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When I get a recording packed with technical jargon I’ve never heard before, I follow a simple process that keeps things accurate and calm. I start with a quick pre-listen to get a sense of the topic, the speakers, and their accents. This gives me an early hint about the kind of terminology I’m about to meet. Then I jot down any unfamiliar words or acronyms and build a small vocab list. I don’t look up everything — only the terms that repeat or actually matter to the context. For research, I stick to dependable sources based on the industry: Legal? Court websites or Cornell’s legal dictionary. Tech? Company sites, product documentation, or even GitHub when necessary. If I still can’t catch a word, I slow the audio down, replay it a few times, and break it phonetically into smaller pieces. You’d be surprised how often it becomes clear on the third or fourth pass. And when something is truly impossible to decipher, I never guess. I mark it as [inaudible] or [unclear] and flag it for the client.