CHALLENGES OF OVER-THE-PHONE INTERPRETING

The history, advantages, and disadvantages of OPI.

A comprehensive guide on how to start a career in this field, tips for maintaining professionalism, managing challenging calls, and the importance of self-care.

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Transcript

Maritza AI: 0:00

If I asked you what is the most difficult type of interpreting, what would you say? Would you say conference interpreting, where there are hundreds of people listening to you interpreting in their language? How about court interpreting where you're sitting next to a judge interpreting for the defendant and everyone else in the courtroom? Or would you say it's medical interpreting because you have to be able to interpret medical terminology to patients? If you asked me, I would say it would definitely be over-the-phone interpreting. In this episode of Interpreters and Interrupters, I'm going to talk about what is over-the-phone interpreting, also known as OPI and how you can become an interpreter. The telephone was invented in 1876. By the 1920s there were 138,000 switchboard operators and that number continued to grow as more people adopted the use of the telephone and needed to make calls that were not just in their city or state but overseas as well long-distance calling. In the 1930s, there were more than 230,000 switchboard operators. Though the telephone was widely used, it wasn't until the 1950s when people started thinking, what if you had to make a phone call to someone that doesn't speak the same language? That's when the notion of incorporating over-the-phone interpreters started. In 1973, the Australian government implemented a free service for immigrants. 1981 that the United States started offering OPI. For the next ten years, over-the-phone interpreting services grew due to financial services, telecommunications, health care, and public safety needs. Despite the benefits of over-the-phone interpreting, there are some advantages and disadvantages. One big advantage of OPI is that there is an interpreter available 24/7. There's a wider range of languages. More than 150 languages available. Also, over-the-phone interpreting is a profession. There are thousands of over-the-phone interpreters that work phones every single day. For the interpreter and the consumer, there's flexibility of working hours and availability. A consumer can call a commercial company or a government agency and within minutes be connected to an interpreter. Another advantage of OPI is that there is confidentiality and impartiality. It's embarrassing for a patient to have an interpreter in a medical exam room when they visit the doctor. Instead of having an interpreter present in the room, the doctor and the patient can speak to each other and simply listen to the interpreter on the speaker. There's also the advantage of professional distance. It's easier to have a professional interpreter on the phone than have somebody who's a family member or a staff member trying to interpret for the parties in-person. A good interpreter at a distance is better than a bad one up close or none at all. The disadvantage of over-the-phone interpreting is the consecutive mode itself. Not being able to see how many people are in the room, are they passing the phone back and forth to each other, or do they have the interpreter on speakerphone, makes it difficult to establish the turn-taking rhythm that is required with consecutive interpreting. The interpreter can't see the body language or any facial expressions, so turn-taking is difficult. But the more skilled and experienced the telephone interpreter is, it's easier to deal with the lack of visual cues. Another disadvantage is poor acoustics. Let's say someone calls and requests an interpreter, and they're calling on a cell phone. That usually leads to interruptions in the signal. And the interpreter can hear the glitches in the background. Or, if someone calls but they're driving, or they're on the street, where there are traffic sounds, or they're doing the dishes, or cuddling a baby, or speaking with someone in the background, or they have their cell phone set to speaker, all this makes it more difficult for the interpreter to hear what is being said. Sometimes a person calls requesting an interpreter but they're driving at the same time, or they're on the street, or they're doing the dishes, or cuddling a baby, or comforting a crying baby, or they're speaking with someone in the background, or they have the cell phone set to speaker. A disadvantage that the interpreter also has to deal with is the lack of preparation. No shade on the interpreter. It happens. When the interpreter gets a call, they don't know what the conversation is about. That's the advantage of being an in-person interpreter. They know ahead of time how many people are in the room, what the subject is, and who they will be interpreting for. Unlike the telephone interpreter that can't see the situation. If the client doesn't give details, the interpreter finds themselves in a situation where they don't know what the conversation is about. Telephone interpreters have to be quick thinkers. As soon as they figure that it's a legal, medical, or financial call, they immediately recall the terminology in order to interpret correctly and accurately. If you want to work as an interpreter, but you happen to live in a small town where there are no hospitals or courthouses or not a big migrant community, OPI is perfect for you. You can work out of the comfort of your own home without having to find a job in the big city. As long as you live in the continental United States, it doesn't matter what state you live in. How do you get a job in telephone interpreting? It's quite easy. First, you contact a provider. Here in the United States, the largest providers of telephone interpreting are Lionbridge, TransPerfect, CyraCom and, Language Line Solutions. Of course there are other providers, but because these are the largest, they are always looking for over-the-phone interpreters. Providers ask that the interpreter be previously trained, and then they administer a test. The test is usually a terminology test followed by a consecutive