Some interpreters work into B languages in only one of the two modes of interpretation. In principle, an interpreter's main active language is the mother tongue - the language in which the interpreter was formally educated and feels completely at ease. An active language which is not the interpreter's mother tongue can only be acquired after years of hard work and frequent stays in a country of that language. Usually, however, the second active language reaches a satisfactory standard only after many years of practice and is more suited to interpretation of technical discussions where lexical accuracy is more important than style or very discrete shades of meaning. It is customary only to work into the second active language out of the mother tongue.
Bilingual interpreters are much in demand, especially if they can offer a third language.
These are what interpreters call their C languages, according to AIIC classification. Using the information provided above as a basis, let us take an example of an interpreter with three working languages - English, French and Russian. By classifying them as A, B and C languages respectively we have that interpreter's language combination. This means that this particular interpreter may be employed to work from Russian and French into English, as well as from English into French. The concept of 'working language' also obtains for international organizations and meetings or similar events in which participants from different countries come together.