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Spanish interpreter skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Laura Polhemus Ph.D.,
Katty Kauffman
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical spanish interpreter skills. We ranked the top skills for spanish interpreters based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 41.1% of spanish interpreter resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a spanish interpreter needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 spanish interpreter skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how spanish interpreters use patients:
  • Served as a simultaneous interpreter between providers and patients keeping communication efficient by taking consideration of cultural differences between them.
  • Involved with majority of departments within Logan Regional Hospital including all specialty clinics and inpatient treatments and emergency room patients.

2. Medical Terminology

Here's how spanish interpreters use medical terminology:
  • Certified in medical terminology and translation and demonstrated a working knowledge of medical terminology.
  • Used medical terminology in order to communicate more effectively with providers.

3. Translation Services

Translation Services turn spoken words or texts into another dialect. During the interpretation cycle, somebody with expertise in two dialects takes the words and context and places it into another dialect for others to understand.

Here's how spanish interpreters use translation services:
  • Provide interpreting and/or translation services for Spanish speakers in an engaged educational environment.
  • Provide adequate interpreting and translation service between the Hispanic population and medical staff.

4. Spanish Language

The Spanish language is the most extensively spoken Romance language throughout the world. It's also one of the most widely spoken languages worldwide, with 543 million speakers in 2021.

Here's how spanish interpreters use spanish language:
  • Implement professional-level translations of all company literature into the Spanish language to allow equal opportunity and access for Spanish-speaking clients.
  • Provide in Spanish language all firestorm victims with important information about housing rental assistance and personal property damages.

5. Language Services

Language services are services that are rendered to clients, customers, investors, or groups of persons with difficulty or inability to understand basic English. The service could also involve having established communication with the deaf and dumb using sign languages.

Here's how spanish interpreters use language services:
  • Updated the Department of Language Services information throughout the hospital.
  • Coordinated with Call Center and Language Services dept.to ensure timely and effective delivery of interpretation services across all SRHS facilities.

6. Health Insurance

Here's how spanish interpreters use health insurance:
  • Help in the communications with health insurance companies, banks, telecommunication companies and any other company requiring Spanish interpreting skills.
  • Provided services to Government agencies along with Auto and Health Insurance Companies.

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7. Target Language

The target language is the language in which a text, document, or speech is translated into the final language. It is a foreign language that a non-native speaker intends to study or learn, as well as the individual elements of the language they want to learn. The target language is the opposite of the source text, which is the initial text to be translated.

Here's how spanish interpreters use target language:
  • Rendered correct concepts/meanings between source and target languages conveying clarity, tone, and style from Spanish to English.
  • Interpreted for various clients located throughout the Metro Area and beyond from the source to the target language.

8. Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is the task of certain members of the community who work together to uphold the law by identifying, preventing, rehabilitating, or prosecuting others who break society's laws and norms. The phrase refers to the police, the judiciary, and the correctional system.

Here's how spanish interpreters use law enforcement:
  • Assist judges with after-hour booking to Eastern Regional Jail via teleconference, and any law enforcement that may need interpreting assistance.
  • Trained in financial, technical, law enforcement, customer service, insurance and basic medical consecutive interpretation.

9. Vice Versa

A vice versa is a Latin expression that means - the other way round. That is, what we just said also applies in reverse (opposite) order.

Here's how spanish interpreters use vice versa:
  • Interpreted simultaneously from English to Spanish and vice versa for a three-week intensive course led by Martin Baker Aircraft Company.
  • Interpret calls having to do with medical, utilities, or legal circumstances from Spanish to English and vice versa.

10. Emergency Calls

Here's how spanish interpreters use emergency calls:
  • Assisted in qualified interpreter only emergency calls from police departments nationwide
  • Assisted with 911 emergency calls, Police non-emergency calls * Insurance Calls, Medical Calls, Credit Cards Calls, Bank Calls

11. Facilitate Communication

Facilitating communication helps a person with a communication disability interpret and communicate with their peers. A facilitator is assigned in a medical/schooling environment who bridges the gap between a doctor, teacher, or classmates and the person with communication disability. Facilitating communication can also help a professional interpret the disabled person or help the disabled person communicate through hand gestures, motion, or eye movement. These facilitators can be employed in many settings, including a church, school, weddings, funerals and more.

