Court Interpreter Testing Process- posted 6/29/10

Interpreter Candidate “How do I sign up for the California court interpreting tests?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “To begin testing, you have to register with our independent test administrator. You can find them by clicking “Exam Information” on our website.”

“Make sure to read all of the information included in the Candidate Information. These contain important details on test sites, schedules, and fees.”

Interpreter Candidate “Where will I take the exams?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “Both the written and oral exams are given at multiple test sites all over the state. The written exams are administered almost every day. You just have to contact our administrator and schedule a test. The oral exams occur on specific dates announced by our test administrator.”

Interpreter Candidate “Once I take an exam, when will I find out if I passed.”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “You get written exam scores at the test center the same day you take the test, and oral scores usually come a few months after you take the oral exam. Remember, the tests are hard, and they can only evaluate your performance on a particular day. Being bilingual does not guarantee you’ll pass.”

Interpreter Candidate “What if I don’t pass the written exam?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “You must wait at least 90 days before you take the written exam again, and you’re eligible to take the written exam twice during a 12-month period.”

Interpreter Candidate “What if I don’t pass the oral examination?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “Once you pass the written exam, you can take the oral exam a total of four times. If you don’t pass the oral exam in four tries, you’ll have to take the written exam again.”

Interpreter Candidate “Do most people pass the tests the first time?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “Most of our candidates do not pass either the written or oral exam the first time. Some do, it just depends on how prepared you are.”

Interpreter Candidate “Why is it so hard to become a court interpreter?”

Shaw-Chin Chiu, AOC “California has always required a very high level of interpreting skill and ability, and we will continue to do so in the future. Our test standards have not changed even though we may change the way we test or the content of any given exam. We always have one

goal: providing complete and accurate interpretation to court users, as required under the state and federal constitutions.”

Demand for Interpreter Grows

Demand for interpreters grows

BY JORDAN PASCALE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Ask Sarah Shannon how many court cases she’s worked on recently and she’ll tell you, “Oh my word, too many!”

As the only state-certified Spanish language interpreter in the Panhandle’s 12th Judicial District, the Mitchell, Neb., woman’s “part-time” job has her working with at least 30 clients each month.

Interpreting accounts for a growing share of the state court budget – an expense that’s increased dramatically over the past five years.

On a busy day, four interpreters will be working in Douglas County courtrooms, handling trials in district court, traffic cases, and civil and juvenile court cases, said Adriana Hinojosa, the county’s coordinator for interpreter services. She said demand has jumped in the past year.

Last year, the Nebraska courts paid more than $1 million for interpreting services, hiring 160 interpreters speaking 21 languages.

It’s a trend that results from Nebraska’s increasingly diverse population. The state’s Hispanic population has grown by 49 percent since 2000, according to 2008 U.S. Census information. An estimated 9 percent of Nebraska’s population speaks a language other than English in their homes, according to the Census.

Court officials are looking for ways to cut costs so they can free up money to recruit and train more interpreters.

One strategy, using laptop computers, Web cameras and Internet conferencing technology for remote interpretation, is being adopted by more than a dozen county courts in rural areas, said Sheryl Connolly, who spends part of her time coordinating interpreter services for the state court system.

The new state budget includes a 10 percent increase, or $105,000, for next year’s court interpreter budget.

But it provides no funds for a full-time state coordinator as requested by court officials, nor would it allow the program to grow in 2010-11, the second year of the two-year budget cycle.

In his state of the judiciary address earlier this year, Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican said it “isn’t unusual in Grand Island, for example, to need interpreters in languages such as Nuer, Dinka and Nubian in court cases.”

In other states, cases have been overturned because of poor interpretation, said Supreme Court Judge John Gerrard, who heads the court system’s Interpreter Advisory Committee.

“It’s a due process issue,” he said. “If you’re not being interpreted correctly, you’re not having your opportunity to be heard.”

In an effort to assure quality, the state offers a certification program that includes training workshops and testing. Interpreters generally need the equivalent of a college-level education in both English and a foreign language to pass the tests.

Judges must use certified interpreters when they are available. Although Nebraska now has 17 certified interpreters, all of them speak Spanish.

That means those who speak other languages often must rely on less-skilled interpreters.

Court interpreters are paid $50 an hour for their part-time work. The state has no full-time interpreters on staff.

Most interpreters live in population centers like Lincoln and Omaha, where they have better access to college-level language courses. Meanwhile, interpretation services often are needed hours away, in towns like Lexington, Schuyler and Dakota City, where the meatpacking industry has attracted many Spanish-speaking workers.

To help save on travel costs, some counties are looking to remote interpreting.

With the technology, an interpreter can participate without traveling to the courtroom. The interpreter can see and hear those in the courtroom, and those in the courtroom can see and hear the interpreter.

The effort started with Colfax County in east-central Nebraska and now includes five counties in the Panhandle and 10 counties in south-central Nebraska.

Connolly, with the state court system, said another county, Lincoln, where North Platte is located, recently notified her that court officials there want to begin using a Web camera and laptop computers to bolster interpreting.

Hinojosa said remote interpreting is not being used in the Omaha metro area, which doesn’t face the same obstacles with distance and travel expenses.

Colfax County Judge Patrick McDermott of Schuyler studied remote interpreting for his master’s degree project while studying at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

He concluded the state could save up to $450,000 per year.

But Shannon, an interpreter who serves the Panhandle, said she’s uncomfortable with remote interpreting.

“An interpreter has to see and hear the attorneys, the judges, the client and everyone in the courtroom to be effective,” Shannon said.

