Cantonese interpreting and translation

Cantonese interpreting for every kind of appointment

Face-to-face Cantonese interpreters attend hospital outpatient clinics, care homes, police interviews, magistrates' and crown courts, immigration appointments and school meetings. Our telephone interpreting service is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and video interpreting is available through the SILA Linguists® app or Zoom, Teams and similar platforms. For board meetings, investor events and conferences with Hong Kong partners we provide consecutive, simultaneous and remote simultaneous interpreting.

Hong Kong speakers often mix English words into Cantonese, and our interpreters carry that through naturally without losing meaning. Older clients from rural Guangdong or early migrant families may speak Taishanese or Hakka at home; tell us what you know and we will match a linguist who understands them. Elderly care and dementia services particularly benefit from an interpreter who shares the client's variety.

Translating Chinese for Cantonese readers

Formal documents in Hong Kong and Macao are written in Standard Written Chinese and read aloud with Cantonese pronunciation, while informal written Cantonese, with characters such as 嘅, 咗 and 佢, appears in advertising, social media and transcripts of speech. We choose the right register for your purpose and use Traditional characters for Hong Kong and Macao readers and Simplified for readers from mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, adjusting vocabulary to Hong Kong usage where needed.

Our translators work into and out of English on Hong Kong identity cards, education records, birth and marriage certificates, contracts, financial statements and marketing. Certified Cantonese translation comes with a signed statement of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as the Home Office, courts and universities. Hong Kong and Guangdong records bound for the United States, Canada or Australia receive the certification each authority sets, NAATI-certified translation included.

Cantonese transcription and subtitling

Our transcribers are experienced with Cantonese media. We transcribe interviews, recorded evidence, focus groups and broadcast content with time stamps, then translate into English or subtitle in English or Chinese. Transcribers flag code-switching between Cantonese, English and Mandarin so that the record is precise.

Settings for our linguists in Cantonese

Our vetted, trained and qualified Cantonese linguists can support NHS and private healthcare, elderly care providers, criminal and family courts, police forces, solicitors, immigration advisers, schools and universities, banks, insurers, property firms and media producers. You speak to one project team, the linguists are vetted and work under confidentiality agreements, and data is protected under UK GDPR. Our Cantonese interpreters can support immigration lawyers, courts and hospitals in Canada, the United States and Australia, where Cantonese-speaking communities are long established.