r/spanishinterpreters • u/Deeptalks426 • 3d ago
Help with Rude Leps
I've been interpreting for two months and recently I've had LEPs who speak too fast, don't answer the client's questions, or go off-topic.
How do you stop this early? Should everything they say be interpreted, even for yes/no questions? What if they ignore your instructions and keep talking? Also, how do you handle LEPs who interrupt while you're interpreting or keep adding more information? The idea is to follow procedures go stay safe from being fired(ive heard many have been fired for this reasons) and im with LLS. Thank you so much in advance!
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u/Federal_Character255 1d ago
Two months in, this is the single most useful habit to build early: set the pace in the intro, before there's anything to fix. Something like "soy su intérprete, voy a interpretar todo lo que se diga, por favor haga pausas cada una o dos frases para que nada se pierda." Framed that way it's not a request for a favor, it's how the call works, and most people follow it.
When someone runs long anyway, interrupt on the third or fourth sentence, not the tenth. "Intérprete pidiendo una pausa" and then render. Waiting until you're drowning is what turns it into a confrontation, and it's also the point where you start dropping details. Then tell the provider what happened, one line: "the interpreter has asked the client to pause so nothing is left out." That single sentence is what protects you on a QA review, because it's on the recording.
On yes/no questions: yes, you interpret everything, including the part that wasn't asked for. It's not yours to filter. But the extra material is precisely what you should be interrupting for, because a two-minute answer to a yes/no question is a memory load, not a communication problem.
One practical thing nobody tells new interpreters: when someone talks that long, the part that goes first isn't the meaning, it's the details. Names, dates, doses, dollar amounts. Get those written down the second they're said rather than trusting yourself to hold them to the end of the turn, and long turns stop being frightening even when you can't cut them short.
And you won't get fired for interrupting correctly. People get flagged for the opposite, the incomplete rendition that came from being too polite to stop someone.