Italian-German liaison interpreting in Germany: working with Massimo

Working together

I met Massimo, who told me the background of his collaboration with a German company and showed me some official documents which were used for preparing for the trip, and told me what the trip would involve. It turns out he hadn’t been able to get in touch with the company at all, so we would be going to their address in person so we could speak to a representative and try to resolve the ongoing dispute. Meeting Massimo like this was crucial to getting the essential information I needed to prepare for the job.

Before we left I started to study the technical sector the German company works in and the specific terminology in Italian and German. I also went into some depth with legal terminology because the documents my client wanted to discuss included court papers. And last but not least I imagined extreme scenarios in which the two sides would start arguing, so I was prepared for any eventuality.

Services Massimo chose

We arrived in the mountain village in central Germany just in time for dinner around 7 p.m. and the next day we set off to find the company Massimo had been working with. As the interpreter I arranged to travel with a hire car and worked with my client to find the company’s new headquarters. Luckily the town was quite small and it only took a couple of attempts to find the people Massimo was hoping to contact. Using liaison interpreting techniques I translated my client’s Italian into German and the German replies into Italian. Unfortunately meeting them this way didn’t get Massimo’s desired outcome, so we had to go to a local government office to get a document to help resolve the dispute. Again, I translated aloud between Italian and German for Massimo and the local government staff.

Liaison interpreting is perfect for situations involving two people having a discussion, and keeps up the rhythm of communication. On this occasion it was the best choice of interpreting mode.

I also helped Massimo with liaison telephone interpreting between Italian and German when we got back to Italy. He needed another document issued and knew he could count on my support to make his request to the German local government offices.

Difficulties

Massimo’s meeting with the German company wasn’t exactly amicable, quite the opposite. From the very start the tone was bad, and I found myself translating nasty and insulting things. What’s more, given how tense the atmosphere was, despite having explained my role to both my client and the company’s representatives and asking them for time to translate between the two languages they often spoke over one another, making it impossible for me to interpret.

This meant that several times I had to ask people to wait their turn to speak and wait for me to finish interpreting before responding.

What the client has to say

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