If your church has people who speak different languages, at some point you might want to provide interpreting. But how do you go about it? Here are four quick tips.
For interpreting into just one language, interpreting on-stage is a great option.
I used to attend an English-speaking church where, for a few months, there was a sudden influx of French-speakers from the Democratic Republic of Congo. For the first few weeks, these visitors were quite numerous. For some services, the interpreter (me!) just stood on stage next to the preacher and took turns to speak.
There are some real advantages to this strategy. For one thing, it’s basically free. All you need is another microphone, a willing interpreter and off you go. If you already have the stage space, the microphone and the interpreter, you have everything you need to get started already.
Another less obvious advantage of providing interpreting this way is that it makes obvious that it is going on. It puts outreach to people who speak different languages front and centre. This tells people that different languages are important in your church. When reaching people who speak different languages is an important part of your Church’s mission, having the interpreting onstage reminds people of that fact even before the interpreter opens their mouth.
Finally, this form of interpreting scales very well. It really doesn’t matter whether you have one person who requires interpreting or 1000, having the interpreter on stage works perfectly well for any size of audience. Rather than having to buy extra headsets or supply extra technology, if the interpreter is on stage, one microphone is enough for any number of people who need interpreting.
For many languages at once, you will need special equipment.
While it is possible to ask willing interpreters to whisper into people’s ears during the service. This usually doesn’t produce great results. For a start, it’s very disturbing to everyone else. I have done whispered interpreting on many occasions and every time, at least one person has tapped me on the shoulder to ask me to be quiet. Whispered interpreting may help the people who hear the interpreting, but it disturbs everyone else.
This is why some form of simultaneous interpreting using the right equipment is a very good idea if you need interpreting for more than one language at the same time. Simultaneous interpreting means at the interpreter speaks at the same time as the main speaker. This requires the interpreter to be working in some kind of soundproof booth or box, and it requires equipment to relay the sound into the ears of the interpreters and into the ears of the people who are hearing them.
An important side note here is that sign languages are slightly different. Sign languages are visual/spatial languages so you can have more than one interpreter on stage at once. The interpreters will need to be able to clearly see and hear everything that’s going on anyway, so technology might still be required.
Simultaneous interpreting equipment ranges in price but is almost always very expensive. One possible exception to this is the use of remote interpreting platforms, which allow the sound to be passed to interpreters and hearers via the Internet. You still require a sound isolated environment so the interpreters can hear what is being said and so that the interpreting doesn’t disturb people who aren’t listening to it.
Test your interpreters, with the right people present.
Before someone is offered the opportunity to interpret, it is important that they are tested. If you have never provided interpreting before, it is very important that when you’re testing the interpreters that there are people in the audience who are going to be receiving the interpreting. The whole point of interpreting is that people need it because they don’t understand one language or the other. Therefore, simply testing interpreters in front of a monolingual leadership team is not going to be enough to give you good results.
An alternative to this kind of testing is to get recommendations from people whom you trust. Make sure that these people have considerable experience in receiving, delivering, or offering interpreting. It’s also important to make it clear how you are expecting the interpreters to do their work (simultaneously or on stage) and what kind of people you’re looking for. It may be useful for an initial period to hire professional church interpreters from outside the church until your internal capacity is built up.
Build feedback mechanisms before you start.
One final point is that it is important to build feedback mechanisms before you start providing interpreting. Make sure there is a way to find out how well the interpreters are doing, how happy they are with the setup, and whether the interpreting is functioning the way that you need it to function in your church. It will almost certainly be important to hear from leaders, preachers, interpreters and those receiving the interpreting.
Informal chats are a very good place to start. As the interpreting continues, you may wish to build something rather more formal. Always remember that interpreting works better when it’s part of a wider vision or strategy. It’s important to measure the contribution of interpreting against this wider vision or strategy. If done well, interpreting can make a real difference, not just in your congregation, but in the community around you.