Simultaneous Interpretation: What Matter More, Quality or Speed?

Language and speech. Form and content. An eternal dilemma that cannot be solved, but which has to be put up with every day.

In the field of simultaneous translation, this category manifests itself in the antinomy between the quality and speed of translation.

• The translator is regularly faced with the need to make a choice: either to devote additional time to finding the most accurate language equivalent, or to ensure timely transmission of information, following the speaker's pace.

• Quality is an absolute priority, but the specifics of interpretation, especially simultaneous, dictate limitations. Over time, there is a cognitive load on the working memory, which leads to the loss of subsequent statements and a decrease in the adequacy of the transmission of meaning.

• If the interpretor spends time selecting words, the quality of the translation can be very high, especially when familiar terms or stable expressions are used. But if the time to search for a translation increases, the quality decreases because pauses prevent the interpretor from focusing and understanding new information.

Of course, there are times when a delay is justified — for example, if the exact term or name of the organization is at stake. Then every second of waiting can be worth a reputation, and the right option is really worth the effort. But even here there is a limit: the moment when the search turns into a loss.

The main conclusion is simple — in simultaneous interpretation, quality is inextricably linked to speed. It is considered optimal to find not an ideal, but a timely and functionally suitable option. The ability to balance between these parameters is one of the key indicators of a interpretor's professionalism.