interpreting skills test. The provider will also want you to have high-speed internet and access to a voice over IP line. Voice over IP lines is what took over landlines. And you could get a voice over IP line from your local internet service provider. If you bundle your services, like voice over IP, Wi Fi, and mobile services, you could get a discount and have only one account. you get hired, you will have to be certified in HIPAA if you're going to be taking medical calls. Or you may need to obtain a security clearance if the provider has federal government agencies as clients. Another thing that a provider will require of you is that you have a dedicated space in your room where you will be working. Some providers go as far as asking you to send a picture of your workspace in your home. They want to make sure that you have an adequate, noise-free environment and that your workstation is not next to a noisy kitchen or a laundry room. You have to keep noise to a minimum, so no barking dogs, meowing cats, or crying children in the background. I live in a studio apartment, my noise makers are the water heater and the air conditioning. Besides the voice over IP line, you're also going to need pens, steno pads, and a laptop. Make sure that once you've been given an offer that you read the contract carefully Some providers request that you work a certain set of hours in order to stay on board. Most providers don't really care what time of the day you work, so you could work in the morning, in the afternoon, or even a grave shift, like from 6 p. m. to 5 in the morning. Actually, some pay more if you work the grave shift. Calls will be coming in from all over the United States, so you'll be taking calls that are Eastern Time, Central Time, Pacific Time, and Mountain Time. That's why some providers don't care what time of the day you work because they have clients in all of those time zones. Demand is pretty high, so you will be busy as a phone interpreter. The more interpreting skills you have, the more in demand you will be. I take medical and legal calls. Talk about having a lot of terminology stored in my head. It's a lot. If you need to increase your vocabulary, tune in to the Ring of Fire episodes. These are weekly practice sessions where I give terminology in the categories of medical, legal, and general. Now, once you're set up and ready to go, you'll receive calls either by an operator-led system, or directly on your laptop through the provider's platform. An operator-led system is when a human operator calls you and announces the call. They'll say something like, I have a call from XYZ Company. You accept the call and the operator will connect you and the caller. Sometimes the operator has to stay on the line because they need to dial a number for the client. With an operator-led system, the client can request that the operator dial out for them. Before the call is connected by the operator, the client will give you information about the call and tell you what type of call it is, who they're calling, and what they wish to accomplish in the call. Besides the operator-led system, clients have phones that are dedicated to telephone interpreting. With a dedicated line, the consumer looks for the number that they need to dial on the dedicated phone to request an interpreter in their language. So let's say they press 2 for Vietnamese, 5 for Arabic, 3 for Spanish. Or the client dials directly into the provider, and the call will get routed automatically to the language interpreter that they need. If the provider has an internet-based platform, the interpreter will log onto the platform, and wait for the calls to come in through the computer. USB headphones work great for this type of setup. I use a very inexpensive call center phone that has a dial pad and a headset. I'll put the name below, but I'm pretty sure it's called AG Tek. It's about 35 and on Amazon. The other day I almost bought a second one because it was pink. I really like pink. On the internet-based platform, Incoming calls on the platform shows where the call is coming from. So the interpreter knows what time zone and what company. Unfortunately, the name of the company sometimes isn't enough to know what the call will be about. Let's say that the call comes in and the platform shows that the call is coming from XYC Company. Well, XYC Company doesn't say a whole lot. So it's the interpreter's responsibility to get as much information as possible when they speak to the client. Questions like, answers, would you like for me to leave a message? It's also very important for the interpreter to get information from the person that's needing the interpreting services. For example, if the client says I'm calling Mohammed, When the call is connected, it's the interpreter's responsibility to say, am I speaking with Mohamed? Once the person says yes then they will inform the client. I have Mohamed on the line. Go ahead, please. As you take more and more calls, you'll become familiar with the clients and the type of conversations. Some providers will allow you not to take a call. If you get a call where someone is talking to, let's say, a therapist, about a traumatic experience in their life, and you've had a similar experience, you have all the right to say, I do not want to take this call. And you don't have to give a reason why. The provider will simply disconnect the call and get another interpreter. You could also let the client know. I recently had a call that was a school therapist speaking to a student's mom, but when the mom started talking about the financial difficulties that she was having, it struck a chord and I started to cry. I had to tell the client, this is the interpreter, I need a minute because the call is affecting my emotional state. I put the phone on mute, I try to put myself together, and I came back on the call. Or maybe you get a call from a courthouse, and it's a judge in a trial, and you don't feel comfortable with your legal terminology. You can tell the provider that you don't want to take legal calls. The provider that I contract with has an operator-led system. The operator will call and ask Do you feel comfortable taking legal calls? These are some