What is simultaneous interpretation? What's the difference between it and speech‑to‑text?

What is Simultaneous Interpretation? Core Definition and Application Scenarios

Official Definition and Key Characteristics of Simultaneous Interpretation

According to official standards in the translation industry, simultaneous interpretation is a professional mode of interpretation in which the interpreter converts the source language into the target language in real time without interrupting the speaker. Its key characteristics can be summarized as follows:

• Synchronicity: The interpretation occurs simultaneously with the speaker's delivery, typically with a delay of only 2–3 seconds, ensuring the audience receives information without waiting.

• Immediacy: The output matches the rhythm of the source language and supports real‑time interactive communication.

• Professionalism: Requires interpreters to have deep bilingual proficiency and domain knowledge, including top‑tier certifications such as CATTI Level I (Interpreting). Industry data shows that professional simultaneous interpreters must sustain a delivery rate of 180–220 words per minute to match the speaking pace of mainstream conferences.

Main Application Scenarios for Simultaneous Interpretation

Simultaneous interpretation is mainly used in high‑end scenarios with extremely high requirements for accuracy and real‑time delivery. Globally, about 120,000 high‑level international conferences use simultaneous interpretation each year, accounting for roughly 15% of all international conferences. Typical scenarios include:

What is Speech‑to‑Text? Technical Logic and Available Tools

The Underlying Technology of Speech‑to‑Text

Speech‑to‑text (ASR, automatic speech recognition) is an intelligent tool based on automatic speech recognition. Its core processing flow is: audio capture → feature extraction → model matching → text output. Currently, mainstream ASR tools achieve a Chinese recognition accuracy of over 98%, and multilingual accuracy of about 92%. Core technical modules include:

• Acoustic model: converts audio signals into phonemes, transforming sound into linguistic units.

• Language model: corrects recognition results based on context, reducing errors caused by accents and noise.

• Adaptive algorithm: optimizes recognition in real time for different speakers’ accents and environmental noise, improving accuracy.

Feishu Minutes: An Efficient Enterprise‑Level Speech‑to‑Text Tool

Feishu Minutes is a professional speech‑to‑text tool under Feishu, designed for enterprise scenarios such as meetings, training, and interviews. Its core features and workflow are as follows:

• Real‑time meeting transcription: When you enable Feishu Minutes during a Feishu meeting, the meeting audio is transcribed into text in real time and can be viewed on the fly.

• Multilingual transcription and translation: Supports speech‑to‑text in 24 major languages, including Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean.

• Intelligent structured formatting: Automatically identifies speakers, filters out filler words, marks pauses, and produces clear, structured meeting transcripts.

• Fast content search: Allows keyword search within the transcribed text, letting you locate key points in one second.

What Are the Core Differences Between Simultaneous Interpretation and Speech‑to‑Text?

Essential Differences in Technology and Processing Logic

The core technologies behind the two are completely different. The essential differences are summarized in the table below:

Statistics show that a simultaneous interpreter requires at least five years of professional training to reach conference‑level standards, while speech‑to‑text performance depends on training datasets of millions of samples.

Differences in Output and Value Proposition

The output and value proposition of the two are clearly different:

• Simultaneous interpretation: Outputs are professionally translated content that conforms to the expression habits of the target language. Its value proposition is to serve as a bridge for deep cross‑language communication, solving the problem of accurately delivering professional content. Interpretation accuracy can exceed 98%.

• Speech‑to‑text: Outputs are text transcripts that closely match the source audio. Its value proposition is a tool for information retention and fast retrieval, solving the problems of meeting content preservation and review efficiency. According to Feishu customer survey data, after using speech‑to‑text tools, enterprises can improve meeting review efficiency by over 60%.

How to Choose Between Simultaneous Interpretation and Speech‑to‑Text Based on Your Scenario?

You can quickly decide by considering three core dimensions:

1. Meeting format and audience:

   • For high‑level international summits with audiences of industry experts or executives → Prioritize simultaneous interpretation

   • For internal routine meetings with general staff audiences → Prioritize speech‑to‑text

2. Core need:

   • If you need real‑time accurate communication and delivery of professional content → Prioritize simultaneous interpretation

   • If you need to retain meeting content for later review and retrieval → Prioritize speech‑to‑text

3. Budget:

   • If you have a sufficient budget (e.g., over ¥20,000/day) → Prioritize simultaneous interpretation

   • If you have a limited budget → Prioritize speech‑to‑text (Feishu Minutes enterprise plans offer high value for money)

Whether you choose simultaneous interpretation or speech‑to‑text, both aim to improve the efficiency of cross‑language communication. In the digital age, enterprises can flexibly combine the two based on their scenarios. For example, during an international conference, use simultaneous interpretation for real‑time communication needs and Feishu Minutes to retain meeting content for later review, achieving an optimal balance between efficiency and cost.