Justice system compromised by unqualified interpreters
September 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under Interpretation News
Fears of miscarriages in cases involving migrants
By John Bynorth
Home Affairs Editor
SCOTLAND could be seeing miscarriages of justice because sheriff clerks and procurators fiscal are using unqualified linguists as interpreters for migrant defendants and witnesses in the courts, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
The Scottish Court Service and Crown Office are allowing foreign students without the industry benchmark Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) to work, through approved agencies, as interpreters in cases ranging from custody disputes to serious assaults, including an alleged rape.
The rising number of migrants appearing before the court has led to a greater need for foreign-language speakers. Interpreters working without the qualification – described by the Chartered Institute of Linguists as “indispensable” – are being used to plug the shortfall.
The Sunday Herald has evidence that fiscals and sheriff clerks are routinely using unqualified freelance linguists provided by Scotland’s largest interpreting agency, Alpha Translating and Interpreting. Solicitors, court officials and qualified interpreters have raised fears that mistakes are being made that could lead to wrongful convictions or acquittals.
Edinburgh-based Alpha promises high-quality trained staff and “24-hour coverage, 365 days a year”. It provides staff to 50 courts, as well as the Scottish government, the NHS, police forces, local authorities and football clubs.
Two years ago, an assault trial at Wick sheriff court involving a Polish accused and a number of Polish prosecution witnesses collapsed because of mistakes made by an inexperienced interpreter. She did not have the DPSI and had not even started the one-year training course that leads to the diploma.
Aberdeen-based defence lawyer Taco Nolf is so concerned about the quality of some interpreters supplied by Alpha, which is approved by the Scottish Court Service and Crown Office Procurator Fiscal, that he has hired his own interpreter to ensure that evidence is being accurately translated.
Nolf, who represented the defendant, Wojciech Wszolek, in the Wick case, has objected to Alpha’s interpreters in court, claiming they didn’t possess the proper qualifications, did not hold relevant UK degrees or had questionable English.
He said: “An uncommonly large number of court interpreters come from Alpha. They are often unqualified and incompetent. The girl who sank the Wick trial was still working for them six months later.
“It is not good enough for an agency to say that the interpreter is a native speaker of Polish and that he is fluent in English. It does not make him or her a competent interpreter.”
Wszolek said he is still angry about the linguist’s errors that led to the case collapsing, as he believes the proceedings left him with a stain on his character.
He was cleared in June 2006 after the Alpha interpreter missed out words in translating a witness statement. Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood halted proceedings and deserted the case after being told by Nolf that the interpreter was “entirely unqualified as a translator” as she did not have the diploma, although she had a master’s degree in English.
Nolf said he sympathised with the difficulties the courts face in hiring translators for the growing number of cases involving migrants who can speak only their native language, but that he was shocked that many of those hired lack the necessary skills.
Anna Kocela, 29, the interpreter in the aborted Wick case, is working for Alpha while studying for the DPSI, which she expects to pass next year.
She insists there is no question about her English-speaking ability, but says she is often “embarrassed” by the behaviour of some colleagues at Edinburgh sheriff court, who, she claimed, don’t understand the Scottish legal system.
Kocela, a former English teacher in her native Poland, said: “Loads of Polish people come here and say they can speak English, but interpreting and speaking English are totally different.
“There’s loads of people who are simply taken from the streets, without any qualifications, that haven’t been checked on properly.”
She said some colleagues were unprofessional in touting themselves around three or more agencies every day to profit from court work, where rates are typically £11 an hour after the agency’s fee has been taken off.
Another interpreter had been working for Alpha recently in Edinburgh District Court with only a degree in English from a Polish university. The 30-year-old told the Sunday Herald she was able to gain the work because of her previous experience as an interpreter with the city council.
However, she appeared confused about whether she had worked in the sheriff or district courts when questioned by the Sunday Herald and incorrectly described the system as being “just like the Polish courts”.
Another Pole, who is studying business at university and doesn’t hold the DPSI, boasted that he covers anything up to 150 sheriff court cases and could potentially earn £1000 a month.
The 24-year-old worked for Alpha after passing a course in English for business run by an accredited private language specialist, and graduated in business studies from a UK university as part of a student exchange programme.
He revealed that he earned £50 for a two-hour interview at Perth police station on behalf of a Polish alleged rape victim on one of his very first assignments last year after Alpha could find no suitable female interpreters.
The man, who spoke broken English, said: “I wasn’t quite sure I could manage the rape case, and knew it would be difficult, but she was fine with me.
“Alpha asked for the DPSI, but my English is good enough and I was about to graduate so they gave me work.”
