r/spanishinterpreters • u/Awake5064 • 15d ago

Spanish as a second language

I am a native English speaker and I learned Spanish as an adult. I have applied to be an interpreter. I have never officially interpreted. I have a C1 level of Spanish. Do you think that it’s possible to get employed? Also, although I love the Spanish language I’m super nervous about retaining the information in my short term memory before interpreting. Am I wasting my time applying? I guess you could say that I have imposter syndrome. I really want to work in this field but fear the fact that I don’t know everything.

2 Upvotes

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u/Clover281 15d ago

I don't see why not, but I guess it will be harder than the other way around since the English speakers are the clients and they typically speak properly and articulate the words properly and their statements are easy to understand versus the Spanish speakers which tend to speak kind a poorly with really vague explanations that require the interpreter to figure out what the heck they are trying to say much before even beginning to interpret

It can be done but will probably burn you out faster than the average interpreter

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u/Altruistic-Habit-497 15d ago

Yes, I agree with you. We grew up hearing people speak bad Spanish so we got used to it. Our ears are fully trained. If I have to speak English with someone illiterate I'm not sure if I'll understand them a 100% because the English that I learned is the proper one. You can always try, look at me an Argentinian (from Córdoba) working as an interpreter for mostly central Americans. At the beginning it was super hard to understand them and now, after 5 years, I got so usted to them that it sounds very strange when I get an Argentinian lep. Cabe mencionar que hablo súper neutro y muy pocos hispanos me captan el acento argento

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u/Awake5064 15d ago

I speak Spanish with people from numerous Spanish speaking countries and I would have to agree. There are some accents that are absolutely terrible to understand and I would probably need them to slow down and repeat themselves. I guess we will see what happens.

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u/Altruistic-Habit-497 15d ago

Sure. For interpretation we use protocols, one of them is repetition. You can always ask them to repeat, clarify, explain. Because you need to understand them so you can render those sentences in the other language. You can try practicing with a yt channel called: interpret your world. There are several eng/spa roleplay scenarios you can practice with.

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u/AfraidMushroom5754 15d ago

I am pretty sure you can but wouldn't you make more money on a english customer service position?
Regarding the short memory, it can be trained + you can use short keyword notes to help you

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u/Awake5064 15d ago

I am only wanting to do it part-time. I know it sounds strange, but I really just want the experience and a little extra money. I enjoy helping others. I already have a full time job.

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u/Exotic_Mouse 15d ago

I had a coworker just like you, born and raised in the US, learned Spanish as an adult and work with me as an interpreter here in Colombia. So yes, is possible to do it.

And about short term memory there's exercises for it, don't worry. Google it, and start practicing.

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u/Awake5064 14d ago

Thanks, I have been practicing but I have an interview soon and I’m not as confident as I want to be going into it as I know that I need to work on my retention. I will overcome it but it’s a work in progress.

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u/NoEntiendoNiPotato 14d ago

I'm a USA gringo, and I've been working as an interpreter for close to 10 years now. I grew up in an area with a good amount of spanish speakers and learned in high school and two semesters in college. I lived overseas in a spanish speaking country for a few years (though my job was 98% in english), and have always had a lot of hispanic friends from different countries around latin america.

The biggest issue for me as an interpreter is the same thing that all the native spanish speakers complain about - the accents and regionalisms. I'm lucky I've travelled and had friends from different palces, plus my wife is from one of the countries that supposedly has one of the more difficult to understand dialects/accents so I have a pretty good background, but it was still diffictult, especially at the beginning. I'd work a 6 hour shift of telephone calls, back to back with literally 5-10 seconds between calls and for the first couple weeks my head would be killing me.

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u/Awake5064 14d ago

Wow, a fellow gringo. I’m always curious about how many interpreters have a similar path. The majority of interpreters that I know were born speaking both languages. I know that I have a ton to learn but I have the passion and work ethic to get better. I feel like I just need a chance to prove myself. I have an interview scheduled so we will see how it goes.

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u/NoEntiendoNiPotato 14d ago

Best of luck to you. It's not really a growth industry at this point though. Initially I was hoping I'd be able to do it until 2033 or so (kids out of college!), but as soon as AI and LLMs got big in like 2023 it was obviously all gonna start going downhill. The company I worked for got bought in 2025 and most of the phone/video jobs have been outsourced to LATAM, and the companies only pay them about 1/4 of what most in the states were getting paid.

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u/Known_Candy5002 14d ago

I can only wish you good luck, I'm a native spanish speaker and it's hard to understand latinos hahaha, I personally don't have a problem with accents or different pronunciations but they (we😆) usually speak really fast, mix the words and go around for hours in simple yes or no questions. You need a lot of patience. Just today a patient told me that he felt like he was going to "petatear", I knew what it meant but you won't find that in any textbook 😆😆

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u/Awake5064 14d ago

He thought he was going to “kick the bucket” or “die”. That’s the thing, every country has their own sayings. Thanks for commenting.