Connolly agreed that remote interpreting probably would not be appropriate for complex hearings and trials with many witnesses and multiple days of testimony. She said the effort thus far is focusing on county courts in part because the technology is best suited for simple proceedings.

UN Interpreters Make Sure Nothing is Lost in Translation

Think you’re good at languages? Try applying for one of the toughest translation jobs on earth — working as a language specialist for the United Nations. RFE/RL takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of interpreters.

UNITED NATIONS — When Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi delivered his notorious 96-minute speech before the UN General Assembly last autumn, no one may have been more aware of each passing minute than his personal translator, Fouad Zlitni, whom he had brought along for the occasion.

Nearly three-quarters of the way into Qaddafi’s address, Zlitni collapsed, undone by the effort of translating the Libyan leader’s rambling, at times angry speech from Arabic into English for nearly 75 minutes straight.

Hossam Fahr, the Egyptian-born head of the UN’s interpretation service, says Qaddafi’s translator went far beyond the normal limits of what an interpreter can reasonably be expected to do.

“It was a very unusual situation, because every member state has the right to bring its own interpreter. [Qaddafi] had his own interpreters; they were already installed in the booths. So we let them do the work, and then unfortunately, one of them just collapsed a good 75 minutes into the statement,” Fahr said.

“I take my hat off to him — he did a very good job under the circumstances.”

The incident served to highlight the grueling nature of simultaneous interpretation, a profession which few ordinary people have occasion to observe.

But at the United Nations, which brings together 192 member states and a profusion of mother tongues in its day-to-day pursuit of international diplomacy, interpretation is at the very core of its operations.

The annual General Assembly — which every autumn brings together the entire UN membership for a massive two-week series of speeches and policy reviews — may represent the World Cup of professional interpretation.

But even on a day-to-day basis, the UN’s councils, committees, and publications produce enough work to keep its language staff of nearly 460 people busy on a full-time basis.

Barry Olsen, who heads the conference interpretation program at California’s highly respected Monterey Institute of International Studies — from which a number of UN translators have graduated — says UN language specialists are generally considered the best in the business.

“A translator or interpreter who works for the United Nations has reached what is very much one of the pinnacles of the profession. It is an organization that is respected and the linguistic work that goes on with the United Nations is of the highest order,” Olsen says.

Iron Nerves And A Sense Of Style

Although the official working languages at the United Nations are English and French, the UN has six official languages into which the bulk of its official documents and publications are automatically translated — English and French, plus Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. (In instances where other languages are needed, the UN will hire freelance interpreters or country delegations will bring in their own translators.)

UN interpreters, most typically, translate from their acquired languages into their native tongue. With language like Chinese and Arabic — where accomplished translators are more difficult to find — interpreters will translate both into their native language as well as their adopted ones.

It’s an intense experience that can drain even the most accomplished interpreters — to avoid a Qaddafi-like marathon, in fact, the UN abides by a strict timetable in which interpreters work in teams of two, with one typically working no more than 20 minutes at a time before switching to his or her partner. (General Assembly speeches, moreover, are usually kept to 15 minutes or less.)

Mastering a language is only the start to being a good interpreter. In a UN guide for would-be language specialists, the job appears to be equal parts diplomat, rocket scientist, and traffic cop. “A good translator,” it reads, “knows techniques for coping with a huge variety of difficult situations, has iron nerves, does not panic, has a sense of style, and can keep up with a rapid speakers.”

Igor Shpiniov of the UN Training Section, Hossam Fahr, the chief of the UN Interpretation Service, and Stephen Sekel, the former chief of the UN English Translation Service.

Stiff Competition

Such people, it appears, are hard to find. Despite salaries that are among the highest in the profession — top-rank UN interpreters can earn $76,000 a year — the United Nations is suffering a severe shortage of qualified language personnel.

“We’re looking for people with good comprehension skills. Sometimes people who translate from French or English into Russian do not necessarily speak fluently in English or French,” says Igor Shpiniov, a Russian-born translator who runs the UN’s language training division.

“Sometimes, paradoxically, they can translate a text about atomic energy, but if you ask them to buy milk at a French supermarket, they’ll be at a loss.”

Competition for the jobs is stiff. Out of 1,800 applicants looking to work as Chinese interpreters last year, only 10 passed the UN examination. For Arabic, only two out of 400 made the cut.

Many UN language experts work as translators for the vast numbers of publications and documents that pass through the international body each year. But the most prestigious position is that of the simultaneous interpreters when language experts sit in soundproof booths and provide a running translation of often highly technical or politically charged speeches.

The Comma Affair

The profession was first developed during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals in 1946. Now both the General Assembly and Security Council have eight translation booths — one for each of the UN’s official languages, and two for alternate language translations. (According to UN rules, the media is barred from sitting in on live interpretation sessions.)

When working at important events like Security Council meetings, interpreters are often allowed to prepare with advance information about the proceedings, allowing them to familiarize themselves with the concepts and terminology of the debate. The agenda for the General Assembly is often planned months in advance, allowing the translation team ample time to estimate how many interpreters will be needed for scheduled talks.

Still, no amount of advance planning can completely protect interpreters from anxiety when the time has come for them to translate. Some studies have shown that during intense debates, interpreters often experience an increase in blood pressure and heart rate as they struggle to translate different terms, nuances, and arguments into smooth, comprehensible phrases.

