When business interpreters want to offer more

There are two categories of interpreters, the pure versions, the language and communication helpers, and the (impure?) version of which I belong, part pure, part offering additional "services". There is the bud of a timid but new conversation in the private nooks of the professional networks of freelancers stretching between French speaking countries and Japan.

The conversation you can't read is about how to stretch ones competences and service offering that goes beyond interpretation. The problem is that of positioning and the display of the competences offered. Clients have a fixed perception of what an interpreter's role is, that of a communication enabler, period. It fits well with what many interpreters consider themselves to be. It doesn't fit when you feel and want to offer value added services. But the wording, the self-presentation, the touting have been awkward, usually.

What about naming that profession? I bumped into a few examples, interpreter-consultant. Sounds French, like "interprète conseil", which actually refers to an interpreter cum specialist at coordinating many interpreters for a big event. We are not talking about this.

What about interpreter and .... something? A source of frustration for liaison interpreters, linked probably with the lack of professional communication, lack of (self) awareness is that more than one time, you get that businessman who has no experience doing business interpretation telling you what it is. When you don't create a professional discourse about your profession, you end up being ignored or leave the monopole of defining what and who you are to people that are not you and don't do what you do. In the best situation, they are clients. Usually they aren't and never will be.

Someone well intentioned, patronized the air the other day, suggesting to simply ditch the interpretation side and just highlight the business service helper/consultant/agent, whatever you want to call it. Dilute the interpretation service in the bigger picture of consulting. Was he right to suggest so? More on this at a later time.