In one of his books, Steiner makes a very simple and profound statement: "Inside or between languages, human communication equals translation". The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the truth of this axiom for oral interpretation. The first part of this paper describes the interpreting act which takes place inside a language, or intralingually, discussing the influence of the semantic and semiotic context on the oral messag and illustrating the intricacies of oral intralingual communication in order to better prepare the bilingual interpreter for the difficulty added when interpreting between two different languages, or interlingually. The second part of this paper deals with confidence-building techniques when students are learing the seemingly perilous act of interlingual interpretation. The author concludes with a discussion of the importance of good communication skills at all levels of interpreters' training.