Movies like “The Interpreter,” starring Nicole Kidman as a UN translator and filmed inside the United Nations compound, brought an aura of Hollywood glamour and intrigue to the role of interpreters. In reality, the job can be far more prosaic, although constant worries about involuntary bloopers and misinterpretations can keep tensions high.

In one instance, a firestorm was raised when a single comma was removed from the text of a UN resolution involving two unnamed former Soviet republics in the thick of a border dispute. One of the countries, angered by the omission, demanded it be replaced. But the UN translators, undaunted, said the comma had distorted the meaning of the text. Not everyone was happy, but in the end, the comma stayed out.

Mistakes And Applause

Interpretation head Fahr also recalls a mistake he made as an Arabic-English interpreter when the Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali was sworn in as UN secretary-general in 1992.

“What comes out of my mouth is, ‘I congratulate you upon your election as secretary-general of the United States.’ And everybody in the General Assembly laughed,” Fahr said.

“So the president of the General Assembly asked the then-secretary-general, [Peru's Javier] Perez de Cuellar why are they laughing, and he said ‘The English interpreter made a mistake.’”

In the end, Fahr says, he received a forgiving round of applause.

Stephen Sekel, former chief of the UN’s English translation service, says such mistakes are quite common and that UN staff only occasionally demand an interpreter be sanctioned for making a mistake. Overall, he says, the skill and professionalism of the UN translation team ensures any they remain an indispensible, behind-the-scenes asset — and that their errors will be few.

“We expect our language staff to bring a great deal of general knowledge to the job, a high level of education and a lot of intellectual curiosity,” Sekel said.

“They are expected to be continuous learners. They wouldn’t survive otherwise. Perhaps that explains why we don’t have too many examples of terrible mistakes that brought us to the brink of a major international crisis.”

http://www.speroforum.com/a/29871/UN-Interpreters-Make-Sure-Nothing-Is-Lost-In-Translation

High cost of interpreters hits local courts

High cost of interpreters hits local courts

By Patrick Fox

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cities and counties in metro Atlanta are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on interpreter services in local courts for defendants who don’t speak English.

Gwinnett County, which has one of the most diverse populations in the region, spent $539,803 in 2009 on interpreters in its court system, according to figures supplied by the county to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Cobb’s Superior Court spent $255,563 last year.

The issue arose most recently in Alpharetta, whose City Council was presented last week with a contract for up to $40,000 for interpreter services in municipal court for fiscal 2011, up from about $27,500 in the previous year.

Council members’ brows furrowed further when they learned that the contract paid $48.99 per hour for interpreter services with a two-hour minimum per session, and that interpreters would also bill 55 cents per mile with an average round trip of 40 miles.

“I need to get a Rosetta Stone [language lesson CD],” said Councilman D.C. Aiken. “That’s not a bad gig.”

Aiken objected that the city is being forced to provide a service to many people who are neither residents nor taxpayers in Alpharetta and may not be in the country legally. The figures supplied by the cities and counties on interpreters for non-English speakers do not include the immigration status of these defendants; many are likely illegal immigrants, but some may be legal residents.

Georgia law requires that all defendants who lack skills in English be provided an interpreter. However, there is no uniform statewide compensation system. If the court approves a pauper’s affidavit in any civil case, an interpreter is furnished at no cost.

The Supreme Court of Georgia has adopted rules providing that “cost can be assessed when appropriate.” This allows the court to charge the cost of the interpreter — unless it is an interpreter under the American Disability Act — back to the defendant.

“It’s not a clearly defined issue, but the general consensus across the board is that if you’ve got a substantial portion of your population [unskilled in English], then you need to make those services available,”Alpharetta City Attorney Sam Thomas told the council.

Some courts in metro Atlanta deal have found ways to curb the expense.

Roswell Municipal Court Administrator Robby Barkley said the city has reduced its costs by using Spanish-speaking employees for bond hearings.

“We were just to a point where we were spending so much, we just decided to see how we could best utilize them for bond hearings and some trial sessions where there are only one or two cases,” he said.

The city spent $32,783 on municipal court interpreters last year, he said, but that’s down from $45,000 in 2007. Using city staff for interpreter services accounted for $7,000 of that savings.

Speaking at a budget hearing last year, Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Tom Davis said the courts required interpreters for 42 languages over the previous 12 months.

Gwinnett saw its costs for interpreters jump 8 percent from 2007 to 2008, going from $500,000 to $542,000. The cost fell slightly last year to $539,803. Early this year, the county reduced its pay rate for interpreters and has estimated the move will save it $80,000.

Interpreter expenses for Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton were all down slightly last year.

Tony Day, court administrator and clerk in Johns Creek, said it’s difficult to plan for interpreters’ expenses.

“It just depends on the clientele we get out here,” he said. “You can never tell.”

One big factor, he said, is how many police are on the streets writing traffic citations. Another factor for Johns Creek is its diverse population. The city is home to large populations of immigrants — legal and illegal — speaking Russian, Hispanic, Farsi and Korean.

“These people have to have due process,” he said. “They have to know what they’re being charged with and what their rights are, and you can’t do that in English if they speak Farsi or they speak Russian or they speak Spanish or Korean or any other language.”

8A Translators charges Johns Creek $50 an hour for Spanish and $60 an hour for all other languages. Each carries a two-hour minimum and a mileage charge.

In Gwinnett, home to Georgia’s largest Hispanic population, Lawrenceville Municipal Court has a Spanish-speaking interpreter certified by the Georgia Commission of Interpreters available each session of court. It retains interpreters for other languages as needed.

