The Stress and the Beauty of Interpreting. My Story + 7 Tips
Discover the most interesting aspects of interpreting and take a look behind the scenes.

This is a story about the greatest interpreting experience I ever had as a student in the Translation Department. It was my 4th year at the university. I was young and inexperienced, yet given such a tremendous opportunity. Take a journey with me to the most significant day in my interpreting career. In this article you’ll discover the most interesting aspects of interpreting and take a look behind the scenes.
Are translation and interpreting the same thing? Although, the word translation is used as an umbrella term to indicate the notion of translation in general, there is a difference between the two. Translation is about rendering written text. While, interpreting is conveying messages from one language to another orally.
The event was about attracting investment to the local economy. Top politicians, delegates from over 30 countries, investors, entrepreneurs, and reporters were there. I had to interpret simultaneously for two guests during the opening ceremony, and a presentation of our region.

Interpreting simultaneously means the interpreter is delivering the message in the target language a few seconds apart from the speaker’s words. In translation, the target language is the language you translate into. The source language is the language you translate from.
Despite my working languages being Ukrainian and English, I had to interpret from Russian into English for the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Ukraine, Alisher Abdualyev. It was both an honor and a challenge for me. My training as an interpreter was exclusively focused on interpreting from English to Ukrainian and back.
As someone who grew up under constant imposition of everything Russian, I understood and spoke Russian fluently. Before the event, I spent hours and hours practicing. I watched numerous speeches of Alisher Abdualyev to get used to his pace and manner of speech.
Needless to say, I had to learn interpreting from Russian to English on the go and from the ground up. To get hold of English/Ukrainian and Ukrainian/English interpretation I had a few years. To do the same with Russian-English interpretation — a week.

It was very stressful for a 21-year-old me. Working on such a scale, with such people, and in such demanding conditions… My heart was pounding, my palms were sweating. I didn’t want to fail my teachers. I didn’t want to screw up.
And I didn’t. Years of training paid off. I was very happy with my performance when I interpreted Alisher Abdualyev’s speech. He was very professional and tactful. I was able to keep up with him and deliver every single message he had for the audience. Interpreting for a local politician, however, turned out to be far more challenging. Her greeting speech quickly escalated to a fierce political tirade about Russian invasion to Ukraine.
Sometimes speeches become heated and speakers become emotional. Some speakers tend to digress, ignore the interpreter’s presence, and express tabooed or controversial opinions. The job of an interpreter is to deliver the message accurately and faithfully. Showing your own emotions, correcting the massage however you like it, or overshadowing the speaker are not welcomed.
It’s very stressful and burdensome to be someone else’s voice. This is your first time seeing the person. You know ‘just enough’ about them. Your country has turned into a fresh piece of meat every other nation is trying to snap and keep in the jaws. You don’t know what’s right and wrong anymore. You don’t know what’s safe to say and what can cause you pain.
As the politician went on with her speech, I felt a mount Everest was descending on my shoulders. Was it OK to say what she was saying to the representatives of so many nations? Were the members of the audience of the same opinion as her? Was I getting myself in trouble? I had only one answer for all those questions: keep calm and do your job.

In the end, everything worked out just fine. My teachers were beyond themselves with my performance. I was happy I proved to be one of their best students once again. I was given an opportunity and I took it and owned it. I loved interpreting simultaneously.
Simultaneous interpretation gives you an adrenaline rush. It almost feels like running after something you really want, and it’s getting closer and closer to you. When you manage to stay focused for so long and deliver the message accurately, you feel like you’ve done it. With the last word you say, you know you can breathe out with a smile and a relief. The mount Everest is gone.
Simultaneous interpreting is a challenging activity both for your mind, and your body. Not everyone is capable of doing it. As easy and seamless as it seems from aside, simultaneous interpretation requires interpreters to receive chunks of the message, process them, store them in the memory, and then, finally, produce equivalent bits of information in the target language. All these processes happen with the speed of light.
Having finished with the two of my speeches, something rather unpredictable happened. There was this girl who had to interpret for the mayor of our city. As the mayor began, the girl got so scared and confused, she couldn’t continue. One of my teachers grabbed her headset and gave it to me, “Quickly. Put it on. You’ll continue”.
I was as shocked as everyone else. I didn’t prepare for the speech, I knew the mayor’s speech wouldn’t be either short or easy. He was speaking like a maniac, without a single pause. I knew it was a win or lose situation. My supervisors counted on me. The people from the audience turned their heads to see what was wrong. Without giving it another thought, I put the headset on, inhaled a gallon of air, and jumped right in.
Feeling embarrassed of her flop, the girl refused to interpret her part of the region presentation. It meant I had to do it. Again, I wasn’t prepared at all. Her part was about the agricultural potential of our region — something I didn’t know much about. Nevertheless, left with no other choice, I gathered all my will and the remains of my energy, and did what I had to.
It wasn’t easy, since the presentation was full of agricultural terminology which I wasn’t familiar with. I had to improvise and translate some concepts using descriptive translation. I admit, it wasn’t perfect, but after all, I did my job and delivered the message to the audience in a clear and concise way.

