There’s an interpreter translating what the speaker says. How do I go about it?

Case 🔍

You’re working on a transcription, subtitles or translation gig where there’s an interpreter translating what the speaker says. How do you transcribe/caption/translate this?

General rule: only write down the speech that is in the file’s language (e.g. English). See the two cases below to understand what you’ll need to do:

Original speaker speaks foreign language, interpreter speaks your file’s language

If the interpreter is translating into your file’s language (more common), transcribe the interpereter’s words and label them by the interpreter’s, not the original speaker’s, name. Tag the original speakers’ words as [foreign language]. If they talk at the same time (i.e. interpreter is talking over what the speaker is saying), transcribe only the intepreters’ speech and only use [foreign language] if there’s space for it.

For transcription: label the speech using the speaker’s name or identifier (e.g. write “Interpreter”).
For translation: if the interpreter speaks the source language, translate that part. If the original speaker speaks the target language, leave it empty and untagged. If the original speaker speaks a third language, tag it [foreign language].

<aside> 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Interpreters translating for multiple people If an interpreter covers for multiple people and you need to label the interpreter’s speech, separate them by writing: Interpreter for Speaker 1, Interpreter for Speaker 2, etc. or if you know their names: Intepreter for Marilise, Interpreter for Joël, Interpreter for Laura

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Original speaker speaks your file’s language, interpreter speaks foreign language

If the speaker is talking in your file’s language (less common) and the interpreter is translating into a foreign language, transcribe the speakers’ speech. Tag the original speakers’ words as [foreign language]. If they talk at the same time (i.e. interpreter is talking over what the speaker is saying), transcribe only the original speaker’s speech and only use [foreign language] if there’s space for it.

For transcription: label the speech using the speaker’s name or identifier.
For translation: if the original speaker speaks the source language, translate that part. If the interpreter speaks the target language, leave it empty and untagged. If the interpreter speaks a third language, tag it [foreign language].