"What is the best interpreter training program?" or "What interpreter training program should I choose?" Those are the most common questions I get about interpreter training options.
Many colleagues or prospective interpreters ask me what is ✨ the one training ✨ I can recommend that will teach them everything they need to know to pass a particular certification test or to succeed in this career field.
Unfortunately, from my experience, I must say the answer is none, and I will explain why.
Let's say you want to become a certified medical interpreter, and let's also assume that money, time, and access are not a problem.
Now, imagine you attend a four-year university and get a bachelor's degree in translation and interpretation.
Then, you get an offer to work as a staff interpreter at a large hospital, and one requirement is to be a certified medical interpreter.
To become a certified medical or healthcare interpreter, you'd probably still need to take additional classes or courses specifically designed for interpreters in the medical field unless your degree included enough medical interpreter training credits to meet the certifications' prerequisites.
Let's think of another example. If you complete a 60-hour medical interpreter training, you'd not only meet but exceed the current prerequisite of 40 hours of training for the certification programs available.
However, your course had a lot of theory but not enough practice, and you feel that you still need to work on your note-taking skills to reach a higher level of accuracy. To improve that, you may need to take a course or workshop specifically on note-taking.
Sometimes, it's not even strictly necessary to take a class to improve certain things because, from my experience, there is a lot we can accomplish and learn through self-study.
But self-study is also an investment because you'd have to invest time and possibly resources like books, practice material, dictionaries, and tools to study independently.
Let's say you start working with a client who does a lot of group classes for diabetic patients, new parents, or something similar. They need you to interpret simultaneously for the LEP patients in the class using simultaneous interpretation equipment.
If your simultaneous interpretation skills are a bit rusty, you may need to take a class or work on your own to improve that particular skill.
And I could go on and on, giving you many more examples of situations that can explain why there isn't a single course that can teach you everything you need.
I can even tell you that I took the oral exam for the federal court interpreter certification and spent thousands—yes, thousands of dollars—on courses, books, and tools, not to mention the amount of time I dedicated to studying for this test over two years.
And guess what? I still encountered things on the test that I had never heard before and didn't know how to interpret.
So, what does that mean? Should I give up? No! On the contrary, it means we should approach this journey as a marathon, not a sprint.
Like runners train for a marathon, the process is slow and steady and doesn't happen overnight. Much like marathon runners train on different terrains, under different weather conditions, and using different gear to find the best fit for them, we, as interpreters, should gradually develop our skills and, ideally, learn from different trainers and train in different ways using various tools and methods until we find what works best for us.
Well, actually, that is incorrect because it's not "until we find what works best for us." In my experience, this is a neverending process because this career field requires constant learning.
So, even though no single course, class, or even full degree can teach you everything you need to know, there is something to learn from each and every resource available, and there's a lot you can accomplish by studying on your own.
Start with what you can, based on your immediate goals, what's available to you, and your budget, and slowly build up from there.
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