When ministers or Heads of State gather for high-level discussions within the G7 or G20, time is of the essence and crystal clear communication is key. With up to 14 or more languages being interpreted simultaneously at a G20 meeting, the host country needs to know that the booths are staffed with highly-experienced interpreters, working in harmony as a team put together and managed by a skilled professional organizer.

CIAP was in Matsuyama, Japan in September 2019 doing just that at the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting (LEMM). A veteran CIAP consultant worked closely with the conference organizers to structure a team that combined experience, qualifications, excellence and proximity to the venue. As a result, 24 interpreters delivered seamless interpretation from and into English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish (the official languages of the United Nations), plus Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Vietnamese and Thai, with a Japanese team arranged directly by the organizers.

CIAP has covered numerous high-level, high-stakes meetings. When the G7 came to Japan in 2016, CIAP recruited and managed teams of interpreters for many of the ministerial and summit-level meetings throughout the year, including the G7 Leaders Summit in Ise-Shima in May 2016.

From the APEC CEO Summit in Manila to annual ministerial meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other high-profile events, CIAP has been bringing its expertise as specialist organizers of conference interpretation services to high-level meetings in Asia Pacific and beyond since 1990.

At the G7 ICT Ministers’ meeting in Takamatsu in April 2016, senior French, German, Italian and Japanese interpreters ensured that the ministers and heads of various international organizations could engage in effective discussions.

Happy International Day of Sign Languages from us!

Here is a message from the AIIC Sign Language Network, celebrating today’s International Day of Sign Languages… 

Watch the video here  

Sign Language Interpreters from across the globe sending congratulations in their national sign language to all. 

AIIC members interpret both signed and spoken languages at international conferences and meetings.

In October 2016 during the Singapore International Cyber Week, CIAP mobilised 14 conference interpreters working in 6 ASEAN languages plus English and Mandarin over 2 days at 3 different events, all coordinated by one CIAP consultant interpreter – the only person the client needed to deal with.

CIAP’s team of Burmese, Lao, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai and Vietnamese conference interpreters.

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How to find simultaneous translation services with CIAP

This infographic explains what we do. Use CIAP as your consultant interpreters and we will assess, estimate and organise every aspect of the simultaneous translation services needed for your meeting.

Contact us and you will deal immediately with an actual interpreter, who has all the skills of a project manager AND actually knows what it means to interpret. This makes us ideally placed to understand what your event requires, recommend the best configuration for the simultaneous translation services you need, and handle the project from end to end.

CIAP is a one-stop shop, but unlike translation agencies, we offer transparent quotations and we do not charge commission on interpreters’ fees. You pay only for the simultaneous translation services you receive, plus a small organising fee for our time.

You receive hassle-free, high-quality simultaneous translation services organised and delivered entirely by interpreting professionals.

Contact us here for more information.

As consultant interpreters, our objective is to put together the best team of interpreters while minimizing the cost for our clients. Take a look at our Infographic here to see exactly how we do that. Commercial translation agencies will also emphasize quality and cost. But the two operate on completely different rules.

Case in point. A potential client contacted me a few months ago and asked for a quotation. The program consisted of 9 to 10 working hours for 4 consecutive days, and I submitted a quote for 3 interpreters. The client asked me to reduce the number of interpreters to 2, saying that the “other agencies” were quoting for 2 interpreters. Clearly, they perceived CIAP to be just another translation agency. My response was as follows.

CIAP will work with clients to find the most cost-effective solution, but we do not do so by compromising on the quality of interpreters or professional standards. Unlike commercial agencies who recruit interpreters at the lowest cost and add their own margin of profit, consultant interpreters disclose the interpreters’ fee and the management fee for the consultant interpreter. Please refer to my quotation.

I’m happy to say that the client decided in our favor and was extremely pleased with the end result.

Transparency is also important on the other end. Most translation agencies hire interpreters that they have never even met. They build a database of interpreters by collecting resumes via email. Furthermore, technology has enabled this “blind” recruiting process to become global in scale. These days, AIIC interpreters receive requests from numerous unknown agencies from around the world.

As important as resumes are, they do not necessarily guarantee quality. By comparison, consultant interpreters have first-hand knowledge of interpreters. We recruit colleagues that we personally know and have worked with – sometimes for many years or even decades. Instead of recruiting by guess work, we know who our team members are and what they will be delivering.

This, of course does not mean all commercial translation agencies should be dismissed. Some agencies can be very efficient and provide good solutions depending on the need. But, it’s important for clients to know the difference between consultant interpreters and translation agencies, define their own objectives and needs, and make an informed decision based on the scale and complexity of the meeting.

by Jean Young Lee

CIAP consultant interpreter in Seoul

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also a pretty smooth interpreter we learned this week. At a forum in St. Petersburg, he was filmed stepping into the role of a German to Russian consecutive interpreter as he spontaneously translated the words of former State Secretary of the German Defence Ministry, Willy Wimmer.

Known for his fluent German, President Putin graciously rendered Mr Wimmer’s comments in Russian for the benefit of the audience.  The Russian Head of State gave an excellent demonstration  of how a consecutive interpreter should work, knowing when and how to interrupt the speaker, using the first person and not the third, focussing intently on the speaker when listening etc. Watch him in action here.

While we do not recommend hiring non-interpreters, the Russian President’s many years of listening to the world’s top interpreters convey his own message have no doubt taught him a thing or two about how interpreters work. Asking a non-interpreter to translate at a public event or conference simply because that person is bilingual is not advisable. But sometimes, exceptions can be made when that bilingual person is a Head of State!

Clients seeking Russian interpreters in Asia are nevertheless encouraged to contact CIAP and not the Kremlin! We work with highly experienced Russian interpreters who are based in West Asia, South East Asia, East Asia and Australia. They interpret regularly at high level summits and international conferences, and accompany Russian-speaking delegations on their visits to the rest of Asia Pacific.

And they may be facing some extra competition if President Putin ever decides to retire from his current day job!

Working with high-quality, professional French interpreters is relevant in Asia, and this infographic from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs presents some interesting statistics to explain why.

At CIAP, more than half our consultant interpreters have French in their language combination. We ourselves are qualified to interpret between French and English, French and Chinese, French and Spanish, and German and French. We regularly organise teams of French interpreters, and recruit other professional interpreters who work between French and other languages like Korean, Japanese or Russian.

International organisations with French as an official language have offices in Asia that often hire French interpreters. The United Nations in Bangkok and UNAKRT (the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal) in Cambodia, are among the institutions where we work on a frequent basis. NGOs and private companies also organise events and training seminars in the region where participants include French-speaking delegates from the African continent. Some higher education programmes are still taught in French in former colonies like Cambodia or Laos, where learning French and studying at French universities can be a much more affordable option for aspiring overseas students. 

Lastly, France is an active trading partner all across Asia and the Pacific, and its Embassies all have sections that work tirelessly to promote trade relations, support French industries in Asia, and help Asian companies do business in France. We interpret for high-level French government delegations during their visits to the region. 

If you are looking for French interpreters anywhere in Asia, Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific, just contact CIAP and we can advise and direct you.

Source: diplomatie.gouv.fr/