Here's how spanish interpreters use facilitate communication:
  • Perform consecutive interpreting to facilitate communication between employers, employees and human resources staff needed in companies.
  • Accompany foreign visitors and facilitate communication between receiving party and visitors.

12. Cultural Differences

Here's how spanish interpreters use cultural differences:
  • Processed information quickly and concisely, recognized sensitive cultural differences, utilized appropriate industry terminology and common industry procedures and practices.
  • Delivered interpreting services during intake and psychotherapy sessions, facilitated direct communication and clarified cultural differences.

13. Medical Interpretation

Here's how spanish interpreters use medical interpretation:
  • Completed medical interpretation qualification exam.
  • Provide Professional Medical Interpretation in Medical setting throughout Portland area.

15. Medical Procedures

Here's how spanish interpreters use medical procedures:
  • Facilitated various types of conversations emergencies, medical procedures, and legal situations.
  • Worked with hospital staff by interpreting medical procedures in person and by phone to Spanish-speaking patients and their family.
top-skills

What skills help Spanish Interpreters find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What spanish interpreter skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Laura Polhemus Ph.D.

Advanced Assistant Professor, Bethel University

We are continuing to see more and more virtual interpreting. Knowing how to use technology, how to set up a background and lighting for optimal viewing, and having strategies for making interpreting happen smoothly on various virtual platforms is essential. The Center for Atypical Language Interpreting offers many resources that will prepare you to work with individuals from a variety of language backgrounds. There are many Deaf individuals obtaining advanced degrees and working in high level positions. Knowing how to behave with the utmost professionalism in a multitude of work settings and having strong academic language skills in both American Sign Language and English are important in working with these individuals.

What type of skills will young spanish interpreters need?

Katty KauffmanKatty Kauffman LinkedIn profile

US-based Freelance Interpreter, member of AIIC, representative of the VEGA Outreach and Mentoring Network, International Association of Conference Interpreters

Interpreters need a range of skills, which fall roughly into three categories:
- Skills covered by your university program. These include technical skills in Simultaneous Interpreting, Consecutive Interpreting and Sight Translation, as well as professional ethics. Ethics are increasingly important at the moment when, because of Covid-related health restrictions, many of us are, unfortunately, having to work without a boothmate until normality returns, and still need to maintain a high level of trust with agencies and clients.
- Skills you may not have covered in school, which are vital as a freelancer. You need soft skills to help you network and engage with potential clients. Applying for pre-candidacy and subsequently joining AIIC as a full member can also raise your visibility within the industry.
An understanding of how to run your own business is also essential. Know what contract you are being offered, how to write an invoice, and which tax structure is best for you. If you are planning on working for yourself, be aware of what is happening with the PRO Act (H.R.2474) and the consequences it may have for freelance workers.
-Technical skills. On the business side, you are creating your own brand, so nowadays, you need a website and a social media presence. Understanding the workings of various RSI platforms and the equipment you need is also fundamental.

List of spanish interpreter skills to add to your resume

Spanish interpreter skills

The most important skills for a spanish interpreter resume and required skills for a spanish interpreter to have include:

  • Patients
  • Medical Terminology
  • Translation Services
  • Spanish Language
  • Language Services
  • Health Insurance
  • Target Language
  • Law Enforcement
  • Vice Versa
  • Emergency Calls
  • Facilitate Communication
  • Cultural Differences
  • Medical Interpretation
  • Informed Consent
  • Medical Procedures
  • Haitian Creole
  • Mental Health
  • Financial Institutions
  • Social Services
  • Telephone Calls
  • Medical Insurance
  • Spanish Speaking Clients
  • Creole
  • HIPAA
  • Medical Appointments
  • Source Language
  • Government Agencies
  • Social Security
  • Language Barriers
  • Phone Interpretation
  • Legal Terminology
  • Medical Professionals
  • Parent-Teacher Conferences
  • Physical Therapy
  • Sight Translation
  • Spanish Translation
  • Inbound Calls
  • Hippa
  • IEP
  • Early Intervention
  • Medical Facilities
  • Similar Language
  • Reference Materials
  • Message Content
  • Court Hearings
  • Spanish Speaking Families
  • Consecutive Interpretation
  • WIC
  • Simultaneous Interpretation
  • Spanish Speaking Parents

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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