', M for 'mother', S for 'Sugar' of for 'Susan' (others come from the aeronautical code, e.g. A for 'alpha', B for 'bravo', C for 'Charlie', D for 'delta'). Pretty much every call requires spelling at some stage, meaning you need to be a pro and spell clearly and fast. If you do, not only
you will be of great help to both parties but you will sound very professional and experienced, too. It is not good enough to delay the call looking for a word and
thinking 'M for ... which words start with M?'
Familiarise yourself with the most usual procedures
Learn about immigration applications and forms, requirements to obtain an tax number, types of documentation required for the different procedures of the
different government departments, the list is endless. In that way when the client present their explanations, you are knowledgeable about the subject and
can render with confidence.
Familiarise yourself with the required terminology
Soon you will notice that, in most cases, it all revolves around the same topics, conversations repeat themselves and so does the terminology applied (which
makes your job much easier). As soon as a new word shows up and you are forced to work your way around it, look it up in the dictionary ahead of the next
call. (During an Accident Compensation Corporation call the patient said the word 'injerto', which I had to render as 'reconstructive surgery'. Later on I looked it up
and, of course! 'graft' was the right word.)
What NOT to do
Do not accept a call if you have distractions around you
You need to be in a suitable environment, with no people under your care and with low noise levels.
Do not accept a call if you are in a hurry
This you need to plan in advance. Calls can last from five to about 45 minutes. Usually they last some 20 minutes. It is advisable to have sufficient time before taking an assignment, sufficient time being about 30 minutes. It would be unprofessional to get distracted in the middle of a call (say your children come back from school). Having to end the call before you have completed your job would be even worse and the client will not be impressed.
Do not multitask
If the conversation is being conducted at a slow pace you may want to pick up something left on the couch or return scattered books to their locations on the
shelves, provided these tasks take a few seconds and no brain effort. It is best to just concentrate on the call and leave your hands free for note-taking rather
than try to do dishes, hang out the laundry or straighten your hair. For various reasons, driving while interpreting is an absolute no-no.
Try not to become emotional and never get involved in a discussion
If someone living in this country cannot understand its official language, well... chances are their circumstances are not the happiest (they probably did
not come here on an exciting OE or with a great job opportunity or scholarship). My point is, callers may not be the most highly educated people (some may be,
please do not get me wrong) or have the best financial situation. They are probably quite vulnerable and in need of help. The reasons for their call may
touch your emotions, which may interfere with your performance as a communication facilitator. I cannot ask you not to become emotional, we are
humans after all, but can advise you to try and control your emotions, particularly towards the end of the call, when you have already heard many details of their
case. Self control will help you do your job well and will make you appear professional and human in front of both client and caller.
Do not answer questions
Questions should be treated as a burning ball of fire. Pass questions by the caller on to the client quickly and vice-versa.
If something is being repeated for the tenth time, interpret it for the tenth time
Do not be ashamed of appearing ignorant or slow, it is not you who is asking for repetition.
Try not to interrupt
Do not try to bring the call to an end
This you should manage at the time of accepting the assignment. If you are running out of time, there is nothing you can do but hope the conversation will
end soon, but remember you have no say on when this happens.
Difficulties and challenges
Depending on your country, possible clients are government agencies and some private companies. Examples are the Inland Revenue Department, Ministry of
Justice, police officers, immigration services, state housing and tenancy services, Department of Labour, power companies, accident compensation
corporations, health lines and various Dirstrict Health Boards.
Different clients present different challenges. I will only explain the general difficulties here, if you have a burning question in regards to a
particular type of client, please feel free to email me.
Clients do not fully understand your role
This is common with both face-to-face and telephone interpretation. I had a very anxious caller once, who was trying to get the client to tell him what he wanted
to hear. He asked the same questions over again, until the client got frustrated with me: 'I have already told you, Laura!'. If you come across a situation
like that, I would suggest you take a few seconds to politely explain why you are participating in this conversation and, if necessary, briefly clarify to the other
party what you have just said.
Another common scenario is the client asking you whether you can go online. That should not be your job and it is not necessary. It is the caller who has to
go online, you can only interpret the instructions the client wants to give a caller.
