Interpreting for international organizations. Research, practice and training

Professional interpreters are faced with the option of working as freelancers in the private market, or as staff interpreters in national or international institutions or a combination of the two, namely freelancers in international organizations. Each option reflects personal aspirations and needs, a lifestyle choice nurtured by a professional role that arouses admiration for the highly qualified skills required and for ensuring communication between human beings, but also concerns for the situations in which interpreters are nowadays expected to work ranging between in-process and peri-process challenging working conditions such as interpreting in multilingual settings where a lingua franca is used (or rather misused) and life-threatening risks such as interpreting in conflict zones. The aim of this special issue is to provide an insight into the interpreting practice in international organizations from the perspective of those who work or have worked as professional interpreters, coupled with the experience of the many interpreters who have been questioned in two most valuable original surveys and with the findings of several prominent researchers in the field.