Abstract: In the modern world due to the global expansion of international relations any person who knows a foreign language in fact acts as a translator or an interpreter. As a result the popularity of involving non-professional translators or interpreters in the translation process reduces visibility of the work of professional translators and interpreters in the society and influences on the quality of the translation. The purpose of this article is to find answers to a number of issues the modern translation and interpreting studies faces with, for instance, language problems and different interpretations of texts, or possibility or impossibility of text translation, etc. The basis of this article lay down the work of J. Ortega y Gasset , P. Ricoeur and F. Schleiermacher. The results of this article will be of great interest to both professional and non-professional translators or interpreters because the tasks of translation and interpreting studies are specified, problems with interpretations of the translated texts are pointed out, criteria for evaluation of a translation are proposed as well as the methods of “paraphrase” and “retelling” appropriate use of which improves the skills of an interpreter or translator and avoid tricky situations.