Mixed booths optimize the skills of bilingual interpreters, who translate a pair of languages in both directions. When there are several working languages, the combination of their capacities allows to cover all of them with one less team than in the pure booth mode, where each interpreter translates only into one language.
How does it work?
The so-called «mixed booths» are the simultaneous interpretation system used predominantly in Spain. Unlike most of Europe, where so-called «pure booths» are used, with one booth per working language, the mixed system does not require a Spanish booth, so «n» working languages are covered with «n-1» booths, thus reducing the cost of multi-language interpretation.
How does it work? In this example, , meeting with four working languages, e.g. English, French, Spanish and Arabic. the operation is as follows:
English booth:
- When the Floor speaks English, it translates into Spanish (English-Spanish)
- When the Floor speaks Spanish, it translates into English (Spanish-English)
- When the Floor speaks French, it translates into English (French-English)
- When the Floor speaks Arabic, it translates into English (Arabic-English)
French booth:
- When the Floor speaks French, it translates into Spanish (French-Spanish)
- When the Floor speaks Spanish, it translates into French (Spanish-French)
- When the Floor speaks English, it translates into English (English-French)
- When the Floor speaks Arabic, it translates into English (Arabic-French)
Arabic booth:
- When the Floor speaks Arabic, it translates into Spanish (Arabic-Spanish)
- When the Floor speaks Spanish, it translates into Arabic (Spanish-Arabic)
- When the Floor speaks English, it translates into Arabic (English-Arabic)
- When the Floor speaks French, it translates into Arabic (French- Arabic).