The cost and need for interpreters has run steady the past several years, said Jane Gaguski, court administrator.

“The only short cut we are considering is to only provide an interpreter for specific scheduled court appearance dates,” she said. “This would require the court to give a non-English speaking person a written notice [usually in Spanish] to return to court on a date when an interpreter will be available.”

Interpreter costs for area municipal courts

2008 2009 2010
Alpharetta $27,256 $26,942 $27,453
Duluth $1,800 $2,000 $1,800
Johns Creek $32,158 $48,608 $29,573
Lawrenceville $49,705 $48,400 $33,186
Milton $7,708 $6,301 $4,113

Johns Creek’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Its 2010 figure is through late July. Lawrenceville’s figure is for eight months, and Milton’s is for 10 months.

Interpreter costs for county superior courts

2007 2008 2009
Cobb $231,938 $268,314 $255,563
DeKalb $57,418 $58,530 $46,517
Fulton $130,119 $122,704 $118,756
Gwinnett* $500,138 $542,060 $539,803

*Gwinnett numbers are for all courts (state, recorders, superior, etc.)

http://www.ajc.com/news/high-cost-of-interpreters-581450.html

Frustrated crowd pleads for city interpreter rehire

By: DAVID HENKE, dhenke@northfieldnews.com
Posted: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 12:05 am

The crowd at the Northfield City Council meeting wasn’t afraid to show how it felt Tuesday night, after the council voted 5-2 not to immediately re-establish the city’s Spanish interpreter position.

Slapping their knees, shaking their heads and sighing, a number of attendees physically expressed the frustration that has run through the community since the council voted in June to eliminate the position, also known as the Welcome Center Coordinator.

Proponents argue that the position, held by Marj Evans-de-Carpio, was a vital link between the Hispanic community in Northfield and the city and county, and helped recent immigrants adjust to Northfield and access local support.

But the council chose to eliminate the position as part of a larger package of roughly $350,000 in budget reductions. Cutting the position would save up to $70,000 a year, city officials said during Tuesday’s meeting.

Two councilors later expressed reservations over the cut, and one, Councilor Erica Zweifel, asked her fellow council members last month to reconsider their decision.

It was standing room only at City Hall during the meeting, and more than a dozen Hispanic community members turned out in a show of support for Evans-de-Carpio.

“I observed lines of people waiting for [Evans-de-Carpio], because they knew she was someone they could trust,” Northfield resident Sharon Gates-Hull declared during the public comment period.

Gates-Hull wasn’t the only one to step up to the podium on Tuesday. Noemi Gutierrez, a Viking Terrace resident, spoke for two minutes in Spanish at the microphone. She was quickly followed by Janet Lewis Muth, who translated Gutierrez’ comments, illustrating for the council how difficult the language barrier can be to cross.

“They respectfully request the reinstatement of the position,” Muth said on behalf of the meeting’s Spanish-speaking attendees. Both she and Gutierrez received applause from the audience.

The residents’ appeals didn’t fall on deaf ears. The council chose not to immediately reinstate the position. Zweifel and Councilor Betsey Buckheit voted no.

However, the council did vote unanimously to direct City Administrator Joel Walinksi and Councilors Rhonda Pownell and Jim Pokorney to meet with local organizations, and gave them 45 days to determine how to fund a re-established Welcome Center Coordinator through financial partnerships with stake holders in the community.

“We need to undo the damage we’ve done to our relationship with the Hispanic community,” said Zweifel .

http://www.northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=53823

Interpreter spans language gap in emergencies

Volunteer assists county Medical Reserve Corps during times of crisis

By Amy Daybert
Herald Writer

EVERETT — As the program manager for the South Everett Neighborhood Center and Familias Unidas, Winnie Corral enjoys helping people who speak different languages.

Sometimes she speaks Spanish, other times she’ll converse in Russian. So when flooding occurred at the Three Rivers Mobile Home and RV Park near the Snohomish River three years ago, and Spanish interpreters where needed, she volunteered her skills.

That was the beginning of her involvement as a volunteer with the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps, a group that responds in emergency situations throughout Snohomish County.

“I worked with the Salvation Army and helped with communication,” Corral said. “I remember I was brand new and I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. I didn’t know how disaster procedures work and I realized there was a whole group of people who didn’t know either but had a vital need for it.”

Corral, 53, has been a volunteer for the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps ever since, assisting in the aftermath of floods throughout the county in 2007 and during last fall’s H1N1 outbreak.

The Medical Reserve Corps is a national program. Snohomish County’s program is in partnership with the Snohomish Health District and the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, according to Therese Quinn, volunteer coordinator for the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps. Corral is one of nearly 200 active support and medical volunteers with the county’s program, she said.

“Winnie is fantastic,” Quinn said. “She is one of those people who when she sees there’s a need she makes sure there’s a way she can be there to help out.”

At one point during the county’s H1NI response in October, Corral was called to help someone who only spoke Spanish.

Corral was happy to help, Quinn said.

“We got a call in to the call center and didn’t have anyone who spoke Spanish,” she said. “(Corral) was driving down the road and pulled over and was able to get all the information to the person who needed it.”

Corral immigrated to the United States from Honduras with her family when she was three. She taught language classes for elementary students in Southern California before moving to the Everett area in 1984. She has worked at the South Everett Neighborhood Center and Familias Unidas for the past 10 years.

She participates in training courses that are offered to Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps volunteers. The last course she attended focused on how to help people who are involved in a trauma, she said.