of the things that happen that no one tells you about. If they do happen now you know what to do. I really appreciate when clients tell me to introduce myself to the consumer. It gives me an opportunity to set the stage for the interpreting session. I usually introduce myself like this. Hello, I'm the Spanish interpreter. In order to serve you better, please wait for the interpreter to finish before responding, and please speak only in Spanish. After my short introduction, now the consumer knows that they need to wait for me to render before they respond. And they need to speak only in Spanish and not throw in English and Spanish words into the conversation. That happens more often than not. The clients sometimes do this too. It's like they want to show off their Spanish skills. But I've never had a client that will speak Spanish completely. They'll just sprinkle Spanish words here and there with their English sentences. I remember doing it when I was in high school. Speaking to my friends in English and Spanish because they knew English and Spanish, but this is an interpreting session. I want to tell the client sometimes, please speak to what you know and let me do the interpreting. As soon as they throw in English with Spanish and Spanish with English, my brain gets completely confused. if I'm expecting the consumer to speak in Spanish and they throw in English words, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to speak Spanish to the English client. And if the English client starts throwing in Spanish with their English Again, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to speak Spanish to the consumer because my brain, just like yours is expecting to hear one language from one person and another language from another. Once the languages get reversed, your brain is like, whoa, what's happening? I don't want to sound like a drama queen, but it also flows into ethics. If the English speaker is starting to address the consumer in English and Spanish, the consumer doesn't want to look stupid, so they're just going to nod their head, yes, I understood, basically, is what they're doing by nodding their head. But maybe they didn't understand. And what's the point of mixing English and Spanish anyway? as an interpreter I have to interpret accurately. Recently, a doctor started to play the role of the interpreter and started to speak in English and Spanish. I asked the doctor to please speak only in English and to please repeat so that I could interpret to the patient. The doctor refused. She insisted that the patient understood everything she said in English and Spanish. You know, I don't have a problem if the doctor says in Spanish, open wide, look up, does it hurt here? I don't mind that at all. Sometimes because of the distance between the speaker and the telephone, I can't hear those commands. But when the doctor is speaking directly to the patient, they need to speak only in English so that I can accurately interpret. I refused to continue the interpretation. I told the doctor that I was not going to continue the session and they needed to seek another interpreter. Doesn't sound like good customer service, but again, I'm the interpreter and I need to interpret accurately to the consumer. If I'm unable to do that, then I try to correct the situation. And if I'm unable to correct the situation so that I can do my job well, then I refuse to interpret. Another incident that happens is that the consumer will call in and they will tell me, I know English so I just want you to listen and if I have any difficulty, I will ask you to help me. I refuse to do that. I am not an ESL teacher. I am an interpreter. So you either need an interpreter or you don't. And situations like that only make the session longer. Good for me because I'll make more money but I don't feel comfortable. And everybody's waiting for the consumer to say in English whatever they need to say and then stop speaking and then address me directly to ask how do I say this or can you say this for me. As an OPI you have to maintain the flow of the session already you have the disadvantage that you are not at the site in person. You are just hearing the voices over-the-phone and you can't see what's going on. That's why it's so important whether you're in-person or doing over-the-phone interpreting That if you're unable to hear something or you don't understand a term because either you didn't hear it correctly or you've never heard it before and you don't know it,, that you just nicely interrupt and ask your question. Examples of that would be, this is the interpreter, if you have me on speakerphone, please turn it off. Or if there's a lot of noise in the background where the consumer is calling from, you can say, this is the interpreter, would you be so kind to move to a place where there's not so much noise in the background? If the client addresses the interpreter directly, asking please tell him this, please ask her that, please let them know about this, Then you can kindly say, this is the interpreter. Please speak to the client directly as if they know English. It's interesting to me how some people will get offended when you give them these instructions no matter how nicely you say it. But again, you have to maintain control and flow of the interpreting session. Otherwise, no one is going to have a good experience. Since you'll be working from home using your laptop, you have quick access to glossaries and translation applications. Before I start my sessions, I make sure that I have the glossaries and the translators that I need ready to go on my browser. I also read through the list of new words that I've added to my glossary and words that I always have difficulty remembering. Every now and then, there's a word or two that always trips you up. For some reason, I can never remember how to say kidney or liver in Spanish. Do I know how to interpret kidney and liver in Spanish? Absolutely. But when I'm in a session, the minute somebody says kidney or liver, I draw a blank. A total blank. Another word that trips me up is crutches. One of my first sessions when I became an interpreter, they used the word crutches, and I could not remember for the life of me how to