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Simultaneous Interpreter Bengali, Burmese, Khmer, Vietnamese English in Malaysia

Interpreting is not an activity confined to mainstream languages and the combinations today are endless. Besides the interpreting services shown above, we are increasingly noticing an increase in demand for simultaneous interpreting of SEA languages in Malaysia.

Interpreting from Bengali, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese into English or Bahasa Malaysia is now “in vogue” due to the large immigrant and floating population residing in Malaysia, estimated in more than 7 (seven) millions as of 2021, or almost 20% of the Malaysian population.. A large part, nearly half, comes from Indonesia, where language and culture are very similar to Malaysia’s. However, there is also demand for interpreting services in the combination Bahasa Malaysia<>Bahasa Indonesia. The fact is that both languages are not converging but rather evolving as two separate languages and, in years to come, we will observe the same difference seen between Brazilian and European Portuguese. Other ASEAN languages that are harder to find are available here; from Roghinya, Arakanese, Chin dialects, Mon, as some coming out of Burma-now called Myanmar-, to many rare vernacular languages within Malaysia.

This need for interpreting services is only going to get greater due to Malaysia’s rapid economic expansion based on labour-intensive industries in all three sectors of the economy. Bengalis work more on primary industries while immigrant from Philipines are mainly oriented n the domestic help sector. Each immigrant group has its own idiosyncrasies and interpreters have to be fully aware and cognizant of those facts.

In many cases, these interpreting services for Bengali, Burmese, etc are done in a context of “community interpreting” i.e. for detainees or victims of trafficking; as such cases, an additional layer of expertise is required, the ability of interpret for victims of a traumatic episode such as being trafficked. Interpreting for this group of people demands prior capacitation and a certain blend of empathy and detachment, a very rare skill to have unless the interpreter’s EQ is above average. We count with a very reduced but exemplary pool of interpreters duly trained in this domain. (interpreting for Arakanese/Roghinya, Bengali, Syrian/Iraqi Arabic, etc)

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