Only after I was done with simultaneous interpreting, I finally realized how bad my headache was and how hungry I was. I felt like the hemispheres of my brain got into a fight and decided to call it a day and never talk to each other again. The excitement wore off; after interpreting for half an hour I was mentally exhausted and physically drained. However, getting rest was not on the agenda. The team of interpreters hurriedly jam packed the bus. We were heading to another location for the second part of the forum. For me this meant I had to interpret consecutively for another 3 hours.
During consecutive interpreting the interpreter waits for the speaker to finish their thought (usually it’s 3–5 sentences), and then delivers the message in the target language. If needed, interpreters take notes while the speaker’s vocalizing their ideas. Interpreters often use various shorthand techniques for note taking.
There are special symbols that help writing down whole sentences in a few seconds. For example, COS stands for because, → means consequence, result, O — world, planet, ↗ — increase, growth/grow, rise, # — number, ☹ — unhappy, annoyed, D — Germany, etc. Many professionals come up with their own symbols to make consecutive interpretation easier.
My job was to consecutively interpret the speech of an honored guest from Poland from English into Ukrainian. To say I was terrified is an understatement. I hated being the center of attention since school. I was rather good at math, but whenever I was at the chalkboard I couldn’t solve a simple equation. The pressure from my teacher and the thought of all my classmates looking at me froze me every time.

As I was interpreting with my notebook in my hands, I was so nervous like never before. The idea that the audience could see my anxiety made me panic even more. I thought I’d ruined everything. I only realized everything was OK when the head of our local State Administration gave me a pat on the back and said, “Well done.”. Those were the words that probably kept me from fainting.
Feeling like a bus ran me over, I hoped I could finally get some rest. Or food. Far from it! The head of the State Administration then took the stage and asked the audience, “Is there anyone in the room who needs translation into English?” At that point all I wanted was to melt into the floor. The room was quiet for a while. “Thank goodness!”, I thought to myself. “Yes, please!”, said a male voice. For the next two hours I had to interpret every single presentation to two Polish guests (two hours of chuchotage, to be exact).
Chuchotage is an interpreting technique where the interpreter stands or sits next to the recipient and whispers the conveyed message. It’s often recognized as one of the most difficult kinds of interpreting since whispering is a great strain on your throat and vocal cords.
Wow, that day was one to remember for me. As a student I was given a one-in-a-million chance to take on such responsibility. I had an opportunity to work with the most influential politicians and investors just at the age of 21. I owe this tremendous opportunity to my teachers. As much as they taught me, they inspired me. They also believed in me, which I’ll always be grateful for.
Interpretation is not easy. To be a good interpreter, you have to dedicate all of your time to self-education, practicing, and investing into your background knowledge.

Background knowledge for an interpreter means you have to follow the news and have encyclopedic knowledge about numerous diverse subjects. Your goal is to be able to start interpreting about finance, then switch to small talk about the most delicious oysters in the area, continue with a conversation about nuclear reactors, and finish off with a chat on sadfishing. In one word, you have to be ready for everything.
To wrap it up, I’d like to share a few tips with beginner interpreters who have a big day tomorrow but feel as anxious as I felt that day:
- Get a good sleep. To make your mind work, make sure your body is in good shape.
- Take some snacks with you. When everyone else is at the table dining, you will have to sit there and still do your job. You’ll need energy.
- Take a notebook and a pen. Jotting down helps with long sentences and eloquent speakers.
- Come prepared. Learn as much as possible about the event, the people you’re going to interpret for, the subject of the event. Make a glossary of the most used terminology on that matter.
- Practice. If your speaker’s previous speeches are available online, use them to get used to the articulation. Try interpreting videos/speeches on the same subject.
- Ask for the materials. Quite often the texts or the presentations of the speeches are prepared beforehand. Reach out to the people responsible for the event and study the materials.
- Check the interpreting equipment. Make sure everything works. Learn how the equipment works to avoid mishaps later. Adjust the volume and the microphone as early as possible.
Thank you for taking an interest in my story. I hope it was insightful and interesting for you to read. Interpreting is fun and challenging, so give it a try.
