05/27/2026
People see interpreters talking.
What they don’t see is the mental marathon happening underneath.
An interpreter is simultaneously:
Listening.
Processing meaning.
Reading tone and intent.
Predicting what may come next.
Holding information in short-term memory.
And restructuring the message naturally into another language — all in real time.
This video from Jon Urquhart explains it brilliantly through the lens of ASL interpreting, but the same cognitive demand applies to spoken language interpreting too.
It’s one of the reasons partner interpreters are necessary during longer sessions. Not because interpreters “get tired of talking,” but because the level of concentration required is incredibly intense.
There’s so much more happening behind interpreting than most people realize. https://zurl.co/7tm6H
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