How to transcribe an interview in another language, or in two

To transcribe an interview in another language, set the transcription language to the language the interview will actually be in before the call starts. Most tools transcribe one language per conversation, and speech in a language the tool is not expecting comes out garbled or invented. For an interview that switches between two languages, you need a mixed-language mode: as of October 2026, Fireflies (Business and Enterprise), Microsoft Teams with the right license, and Metaview offer one, while Otter mixes only French with English. Keep the original-language transcript as the record, translate it for readers, and quote the candidate in the original with a translation beside it.

Why does the language setting matter so much?

A speech model writes the words it expects in the language it was told to use. Point an English model at a Spanish answer and it produces English-sounding text that nobody said, which is worse than no transcript because it looks like one. Microsoft builds a guard against this into Teams: if the meeting's spoken language does not match what people are saying, Teams detects the mismatch and prompts the organizer to change it (View live transcription in Microsoft Teams meetings).

Accuracy also differs by language. OpenAI's Whisper model card reports lower accuracy on languages with less training data and different performance across accents and dialects. A transcript in a widely spoken language from a good microphone is a different thing from one in a less common language over a phone line, and deserves a different level of trust.

What do the main tools support?

We make Interview Signal, one of the tools below; everything about the other products comes from their own sites, linked and dated. Checked October 2026.

Two details worth knowing before you rely on translation. In Teams, translated captions and transcripts are available only during the meeting; Microsoft says past translated transcripts aren't stored, only the original, and points to Clipchamp for translated transcripts afterward. In Fireflies' Multi-Language Mode, the summary is written in whichever language dominated the meeting.

How do you transcribe an interview in one language other than English?

1. Confirm the interview language with the candidate in the invitation, so nobody switches by surprise.
2. Set the language before the call. In Otter, the default conversation language in account settings; in Fireflies, the meeting language in settings; in Teams, confirm the spoken language when you start transcription.
3. Ask for consent in the candidate's language, and record that they agreed. The consent script is short enough to translate in advance.
4. Check the first minute. If the live transcript looks wrong, fix the language now; a corrected setting does not always repair what came before.
5. Review numbers and names afterward with extra care; they are the hardest words in any language.

What if the interview switches between two languages?

This is common: a screen in English with a ten-minute segment in Portuguese to check the language requirement, or a candidate who explains technical terms in English inside a Spanish answer. Three ways to handle it:

• Use a mixed-language mode if your language pair is supported (see the table). Test it on a practice call with a colleague first; "beta" and "preview" labels mean results vary.
• Plan the switch. Agree in advance when the language segment starts and ends. In Teams, the organizer can change the meeting's spoken language at that moment, which changes it for everyone's captions and transcript. In tools that fix the language per recording, use two recordings.
• Fix it afterward. Metaview lets you choose the language actually spoken and re-transcribe the call, and says manual edits to notes from the bad transcript do not carry over. Fireflies lets you reprocess a meeting in another language from the meeting page, up to three times per meeting, and transcript edits are lost when you do (Fireflies guide). Either way, fix the language before anyone edits the notes.

How do you translate the transcript for other readers?

• Keep the original as the record. A translation is a reading aid; the original is what the candidate said.
• Use the tool's translation where it exists: Otter Chat can translate a conversation; Metaview translates notes and its summary without changing the transcript; Teams offers live translated transcription with Teams Premium.
• Label machine translation as such in anything you share.
• Get a fluent check on decisive passages. If a hiring decision rests on one answer, have a fluent colleague or a professional translator confirm it.

How do you quote a candidate who answered in another language?

Quote the original, add the translation in brackets, and keep the timestamp. An invented example:

Customer escalations: "Llamé al cliente el mismo día y le ofrecí un
reemplazo antes de que lo pidiera" [12:40]
[Machine translation: "I called the customer the same day and offered a
replacement before they asked for it."]

Never put a translation inside quotation marks as if it were the candidate's own words. In a scorecard or a client submittal, the difference matters if the translation turns out to be wrong.

How do you keep it fair to the candidate?

• Assess language only when the job needs it, and test it with a task the job actually involves. How to interview bilingual candidates covers the rubric.
• Do not read transcript quality as candidate quality. A messy transcript of an accented speaker reflects the speech model, not the answer. Research has found error rates differ markedly between speaker groups; the AI note taker hallucinations guide covers it.
• Let the candidate choose the interview language where the job does not require a specific one.

A checklist before a non-English or mixed-language interview

[ ] Interview language confirmed with the candidate in writing
[ ] Tool supports that language (and the pair, if mixed)
[ ] Language set in the tool before the call
[ ] Consent line ready in the candidate's language
[ ] Test call done if using a mixed-language or beta mode
[ ] Plan for where the language switch happens, if any
[ ] Fluent reviewer lined up for decisive passages
[ ] Original transcript kept; translations labeled

For capture options by phone, video and in person, see how to transcribe a job interview; for a broader comparison of transcription tools, see interview transcription software for recruiters.