Both interpreters and translators fill necessary roles in today's global economy. They facilitate cross-cultural communication by transposing one language into another.
Quality translators and interpreters do more than just translate words, they convey meaning and concepts into another language and culture. As such, quality translators and interpreters are not only bilingual, they are also culturally literate when it comes to the languages/cultures they are translating between. To this end, many translators and interpreters have spent extended periods of time in other countries learning not only other languages, but also the cultures that correspond to them. Moreover, they are knowledgeable in a variety of subject matters and possess a wide and sometimes very specialized vocabulary in both languages depending on the type of translation or interpreting they do.
Read more of this article from jobmonkey.com (and see where Janine Libbey is quoted) here.