“They wanted us to know how to respond to people who are traumatized by the situation they’re in,” she said. “It’s important to have ideas because most of us have not been in a disaster.”

One hundred Medical Reserve Corps volunteers helped immunize more than 20,000 people in vaccination clinics throughout Snohomish County last October, Quinn said. The Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps received a national Community Resiliency Award on June 3 at the Medical Reserve Corps 2010 Integrated Training Summit in Las Vegas, Nev.

“People were afraid volunteers would not come out if we had a pandemic,” Quinn said. “Just the opposite happened. When we put out a volunteer call we could not answer the phones fast enough. I just think it’s so wonderful our volunteers are so giving.”

Corral will volunteer at Empower, a disaster preparedness fair, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at McCollum Park, in Everett. She hopes a crowd of Snohomish County residents will attend the fair to learn how to be better prepared for a disaster.

“I will be one of many interpreters there that day making sure people have access to information,” she said. “We can’t ever have too many prepared people.”

http://heraldnet.com/article/20100722/NEWS01/707229871

UN to Punish Interpreter Over Nuke Mistake

Official misquoted as saying Israel struck nuclear facility Syria denies exists

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations said an interpreter responsible for an erroneous report that Syria has a nuclear facility has been reprimanded and the world body has apologized to Syria’s U.N. Mission.

Earlier this week, Syria denied that one of its representatives told the U.N. General Assembly’s committee that deals with disarmament on Tuesday that Israel had attacked a Syrian nuclear facility. It said the representative was misquoted, demanded a correction, and insisted that “such facilities do not exist in Syria.”

After more than seven hours of investigation Wednesday, U.N. officials agreed the Syrian delegate was misquoted. U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said “There was no use of the word nuclear.”

The unidentified Syrian representative spoke in Arabic and the interpreter who worked from Arabic into French was fairly accurate, but the problem occurred when an interpreter translated the statement into English from French, Haq said.

“Action will be taken against that freelance interpreter to the fullest extent of the U.N. rules and regulations,” Haq said on Thursday, refusing to comment on what the action might be.

But on Friday, he said: “The interpreter who was responsible for the unfortunate mistake has been given a note of reprimand.”

“While it was indeed unfortunate, mistakes can occur, as in any other area of work. The Interpretation Service maintains high standards, and mistakes of this nature occur very rarely,” he said.

Haq also said “an apology has been given to the Syrian Mission regarding the Tuesday interpretation error and accepted by them as an unintended mistake.”

The mistake made headlines in the Middle East and heightened concerns over Damascus’ nuclear ambitions. Those ambitions were under scrutiny following a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike on an unknown target in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey. Widespread reports say it may have been a nascent nuclear facility, a claim Syria has denied.

According to the corrected text, the Syrian representative said Israel was the fourth largest exporter “of lethal weapons in the world … (and) violates the airspace of sovereign states and carries out military aggression against them, like what happened on Sept. 6 against my country.”

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Errors in Medical Interpretation and Their Potential Clinical Consequences

Errors in Medical Interpretation and Their Potential Clinical Consequences in Pediatric Encounters

Glenn Flores, MD*, M. Barton Laws, PhD||, Sandra J. Mayo, EdM||, Barry Zuckerman, MD{ddagger}, Milagros Abreu, MD*,{ddagger}, Leonardo Medina, MD{ddagger}, Eric J. Hardt, MD§

* Center for the Advancement of Urban Children, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
{ddagger} Departments of Pediatrics
§ Internal Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
|| Latino Health Institute, Boston, Massachusetts

–>
ABSTRACT
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

Background. About 19 million people in the United States are limited in English proficiency, but little is known about the frequency and potential clinical consequences of errors in medical interpretation.

Objectives. To determine the frequency, categories, and potential clinical consequences of errors in medical interpretation.

Methods. During a 7-month period, we audiotaped and transcribed pediatric encounters in a hospital outpatient clinic in which a Spanish interpreter was used. For each transcript, we categorized each error in medical interpretation and determined whether errors had a potential clinical consequence.

Results. Thirteen encounters yielded 474 pages of transcripts. Professional hospital interpreters were present for 6 encounters; ad hoc interpreters included nurses, social workers, and an 11-year-old sibling. Three hundred ninety-six interpreter errors were noted, with a mean of 31 per encounter. The most common error type was omission (52%), followed by false fluency (16%), substitution (13%), editorialization (10%), and addition (8%). Sixty-three percent of all errors had potential clinical consequences, with a mean of 19 per encounter. Errors committed by ad hoc interpreters were significantly more likely to be errors of potential clinical consequence than those committed by hospital interpreters (77% vs 53%). Errors of clinical consequence included: 1) omitting questions about drug allergies; 2) omitting instructions on the dose, frequency, and duration of antibiotics and rehydration fluids; 3) adding that hydrocortisone cream must be applied to the entire body, instead of only to facial rash; 4) instructing a mother not to answer personal questions; 5) omitting that a child was already swabbed for a stool culture; and 6) instructing a mother to put amoxicillin in both ears for treatment of otitis media.

Conclusions. Errors in medical interpretation are common, averaging 31 per clinical encounter, and omissions are the most frequent type. Most errors have potential clinical consequences, and those committed by ad hoc interpreters are significantly more likely to have potential clinical consequences than those committed by hospital interpreters. Because errors by ad hoc interpreters are more likely to have potential clinical consequences, third-party reimbursement for trained interpreter services should be considered for patients with limited English proficiency.

