Interpreters’ take on the new modes of working

Q&A with George Fassoulakis, a professional conference interpreter 

When discussing hybrid events, the focus typically falls on the perspectives of event organizers and participants. While the challenges of meeting management and new opportunities for attending are critical to an integrated experience, the side of interpretation often gets overlooked. 

For multilingual meetings, integrated setup is a revolution in terms of opportunities, access, and inclusivity. We talked with George Fassoulakis, a professional conference interpreter, about what hybrid and integrated formats mean for interpreters. 

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• Can you please introduce yourself and tell me more about your background as an interpreter? How did your journey begin? What are you passionate about?

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I am Greek by origin, but my story as an interpreter begins far away, in New York, in 1988. Back then, fresh out of Law School and a fledgling lawyer working in New York, I remember the Law Office I was at the time working for receiving a call from the federal government requesting a Greek interpreter for court proceedings. Although I knew and spoke a number of languages by that point already, I never had any formal interpretation experience, yet I agreed. 

Ever since I saw I could do it, I was thrilled by profession and started to become more involved - trained myself, and went to various schools, including NY University; one thing led to the next, and I eventually found myself working both as a lawyer and an interpreter at a time.

After coming back to Europe, I was able to receive the necessary qualification and provide official interpreting services for the European Commission and the European Parliament - all because of my legal background. I also spent 6 years as a full-time interpreter with the Court of Justice in Luxemburg. After ending a  stint there in 2010, I picked up freelance interpreting in Europe and Greece, spending my life between Brussels and Athens. 

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• Did the definition and understanding of conference interpreting change, when comparing to a few years ago and now? 

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Against a pandemic backdrop, things changed dramatically for the profession. Some people in the industry found it difficult to adapt, especially people of a certain age, and I include myself in that group. It’s not easy to change overnight from traveling, working in a booth, meeting people, and having a face-to-face experience, to something almost immaterial. Pictures on the screen, sound problems, to mention only a few of the realities and constraints interpreters had to come to grips with while familiarizing themselves with the technology. 

But as with everything else in life, adaptability is essential. Hybrid became a reality. Even before the pandemic, being in Brussels and working in the European Commission, I already knew that there were platforms, including Interactio, hosting hybrid events, some of which I interpreted for.  

It wasn’t because of the inability to travel, since there was no pandemic at the time. Leading institutions in the European Union must be mindful of the environment and cost-efficiency, and hybrid was the solution to these issues as a way of saving on hosting and traveling. Hybrid was the next big thing even before the pandemic. 

Yes, things change, but as far as I’m concerned, they changed quite positively. 

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• What role RSI solutions played, and how did they influence the interpretation and events market (if they did)? How did/do those new modes of working, like hybrid or integrated meetings, influence the world of interpretation?

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What RSI made possible is more fluidity and flexibility in hosting events, the ability for interpretation to be provided for events that are too remote or those that are too demanding logistics-wise for on-site interpretation to be provided on top of existing challenges - cost and organization-wise.

I have the pleasure of participating in hybrid events at Interactio. I believe that the integrated setup is a positive experience, especially with the assistance of the technical support team, which has been invaluable in these last two and a half years. 

For example, in scenarios where some language combinations are impossible to find locally, whereas there are interpreters capable of connecting remotely, making it a hybrid meeting, I don’t see why we can’t experiment with different modes of participation and see what benefits are there for us to discover. 

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• What changed for you specifically? How do you feel about that change?

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What changed for me has been the need to invest in better equipment, both software, and hardware-wise. I had to invest in a good headset, a high-speed Internet connection, and more. Some of these changes have indeed been drastic, but the positive part is that I was able to service more meetings, sometimes work twice a day, and accept more interpreting contracts than before. 

Something I consider essential is practice.  No matter how good your language knowledge is, unless you practice, you’re bound to lose some of your skills. You can imagine what happened in early 2020 when everything was canceled, and interpreters all over the globe had no way of working. 

Thanks to those remote and hybrid meetings, we were able to rekindle our capacity, keep ourselves at the expected level of proficiency, and work at a proper level. For me, I saw no problem with the solution whatsoever - I switched very gladly. 

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• What do you think these hybrid events are going to look like in a year? Five years? Do you think they are here to stay, and if yes, why and how so?

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They are here to stay, maybe in a slightly diversified way. Some meetings will still have to stay physical - if anything, at least for diplomatic reasons, immediacy, or directness. But since everyone is speaking about the importance of cost-efficiency and eco-friendliness, organizers cannot, on the one hand, ask people not to travel too much as tourists, and, on the other hand, request interpreters or participants to relocate across the globe for meetings. If we are to strike a proper balance, this is the future. 

Mind you, I adore traveling. A big part of the charm of interpretation is seeing the world. But you also have to think about the consequences of those opportunities.

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• How would you respond to the opinion that ‘Hybrid was a necessary measure during peak COVID, but we don’t need it now?’

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The assertion of needing or not needing something is too drastic. We live in a very relativized world - things change every day, or even faster. You cannot be too categorical. 

I believe we will need it increasingly. It is a matter of choice what meetings should be left on-site and what meetings are to be integrated, but it is a choice that has to be made, sooner or later. It’s all about striking a balance. 

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