Mid-September saw us landing a big job for Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA) and Australian Water Association (AWA). Our interpreters dressed nicely in the morning and got ready to perform professional interpretation from their homemade workspaces, for a highly important international event. And just like that, due to special circumstances, Australia-Vietnam Water Week 2021 was carried on full-time for two days straight without a single participant had to step a foot outside of home, while our interpreters probably turned their own bedrooms into makeshift interpreting cabins.
Working remotely is somewhat a strange challenge for many interpreters. If not for the Covid-19 pandemic, a good number of interpreters would never see the day they become remote interpreters; not that it is so difficult to imagine such a thing, but normally not many clients would prefer something like that. In addition, not only do they have to work remotely, the risk of spreading disease means that they need to work remotely from home.
There was no risk of infection working from home though, which was a good thing. However, home is not designated to be the place for working, especially for jobs which require full attention such as interpreting. Some of our interpreters have children, and that could cause distraction at times. Furthermore, they cannot control the kind of noises that could appear in the neighborhood. Houses in Hanoi are tightly packed, which creates close-tie neighbors. Sometimes, you listen to the same music as your neighbors from two houses away do, and so do your clients too, if you are a remote interpreter!
[SOLUTION]Providing interpretation for a highly important event such as Australia-Vietnam Water Week 2021 is no simple job. Our interpreters needed to prepare a suitable working space with minimum distraction. For the two days of the job, they need to come up with solutions to the uncontrollable factors such as noises in the neighborhood and so on.
Talking to the neighbors helps a lot. Most people would be willing to listen and understand, and would look out for their neighbors. Assigning babysitter to look after the children in their houses is also something many interpreters do. There was no office or cabin they could run to during the pandemic, so nobody would be responsible of maintaining a professional workspace for them. Our interpreters understood that they need to count on themselves for all that.
Understanding the importance of maintaining consistency in every job, SK Translate had assigned experienced interpreters to this one, those who have the skill and spirit to deal with unexpected situations. With their experience and utmost concentration, our interpreters had overcome the possible setbacks of working at home, to provide a clean and quality display of interpretation throughout two days for our very important clients VWSA and AWA.
[RESULT]The event took place in two days with rich discussions and representatives from various organizations in Vietnam and Australia were able to communicate their ideas. Mr. Francois Gouws, former Chairman of AWA gave thanks and commended SK Translate on providing “excellent translation services.” Mr. Huy from AWA and Ms. Reba Paul from UTS Institute For Sustainable Futures also showed us much appreciations.
As for us, we are proud of our interpreters who had successfully delivered the job from their homemade workplace. Sometimes, the challenges we could face during our jobs lies on the shoulders of our interpreters. Sheer quality and knowledge in their profession is what they possess, but in order to get through unexpected difficulties, they also need to show a strong character in them.
SK Translate is honored to be your companions!
SK Translate
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🌏 https://dichthuatsaokhue.vn/ sktranslate.com
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