Key Words: language • interpreters • medical errors • children • pediatrics • Hispanic Americans • quality

Abbreviations: LEP, limited in English proficiency • SD, standard deviation

INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

According to the 2000 census, ~45 million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home, and ~19 million are limited in English proficiency (LEP).1 Five percent of school-aged US children (or ~2.4 million) are LEP, an 85% increase since 1979.2 Language barriers affect multiple aspects of health care for the LEP patient, including access to care, health status, and use of health services.3 Studies document that LEP patients often defer needed medical care,4 have a higher risk of leaving the hospital against medical advice,5 are less likely to have a regular health care provider,6 and are more likely to miss follow-up appointments,7 to be nonadherent with medications,7 and to be in fair/poor health.6

A medical interpreter is an essential component of effective communication between the LEP patient and the health care provider. Medical interpreters may be professional hospital interpreters employed by a health care institution, or ad hoc, untrained individuals, such as family members, friends, nonclinical hospital employees, and strangers from waiting rooms. Previous work has shown that family members8 and untrained bilingual nurses9 who provide ad hoc interpretation can commit many errors of interpretation. Not enough is known, however, about the frequency and categories of medical interpreter errors that occur in clinical encounters, whether such errors potentially have clinical consequences, and if the use of hospital rather than ad hoc interpreters produces a higher quality of medical interpretation. The goals of this study, therefore, were to: 1) determine the frequency, categories, and potential clinical consequences of errors committed by medical interpreters; and 2) compare the quality of interpretation by professional hospital versus ad hoc interpreters.

METHODS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

We audiotaped pediatric encounters in which a Spanish interpreter was used in the pediatric outpatient clinic of an urban Massachusetts hospital over a 7-month period. All study parents had identified themselves as LEP. A bilingual research assistant was present during the encounter only to record the interaction, and did not act as an interpreter, nor take part in subsequent production of transcripts or data analysis. A bilingual verbatim transcript was prepared from the audiotape of each encounter by a professional transcriptionist fluent in both English and Spanish. To ensure accuracy and reliability of the transcripts, each transcript was reviewed 3 times for errors, once by a bilingual physician whose first language is English (G.F.), a second time by a bilingual sociologist whose first language is English (M.B.L.), and a third time by a bilingual physician whose first language is Spanish (M.A.).

The encounters analyzed for this study represent all pediatric visits with Spanish interpreters that occurred in a larger study of patient-physician communication, which consisted of a convenience sample of 153 audiotaped visits in the pediatric outpatient clinics of an urban Massachusetts hospital. Of the 153 participants in this larger study, 110 of the children and their families were Latino. Among these 110 Latino participants, there were 74 mothers/adult caregivers who were LEP, for which 38 visits occurred in Spanish with Spanish-speaking clinicians, 13 visits included a Spanish interpreter, and 25 occurred in English without an interpreter. Although this larger study used a convenience sample, the sample was obtained to reflect a reasonable spectrum of outpatient pediatric visits experienced by Latino families, and has no obvious selection biases other than respondent refusal, which was rare (only 2 potential subjects refused to participate). Participants from the larger study were sampled to capture visits from the full range of daily office hours and all 5 clinic days (Monday-Friday) during the work week. Pediatric encounters included walk-in, sick, and routine health care maintenance visits at the pediatric primary care clinic, and initial and follow-up visits at the outpatient lead and failure-to-thrive clinics. Both pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners provided care to study patients, and patient care was in no way altered by the study, except for the presence of the research assistant and tape recorder. The patients and their families, clinicians, and interpreters were told only that this was a study of patient-physician communication, and they were not aware that errors of medical interpretation would be analyzed.

Personnel who provided medical interpretation were classified as: 1) hospital interpreters, professional interpreters (ie, those receiving financial compensation) employed by the study hospital’s department of interpreter services; and 2) ad hoc interpreters, who could include family members, friends, nonclinical hospital employees, strangers from waiting rooms, and hospital clinical staff (including nurses and social workers) who had received no formal medical interpreter training or screening. During the period when the study was conducted, all Spanish hospital interpreters who had been hired had undergone some level of screening and evaluation for language proficiency in Spanish and English. There was, however, no ongoing training or formal performance evaluation in the hospital for interpreters. Low-intensity, voluntary formal interpreter training was sporadically available at various community sites, but it was not known what proportion of interpreters took advantage of these voluntary community opportunities.

For each audiotaped encounter, analysis consisted of identification of the frequency and categories of interpreter errors. An “interpreter error” was defined as any misinterpretation of an utterance that occurred in the clinical encounter, including those committed by the designated medical interpreter, as well as those made by health care providers (such as when a physician with limited Spanish proficiency made errors in Spanish while talking to the mother after the designated interpreter had departed). Errors by health care providers were classified as interpreter errors because the study focus was on errors of interpretation made by any staff member acting as a medical interpreter during a clinical encounter, and we found that certain providers often would attempt to interpret when the designated medical interpreter departed or was temporarily unavailable.

Five categories were used to classify interpreter errors, based on 4 categories used in previous work,10,11 supplemented by an additional category (false fluency). These categories are as follows:

Omission: The interpreter did not interpret a word/phrase uttered by the clinician, parent, or child.

Addition: The interpreter added a word/phrase to the interpretation that was not uttered by the clinician, parent, or child.

Substitution: The interpreter substituted a word/phrase for a different word/phrase uttered by the clinician, parent, or child.

Editorialization: The interpreter provided his or her own personal views as the interpretation of a word/phrase uttered by the clinician, parent, or child.

