What is the difference between somebody who is “bilingual” and a professional translator/interpreter?
Bilingual is a relative term that does not necessarily qualify how well a person speaks, understands, writes and reads two languages. Knowing a foreign language well enough for everyday communication is not the same as the ability to accurately convey complicated legal, medical or business discourse from one language to another. A professional translator or interpreter must be highly articulate in his/her native and foreign languages, and be able to translate highly technical language without omitting, adding or embellishing the original message.