Telephone Interpreting Service in Chinese

Working together with our experienced and qualified translators, voiceover artists, interpreters, audiovisual translators, transcribers and subtitlers, we offer a wide range of language services.

Available in over 200 languages within the UK and beyond, our linguists can get you heard in any language of your choice. While we do not offer a walk-in service, we are only one phone call away from discussing your language requirements.

Chinese telephone interpreter versus on-site interpreter

There are many reasons why you might prefer access to a telephone interpreter over an interpreter attending on-site.  It is all down to the situation.

You have a client based abroad and neither of you speak the other’s language. You need to speak to them quickly as a situation has occurred requiring urgent attention.  You don’t have time or the budget to meet in person.  What could be easier than to pick up the phone and have an experienced interpreter join the call and to smooth the way?

You are a social worker and need to talk to relatives of one of your clients based 80 miles away.  Arranging a face-to-face meeting between all the parties could take weeks to put together and many miles of travel.  Instead, our operator can connect all the relevant people by phone in an instant.

You have a medical emergency on your hands and the injured person speaks Chinese but not much English.  You need to ask him some questions about his condition.  There simply isn’t time to arrange for an interpreter to attend on-site.  If you have a telephone interpreting account with us, you can simply dial in to be connected with an appropriate interpreter straightaway.

How does our telephone interpreting service work?

It really couldn’t be simpler.  Opening an account with us takes less than 2 minutes, is free and gives you 24/7 access to experienced interpreters in over 200 languages.

You will only be charged for actual usage of the service.

Setting up a telephone interpreting call is simple:

1. Telephone the interpreting hotline number, state your name, the name of your organization and your password or PIN.
2. Let the operator know that you require Chinese.
3. In the case of conference calls, give the phone numbers of any additional lines you need to be connected to. For example, if you are calling your client at their home or office, you will need to provide this number.
4. You will be placed on hold for approximately 60 seconds while you are being connected to your interpreter. You will also be connected by conference call with any additional lines you have requested.
5. When you have finished your call, simply hang up the phone.

That’s all there is to it!  We think you’ll find the rates competitive too.

How is the cost for telephone interpreting calculated?

• Setting up a telephone interpreting account is free and there are no subscription charges.
• The cost is then calculated by the number of minutes, whether it is a 2-way or 3-way call, international or “local”, “rarity” or otherwise of language, time of day of call.

Get in touch with one of our lovely project managers and they would be very happy to discuss all the available options with you. Do also take a look at the security procedures and infrastructure we already have in place to protect your data.

While you’re here… some quite interesting facts about the Chinese language.

Chinese is an umbrella term to describe various languages. Accounting for 70% of Chinese speakers, Mandarin is more widely spoken than any other form of Chinese – with some 955 million native speakers globally. That’s 14% of the world’s total population. In fact, there are more native Mandarin speakers in the world than speakers of any other language. Mandarin is just one of several Chinese dialect groups, which can be kind of confusing. In places like Taiwan and People’s Republic of China it’s the official language. Mandarin dialects are spoken throughout most of northern and southwestern China. Despite their similarities, some Mandarin dialects are actually not “mutually intelligible”. Other varieties of Chinese include Wu, Xiang, Yue, Min, Hakka and Gan. It is written using traditional characters. Written using simplified characters, Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of the Chinese language spoken around Canton (Guangzhou) and its vicinity in southeastern China. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi, being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta. It is the dominant and official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is also widely spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent) and throughout the Western world.

Where is Chinese most widely spoken?