Consecutive Interpreting for Witness
When we are interpreting for a witness, you need to interpret consecutively in Team, for court recording and transcription. So both the interpreter and the Chinese speaking client will unmute in Team.
Simultaneous Interpreting for Parties
When we are just interpreting for a party to the proceeding, who is not a witness, a simultaneous mode will be more time efficient for the court. We will need to set up a phone line connection. The interpreter will mute himself or herself in Team, and interpret to the client over the phone simultaneously. Here is how we do it:
- We will join a Team meeting on the computer, with a headset for listening and speaking, via wire or blue tooth connection;
- We will call the Chinese speaking client on the phone, preferably on a phone stand;
- Once connected, we will turn on the speaker on our phone;
- We listen to the speech input from our headset coming from Team, by the judge, the counsels or other witnesses;
- We interpret into the phone for the client.
We will ask the Chinese client to mute himself or herself for the phone connection and Team, if he or she has background noises, so as not to distract the interpreter who is focusing on the speech coming out of Team. He or she can unmute his or her phone if they want to talk to the interpreter, to raise an issue.
Some clients wish to hear the proceeding in two language streams, English from his or her Team connection, and Mandarin or Cantonese from the phone connection with the interpreter. Such a set up can be perfect for a bilingual client, who only needs assistance from the interpreter from time to time, when legal jargons are used. In this case, the client will wear earphone for the English Team audio so the interpreter won’t hear two English streams (one via the phone and the other via the interpreter’s computer). The client will have his or her phone speaker on, so the client can request for interpreter assistance at any time.
Find out about our onsite court interpreting service.