Speaker 'speaks a bible'
Many times a speaker says 300+ words with little or no regard to the difficulties of assimilating a lenghty monologue and accurately rendering it (whether it is in another language or not). At this point (maybe when the speaker takes a breath in their speech), you are allowed to politely break in to apologise and say that you need to render. Most speakers are fine with this.
Speaker cannot spell
This is very, very common. Some people are not used to spelling and are completely lost when you ask them to. I once had to say to a client who could not find a
person in the system: 'I am sorry but the caller cannot spell her name' (her pronunciation of the surname and her spelling of it didn't match). I know I wasn't being the nicest person in the world, but I need to protect myself. Eventually the caller found a bank statement and spelled her name correctly.
Difficult accents
No wonder they need an interpreter! I need one too! Even us interpreters may find ourselves struggling to understand a (gorgeous) Northern England accent or
(a not so attractive) one from Wichita. This is when you most need to have a quiet working environment and may need to ask for clarification. But it doesn't end there. You may find that you also have difficulty understanding an accent in your language or that you are not familiar with certain colloquialisms. There is only one solution to that hurdle: ask.
You understand a point that one of the parties is missing
Of course. You grew up in the country of the LOTE* and you have lived in this other country long enough to be well immersed in its culture and society. I.e., you
are familiar with the dynamics of daily life in both societies. But caller and client aren't. So a concept that is crystal clear for you is an enigma for one of the parties, and then kah-boom! Communication is broken. So, what to do? Intervene?¡Jamás! Explain? Nie im Leben! You just carry on interpreting and hope
they will sort it out.
The caller understands English quite well
This is somewhat contradictory. A caller that understands English does not necessarily contribute to good communication, quite the opposite. Many times
callers ask for interpreters because they lack confidence speaking or because they want to make sure they get all the information they need. This is great,
except when they decide not to wait for your rendition and start talking over you. When this happens (it all gets quite confussing and) I feel I am not doing my job
properly. I somehow feel anxious that there could be dangerous misunderstandings. Imagine the caller gets the wrong message, whose responsibility is that? Exactly: the interpreter's.
The caller is frustrated
It is inportant to note that by the time you jump on board, the call has been going on for a while already. Chances are communication was difficult and the
parties were confused and therefore it was decided to use the interpreting service, i.e., you. Many times the caller is tired, frustrated or upset. Sometimes the client is not happy either. In such cases it is easy to take in that frustration and get upset. Well, they have called you to facilitate communication so my advice is try not to get affected and do the best you can to help.
You are a blind interpreter
You cannot see faces, gestures, movement, body language. So you only rely on words and voices. This is a disadvantage in itself, but it is particularly bad
when the other parties can indeed see each other, like when interpreting a medical consultation. Often the practitioner puts you, the interpreter, on speakerphone and conducts the medical examination. They may be gesturing or doing Heaven knows what with their hands and you are missing on important information. The practitioner may start reading a written report and you wonder why his voice has suddenly become monotone and his vocabulary so technical. If you are in doubt of what is going on at the doctor´s room, explain your role and ask.
You get stuck on a word
Isn't that... what's the word? Oh, yes, annoying? It happens to all of us in all our languages. Well, the more you work, the less often it happens. You only need to handle the situation by means of an explanation around the missing word. Don't worry, it will come to you in time for the next call!
Wrapping up
I bet that when you decided to become a telephone interpreter, you didn't think about many of the issues I have just bored you with here.
At least you now have in front of you some guidelines that may assist you in having a successful telephone interpreter career right from the start. You will soon have your own experiences to add to these guidelines.
Me myself, I had some suggestions supplied by my employer and the all too well known Code of Ethics of the intepreting profession. I didn't know any telephone interpreters nor had I read anything about the job. It just seemed an interesting way to use my skills for contributing to society and, due to my passion for words and languages, it sounded like the right job for me.
I sent my application and, formalities completed (contracts,qualifications, forms, references), I got accepted and got sent some information about other
formalities like payslips and requests for account numbers. The next thing I heard was a call from the agency asking me whether I could take an assignment. I
had just finished a face-to-face interpreting job and was walking towards my car to drive home and the request came totally unexpectedly. I got in the car and
said: 'Glup, sure!', and that was it, I was inside the fighting ring. I was terribly lucky to have pen and paper at hand (which I only seldomly carried then and always have with me now). Yes, I was very lucky. ❒
* Language Other Than English