False Fluency: The interpreter used an incorrect word/phrase, or word/phrase that does not exist in that particular language.

In addition to being classified into 1 of these 5 categories, an interpreter error was also considered to have potential clinical consequences if it altered or potentially altered 1 or more of the following: 1) the history of present illness; 2) the past medical history; 3) diagnostic or therapeutic interventions; 4) parental understanding of the child’s medical condition; or 5) plans for future medical visits (including follow-up visits and specialty referrals).

Medical jargon, idiomatic expressions, and contextual clarifications may occasionally require medical interpreters to not interpret a phrase word-for-word. Thus, any deviations from word-for-word interpretation in transcripts that were attributable to jargon, idioms, or contextual clarifications were not classified as interpreter errors. Because medical interpreters may also act as a cultural broker or advocate, any utterances that could be interpreted as cultural explanations or patient or family advocacy were not classified as interpreter errors. A separate analysis of the relationship of the number of verbal exchanges, the interlocutor, and the quality of the interpretation will be reported elsewhere in a separate paper.

The validity of the analytic method for identification and classification of interpreter errors was assessed as follows: 2 transcripts (cases 26 and 153) were first subjected to preliminary error analysis using simple definitions of each error type and category. The 2 transcripts were scored by 3 observers, a bilingual physician whose first language is English (G.F.) and 2 bilingual physicians (M.A. and L.M.) whose first language is Spanish. To avoid the introduction of bias, the latter 2 observers were blinded to the study goals and hypotheses. Each of the observers was assessed as being highly fluent in their second language based on years of experience providing primary care to Spanish-speaking patients in a Pediatric Latino Clinic (G.F.), 7 years as a research associate on studies of English-speaking populations in the United States (M.A.), and years of teaching high school to English-speaking students in the Massachusetts school system (L.M.). Interobserver variability for the 3 observers was assessed using agreement matrices and by calculating the percentage of agreement in 2 separate analyses, 1 for overall interpreter errors, and the second only for errors of potential clinical consequence. The Kappa Index was also determined for errors of clinical consequence. It was not possible to derive a Kappa Index for overall errors, as transcripts could not be accurately scored for 1 of the 4 cells (cell d): when neither observer identified an error, there was no reliable way to determine whether one should count by words, phrases, transcript lines, or utterances.

The preliminary error analysis of the 2 test transcripts revealed a mean percentage of agreement (± standard deviation [SD]) among the 3 observers on the overall errors of 60% ± 19, with a range of 31% to 82%. Disagreements were primarily attributable to either overlooked errors or unintended differences in the line numbering of the transcripts analyzed by different observers. After line numbering corrections, refinements, and meeting for consensus purposes, there was complete agreement among the 3 observers on the number and type of overall interpreter errors. The mean percentage of agreement (± SD) among the 3 observers on errors of potential clinical consequence in the preliminary analysis was 83% ± 12, with a range of 72% to 97%. The mean {kappa} (± SD) for errors of potential clinical consequence in the preliminary analysis was 0.57 ± 0.3 (considered a moderate strength of agreement by the guidelines of Landis and Koch12), with a range of 0.21 to 0.97 (from fair to almost perfect agreement by the Landis and Koch guidelines12). Because the mean percentage of agreement and {kappa} were considered unacceptably low, the error categories and types were further refined. After refinement, there was mean agreement of 99% ± 1.7 (range: 97%–100%) and a mean {kappa} of 0.99 ± 0.03 (range: 0.94–1.0 [almost perfect by the Landis and Koch guidelines12 for both the mean and range]) regarding interpreter errors of potential clinical consequence on the 2 test transcripts. The remaining 11 transcripts were analyzed by the first author, using the refined error categories, types, and analytic approaches.

To analyze the statistical significance of differences between hospital and ad hoc interpreters in the proportion of errors made, the Yates-corrected {chi}2 test was used, with P < .05 considered statistically significant.

Institutional review board approval was obtained from the participating institution to conduct this study, and written informed consent was obtained from each participating parent.

Level Playing Field: Court Interpreters Help Speed the Process, Meet Growing Demand

WORCESTER- But for Marisol Arzeno-McGill’s linguistic skills, Santos A. Delgado would probably not have understood a word Assistant District Attorney Timothy M. Farrell was saying as the prosecutor explained his predicament to the judge.

He could not go forward with the scheduled hearing on Mr. Delgado’s motion to suppressmotion to suppress n. a motion (usually on behalf of a criminal defendant) to disallow certain evidence in an up-coming trial. Example: a confession which the defendant alleges was signed while he was drunk or without the reading of his Miranda rights.
….. Click the link for more information. the drug evidence against him because a key police witness had inexplicably not shown up to testify, Mr. Farrell told Judge James R. Lemire during a recent Worcester Superior Court session.

Held on $50,000 cash bail and facing a minimum mandatory 10-year prison sentence if convicted, the 22-year-old defendant listened intently as Ms. Arzeno-McGill, the Spanish-speaking interpreter at his side, communicated Mr. Farrell’s comments in Mr. Delgado’s native tongue.

Citing the court’s heavy docket and the likelihood that Mr. Delgado’s case would not be reached anyway, Judge Lemire continued the matter to another date. Mr. Delgado, a Jamaica Plain man also known as James Pena-Guerro, was returned to the lockupSee hang and abend.

Ms. Arzeno-McGill rushed off to another courtroom where her services were needed.

