Forget about educating "them". Start with educating you, together with other you. When was the last time you read a book focusing on (liaison) interpreting that is not an academic lofty stiff upper lip stuff, the one book that made you react : "Hey! That's about me, about my job!" In liaison interpreting at least, that was 15 years ago with The Liaison Interpreter Handbook. When was the last time you talked with pairs in a relaxed atmosphere about just that, the job you've been doing? I can't tell you.
Was it last year when the Financial Times published an article on "how to choose an interpreter for business"? I plundered and adapted the content for my self-promotion web site. But the shocking side of the article was that, there was no voice of any interpreter in there. Only the "client" was interviewed. You don't interview Pandas for sure. There are mammal specialists to answer for them. But when it comes to out-of-the-booth interpretation, anybody but the interpreter has something to say. So I invite you to try and apply the following experience, at your own risks. Go visit your doctor or butcher (same stuff?), and try in the conversation to clearly suggest that you know what medicine, or butchery, is all about. And bear the consequences. In the case of the butcher, knives may start flying. In the case of interpretation (the lowly self-esteemed out of the booth stuff not in front of the camera, that is the massively practiced mode worldwide), too many people who do not practice have a better idea about what it is, word-mongering between A and B, was it?
So in order to educate, you need a voice. And to get a voice, you've got to develop a discourse on what you do, what is the job you do, a discourse that goes beyond the title on your business card you've been modifying the design of a dozen times since the past 20 years. That is why educating the client is a far, far, far away land to explore in a far, far away future. At least, stick up for yourself, professionally, and develop a self-descriptive discourse of what is at stake, what are your roles (noticed the plural?), in order to tell your client you are in charge of the definition of your job. Many times, it's less a matter of telling than showing you are cool and mastering the setting (even when you fake it).
What should work? Local associations of interpreters. I am jealous of Australia as it seems there are professional associations where butchers talk about meat there. Let's keep things straight here : I wouldn't write this blog if I had a place where to talk about meat on a monthly basis, with other meat mongers who are not afraid to meet each other, because they have gone way past the joke of "we can't meet because we are competitors". From where I am standing here in Tokyo, there is no such place, and the reasons why would be too long and destructive to explain. But hey! we have the www to speak out and discuss between far, far away countries, haven't we? I would like pointers beyond ProZ. Interpreters are too busy to speak so time - and the will to do it - is short to further speak about the profession(s). Just like bicycle, you don't talk, you grind the wheel. I have heard not so many same pattern things justifying the "I won't talk to you because just by meeting you will suck up my customers' list and suggest them I am worse than you are, which is the reverse by the way". This is even less than half-joking, believe me. So how can you ever think about educating when self-awareness too many times stink like this (at least in the country of the melting Sun)?
And another thing which is eating lunch like cancer, at least here again : you can't stick for yourself if you accept to work for free. Volunteer interpreting is a plague, a nasty SARS. It doesn't mean volunteering can't happen though (see, you always start pleading for your job in preemptive manner). It can, but based on sound awareness. In the current situation with the Fukushima mess, I have heard from sure sources that someone is interpreting for free for a major player in this international engineering and political ballet. You can't do the Saint-Bernard stuff without some brain and mistake the Red Cross from a corporation. It tells, here at least, a too big story to swallow alone. So forget about educating the client. Start with a sharing based self-awareness nurturing environment. I've got to cross fingers until they crack, or maybe move to Australia. In the meantime, the self-mumbling on this blog goes on, par défaut.
PS. The book illustrated here is good. It's for kids (the Japanese version of the same book is not for kids .... real!). The one for grown-ups elsewhere by the same authors is "Dynamics of Power". It has 20 years this year and still pristine.
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