A few times, someone has asked me what it takes to become a church interpreter. In this short article, I want to give an answer. This answer comes both from my own experience and from the research I have read and done on the topic.
To be a church interpreter, you need a church.
Every church interpreter needs a church. You can be an interpreter without a church but you can’t be a church interpreter without a church. This means that you need to have built up a relationship of trust with at least one church to the point where they will let you interpret. There are many ways to do that but the end is the same: if you want to interpret for a church, you need a church to trust you.
To be a church interpreter, you need to know more than one language to an exceptionally high level.
The most common issue with church interpreters reported in research is that the interpreters didn’t have their languages at a high enough level. This doesn’t just mean having a piece of paper that says you can speak or sign a language but knowing the exact variety, register and tone of language used in the church you are working in. Basically, before you sit down to interpret in a church, you should be capable of delivering a talk, using the words and phrases used in that church, in all of the languages you will interpret.
To be a church interpreter, you need to be able to interpret.
Interpreting is a different skill from just knowing more than one language. Interpreting means being able to hear or see a language and then working out how to best express that in another language, given what you know about the context and audience. In some cases, interpreters are expected to do this while the original speaker is still speaking or signing. Needless to say, you will either need to be innately gifted or to have followed training and practice to be able to do it. And, even if you are innately gifted, practice and training will always help.
To be a church interpreter, you need to know how to carry emotion.
From excited preachers to sad stories, church interpreters deal with all sorts of content. It’s not enough just to say what the person said if you don’t carry the same emotion their words carried. Knowing how to interpret while allowing the audience to feel the emotions of the original speaker is no easy feat. Yet it is one church interpreters are expected to pull off every week.
To be a church interpreter, you need to know your Bible.
Church interpreting involves dealing with lots of Bible quotes and not all quotes will be clearly marked as such. This means that church interpreters absolutely have to know the language and phrasing of the most popular Bible translations used in all of their languages. One way to improve your church interpreting skill surprisingly quickly is to spend more time in the Bible.
Those are the five basic requirements that you need to be a church interpreter. Each of them deserves a guide of its own. Starting with those five and working deliberately on each will make a big difference to your work.