It was one of more than a dozen times Ms. Arzeno-McGill would be called upon this particular day to assist Spanish-speaking parties to cases in the five court departments that make up the Worcester Trial Court at 225 Main St. She and Larry Smith

For other people named Larry Smith, see Larry Smith (disambiguation).

Larry W. Smith (born 1951 in Hudson, Quebec) is a Canadian athlete and businessperson. He is currently the president of the Montreal Alouettes. , the other Spanish-speaking interpreter assigned permanently to the Worcester courthouse, are among 28 certified language interpreters employed full time by the state Office of Court Interpreter Services.

They include 19 Spanish interpreters, five Portuguese and one each who speak Vietnamese, Khmer, Cape Verdean and Haitian Creole Haitian Creole
n.
A language spoken by the majority of Haitians, based on French and various African languages.

Noun 1. Haitian Creole , according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3. Gaye Gentes gen·tes
n.
Plural of gens. , manager of the office. Court interpreters are required to pass a test and undergo a tightly structured training program before becoming certified.

Ms. Gentes also uses the services of 188 per diem per diem adj. or n. Latin for “per day,” it is short for payment of daily expenses and/or fees of an employee or an agent. interpreters, independent contractors who speak both English and a combined total of 51 other languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese. A recent recruitment program added court interpreters in Hmong and several African languages African languages, geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belong to a single family, but are divided among several distinct , including Twi, Ibo, Dinka and Luganda, Ms. Gentes said.

State law mandates that non-English speaking and deaf or hearing-impaired parties or witnesses in legal proceedings All actions that are authorized or sanctioned by law and instituted in a court or a tribunal for the acquisition of rights or the enforcement of remedies. be provided the aid of an interpreter. In fiscal year 2008, the Office of Court Interpreter Services filled 96,737 requests for interpreters in about 140 courts statewide, up from 56,000 seven years earlier, according to Ms. Gentes.

The annual cost to the taxpayers is $1.5 million for the staff interpreters and $4.4 million for the per diems, according to Trial Court spokeswoman Joan Kenney.

Court interpreters have their own code of professional conduct covering such topics as accuracy, impartiality, confidentiality, proficiency, demeanor, case preparation, conflicts of interest, public comments and legal advice.

The code describes the role of the interpreter as that of a “communication facilitator” who helps protect the rights of non-English speaking people involved in the legal process.

Mr. Smith, a Michigan native, said he learned Spanish while attending Western Michigan University Western Michigan University, at Kalamazoo, Mich.; coeducational; founded in 1903 as Western State Normal School, became accredited in 1927 as a college, gained university status in 1957. and later became more fluent in the language while working in the tourism industry in California. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School, located in Ann Arbor, is a unit of the University of Michigan. The Law School, founded in 1859, currently has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students, most of whom are earning the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.) or Master of Laws (LLM). and a member of the California bar, Mr. Smith moved to North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures

Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. in the late 1990s, started doing

court interpreting part time there, then received his certification as a court interpreter.

He and his wife moved to Worcester “sight unseen” in 2001, after he accepted his current job here.

“I love it,” Mr. Smith said of his work.

“For me, it’s a natural. It’s a coming together of law and Spanish after all these years. It brings together what I like about both. I’m a people person. I think you have to be in this business. And I love language,” he said.

There’s more to court interpreting than the ability to speak English and another language, according to Mr. Smith.

There are two basic modes of court interpretation, simultaneous and consecutive, and each has its own set of challenges, said Mr. Smith. The former requires the interpreter to speak contemporaneously with the person whose statements are to be heard. In the latter, the interpreter allows the speaker to finish his or her statement before attempting its interpretation.

Mr. Smith likened simultaneous interpretation to a splitting of the brain’s lobes that enables the interpreter to listen and speak at the same time.

“You’ve got to develop that ability of incoming and outgoing, in two different languages. And it’s in real time,” he said “It takes practice. It doesn’t come naturally. You just have to learn.”

Surprisingly, Mr. Smith said he and most of his colleagues find consecutive interpreting more difficult because it is so taxing on the memory.

Spanish is Ms. Arzeno-McGill’s first language. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (IPA: [saŋ hwaŋ]) (from the Spanish San Juan Bautista, “Saint John the Baptist”) is the capital and largest municipality on Puerto Rico. , she studied English in grade school.

A former bilingual elementary school elementary school: see school. teacher with a master’s degree in communications from Boston University, Ms. Arzeno-McGill worked as an account executive in

public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most

before becoming a medical interpreter at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is a hospital in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill. With Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare. in Boston, a position she held four years.

She has been a court interpreter for 20 years, the last seven on a full-time basis, and said she has enjoyed every minute of it.

“I think I have the best job in the world,” she said.

Being assigned to five different courts – superior, district, juvenile, probate and housing – exposes her to a wide range of legal issues and keeps the job interesting, according to Ms. Arzeno-McGill.

“Each court has its own style, its own way of doing things. I never know when I walk through the door what’s waiting for me that day,” she said. Ms. Gentes said the system developed by Ms. Arzeno-McGill and Mr. Smith to cover the Worcester Trial Court is used as a model for court interpreters statewide.

“What I enjoy the most is that what I do, it’s an instrument to the limited-English speaker to have a voice and have full understanding, participation and access to our legal system,” Ms. Arzeno-McGill said.

Contact Gary Murray by e-mail at gmurray@telegram.com.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Spanish-speaking court interpreters Larry Smith and Marisol Arzeno-McGill are assigned permanently to the Worcester Trial Court. They are among 28 certified language interpreters employed full time by the state Office of Court Interpreter Services.

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