Problems and strategies in public service interpreting as perceived by a sample of Chinese-Catalan/Spanish interpreters

Abstract

Problems and strategies have been widely discussed in Translation and Interpreting Studies, but they have received scarce attention in the field of Public Service Interpreting (PSI). On the basis of interviews with 20 public service interpreters working in the Chinese-Catalan/Spanish combination, this article analyses their answers in relation to the problems and difficulties they usually encounter, which are classified into two categories: word level and discourse level. Different ideas on curriculum design and training approaches are suggested and discussed on the basis of this analysis, while also considering that most interpreters had not received formal training in PSI at the moment of the interviews.