Listening straight into English loses things
If someone listens to a Punjabi call and types only English, the original words are gone. If a single phrase is later questioned, there is nothing to compare it with. A source-language transcript fixes that, and it lets a second person check the work.
When two languages mix
Many families switch between languages mid-sentence. We write each part in the language it was spoken and mark where it changes. Nothing is smoothed over, because the switch itself can matter.
Interviews with an interpreter
If a recording has an interpreter in it, the English you hear is the interpreter’s version. Where it matters, we also transcribe the original speaker’s own words, so you can see whether the two match.
First, name the exact language
People often describe a recording as “Chinese” or “Indian”. Legal guidance from Australia warns that a recording labelled Chinese may turn out to be neither Mandarin nor Cantonese. We listen first and confirm the language before we quote, so the right person does the work. Our Chinese translation page explains the difference between the spoken forms.