Translation and interpreting are two distinct professions and yet hardly anybody except for language professionals seems to know, or care about, the difference.
Yet, the distinction is an easy one: translators work with the written word (they translate texts), whereas interpreters work with the spoken word (they interpret speech). All you need to remember is: translation = written and interpreting = spoken.
So next time you read in the press that somebody was “speaking through a translator”, you will know that it wasn’t a translator but an interpreter.

The skills required to become an interpreter are not the same as those required to become a translator. Both need to have a profound knowledge of their source and target languages as well as subject matter knowledge and broad general knowledge of course. In addition, interpreters also need a good memory, they have to be able to react very quickly, overcome a difficulty within seconds, understand a variety of different accents and pronunciations and they also have to be able to concentrate intensely. As for translators, it is important that they have an excellent writing style, impeccable grammar and spelling and broad vocabulary in a variety of fields and genres. An excellent interpreter can be a very bad translator and vice-versa, although there are a certain number of people who successfully combine the two professions.

In short, the mission of both translators and interpreters is to get a message across in a different language, but translators do so in writing while interpreters do so orally.

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