say crutches in Spanish. It's been more than ten years since that day, and the other day somebody said crutches. Luckily, I was at home, I had my browser open to my translator, and I immediately typed it in. The salary for an over-the-phone interpreter depends on the types of calls they receive. Commercial calls are usually paid between 30 to 35 per minute. So, if you earn 35 cents per minute and you work for an hour, that's 21. If you work for a provider that has federal government agency clients, those calls get paid between 40 and 45 cents per minute. They're also quite longer. A lot of the federal government calls have to do with immigration, Internal Revenue Service, and Social Security. And those agencies use medical and legal terminology together. Medical terminology pops up in Social Security and immigration hearings. That's why I would love for you to join me on the Ring of Fire sessions. You'll be able to hear medical terms and legal terms, knowing that sooner or later you're going to run into one of those when you interpret. Some providers pay every two weeks and some providers pay every 30 days. And some will pay you every 30 days and allow you to get a check every two weeks, but they will dock your pay 5 percent for enjoying that convenience. Kind of messed up, huh? Read your contract carefully to see how and when you'll get paid. over-the-phone interpreters are contractors, so they do not have any benefits. But the benefit of being able to work from wherever in the United States and whenever is a big advantage. You also don't have to be driving from site to site like you would if you were an in-person interpreter. And because you're allowed to work whenever you want, you could get a side job if you need to. You could work on the weekends and do the interpreting during the week. Or you could work interpreting during the day or work a different job during the day and interpreting in the evening. Because these are contracting jobs, you will receive a 1099 Form so you can file your taxes. Taxes are pretty high for self employed people. It's usually about 16 percent of your income, mainly because you're going to be paying for Social Security and Medicare on top of federal, state, and city taxes. Check with a tax professional. You can pay your taxes at the end of the year, or you could pay quarterly. You can lower your tax rate with deductions. You can deduct office supplies, Wi Fi service, and even the space that you use in your home. Sometimes, and I really mean sometimes, I get this feeling that I'm less of an interpreter because I'm not in-person on site. I'm on the phone. But that's not true. An interpreter is an interpreter no matter where they work. The interpreters I know are the smartest people. They're always growing in their careers, learning terminology, and self-evaluating their work Speaking of self evaluation, every now and then the provider will sneak in a fourth party into one of your calls so they can listen in to see how well you are interpreting. It's easy to get caught up in the calls when you're an OPI. You're on a roll, calls are coming in left and right, but You need to go to the bathroom. You're thirsty, but you don't have a cup of water nearby. You're hungry. You haven't stood up in the past two and a half hours and two-minute calls have now turned into 45 and one hour calls. Just like if you were interpreting in-person on site. Stop. Log off and take a break. Walk around, have a wet snack Go to the bathroom, go outside, walk the dog, pet your cat, hug your kid, text a friend. Do whatever you need to do to clear your head so you can come back energized again, especially if you've had a very long call or a very difficult call. I like to take breaks every 15 to 20 minutes. And I especially take a break if I've had a 45 minute call or longer. Even if the session went well, I need to clear my mind and rest my voice. A few months ago, I started working with a new provider. I was so gung ho because the calls were coming in left and right. Do you know that I worked for six hours straight? I spent six hours Sitting and taking quick breaks to the bathroom and barely drinking water. The next day, my throat was so swollen I could barely talk. That's why it's so important to take breaks. It's also very important whether you're an in-person, on site interpreter to warm up your voice before you start your day. More about voice care in the next episode. I really enjoy OPI, but it is very taxing, I'm not going to lie. Especially since you're dealing with people that you can't see and you can't read because you don't have the visual cues. So you get angry people, sad people. frustrated people, mean people, all kinds of people. It's like working in a customer call center. But with time you get faster and wiser. If it turns out that you don't like the provider that you're working with, you can switch providers. There are providers that are desperately looking to recruit new interpreters. I interviewed with a provider that required over-the-phone interpreting and video remote interpreting Sometimes something happens in the interpreting session over-the-phone. Like for example, the incident that I had with the doctor that insisted on speaking English and Spanish Or maybe the call gets disconnected. Or maybe you get placed on hold for more than 10 minutes. Usually, clients have a policy that they cannot have an interpreter on hold for more than 10 minutes. So when that happens, make a note. Have a small pad where you can write notes on the day, the time, what client it was, and what happened. Complaints sometimes take a while to come into the provider. I did work with one provider that on their internet-based platform, they had a section where you could write issues about a call. That was great, because if you didn't write down an issue, they would call you or send you an email and say, on this date, at this time, with this client, the call was disconnected. What happened? Or, you were on hold for more than 10 minutes. Why? I hope that you found this episode of value to you, and I hope that you join me next time on Interpreters and Interrupters, and don't forget to listen in on Ring of Fire so you can learn new terminology.