Sight Translation
What the candidate must know
Sight translation is reading a written text in one language and rendering it orally into another, on the spot, with little preparation. In healthcare it appears with consent forms, discharge instructions, medication labels, and short patient-education handouts. The skill blends reading comprehension, rapid syntactic restructuring, and oral delivery.
A disciplined method helps: scan the whole text first (title, structure, any numbers or warnings), then translate in meaningful chunks, keeping your eyes slightly ahead of your voice. Preserve formatting cues - headings, bullet order, bolded warnings - and read numbers, units, and dates exactly. If a term is unfamiliar, do not invent a meaning; use a neutral paraphrase and flag it, or ask for a moment. Accuracy of critical content (dose, frequency, route, allergy warnings) outranks elegance.
Traps in questions
- Options that "improve" the source (adding explanation, simplifying warnings) - sight translation is not editing.
- Skipping a line or bullet because of layout; questions reward completeness.
- Converting units or rounding numbers "for clarity" - never alter a figure.
- Treating sight translation as full document translation (it is oral and immediate).
- Rushing the scan; the first pass prevents mid-text surprises like an embedded table.
Rule of thumb
Scan, chunk, and keep your voice a step behind your eyes. Read every number and warning verbatim in meaning; if you cannot render a term faithfully, pause and flag rather than improvise silently.
Worked example
A label reads: "Take 1 tablet by mouth twice daily. Do not crush. Finish all doses." A faithful sight translation keeps the dose (1 tablet), route (by mouth), frequency (twice daily), the prohibition (do not crush), and the instruction to complete the course - without adding "because it works better" or dropping "do not crush."