Tayside Police said the rape interview would have been re-arranged if the alleged victim had requested a female interpreter to be present.
Cetty Zambrano of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, which set up a national register of public service interpreters in an attempt to improve the quality of linguists, said the DPSI is an indispensable qualification if people want to work as an interpreter in the public service. But the Institute revealed that in three years, only 150 people have sat the diploma’s Scottish legal option exam, which is preferred by the courts and Crown Office.
Zambrano added: “The law courts don’t demand the diploma because the national agreement isn’t even law. Things need tightening up.”
A Crown Office spokesperson said: “The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service interpreting contract states that interpreters should have the Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (Scottish Legal Option) and recent experience of both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting in the court context.
“Where an interpreter does not have the DPSI qualification, it may still be possible and appropriate to use them if, for example, they have other relevant qualifications or the agency can provide us with evidence of the interpreter’s recent relevant experience.”
Alpha, which refused to say how many of its interpreters are unqualified, said in a statement that while the introduction of tendering contracts had improved standards of court interpreting, the “very nature” of freelance work is “a barrier in its own right” to improving the quality of linguists it uses.
“Without a career path, and the potential for viable income generation, there is no incentive to study,” it said.
What Skills Does a Good Court Interpreter Need to Have?
September 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under Interpretation News
Thousands of people make appearances in US courtrooms every year, and thousands of US residents speak a language other than English as their primary language. It makes sense that the demand for qualified court interpreters grows each year.
The demand is great for a reason — not every interpreter is cut out to work in a courtroom. Being a qualified court interpreter requires a specific skill set.
What Is the Purpose of a Court Interpreter?
A court interpreter is present in the courtroom during legal proceedings to facilitate communication for people with limited or no English proficiency.
A court interpreter’s work is not solely limited to trials — a court interpreter may also be present during preliminary hearings, arraignments, depositions and meetings between attorneys and clients.
What Makes a Court Interpreter Qualified?
There are many skills required for an interpreter to be able to work competently in a legal setting.
It goes without saying that a court interpreter needs to be fluent in English as well as another language. However, a court interpreter needs to be fluent in a third kind of language — the language of legal terminology and protocol. A court interpreter must be comfortable with the often-confusing legal jargon that is bandied about freely in a courtroom.
It helps for a court interpreter to have excellent public speaking skills and be able to reign in emotion while working. Some testimony may be shocking or graphic, and a court interpreter cannot be daunted by conveying this information. Additionally, a court interpreter must be able to refrain from expressing personal opinions or taking a side while interpreting.
Obviously, a court interpreter must act quickly and know how to handle any linguistic or ethical issues that will undoubtedly arise. A good court interpreter will know how to solve a problem and when it is necessary to bring an issue to the attention of the court.
Finally, a qualified court interpreter will always be striving to make improvements. Everything from reading and brushing up on vocabulary to researching unfamiliar terms and concepts and and attending conferences and seminars will improve a court interpreter’s abilities.
Does a Court Interpreter Need to Be Certified?
There is no nationwide certification program for court interpreters. However, different states have different requirements for proficiency among court interpreters, and there are a variety of different tests that court interpreters can take to prove competency and gain employment opportunities.
The US federal court system has developed a certification program for court interpreters. If a court interpreter passes the two-part exam, he or she will be certified and eligible to make more money when working in federal court proceedings. The certification program is currently only available in Haitian-Creole, Navajo and Spanish languages.
Since there is no universal standard for certifications, standards should be encouraged among court interpreters. Remember that a good court interpreter will be fast, fluent, impartial and professional!
Communicating with Interpreters in Court
September 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under Translation News
Court interpreters are an integral part of trials as well as procedures that extend beyond the courtroom. Having interpreters in court is essential for fairness in a multilingual and litigious society.
However, this wasn’t always the view. In the past, interpreters in court were considered superfluous or even a nuisance. Now, people realize the importance of interpreters in court. A better understanding of what interpreters in court do, what they need and how difficult their work can be is the best way to start a professional relationship.
The Growing Number of Interpreters in Court
The Court Interpreters Act was passed into law in 1978. The law established that individuals involved in federal proceedings have the right to a court interpreter if a language barrier gets in the way of communication and comprehension abilities.
Before the Court Interpreters Act, interpreters in court were often found at the last possible second. Court interpreters often knew very little about the cases or were treated poorly by the people involved in the trial, who did not understand the skills interpreters need to have.
As interpreters became a required part of the judicial system, relations improved between court interpreters and lawyers as well as court administration. The federal government began to develop programs to certify court interpreters.
While there is no widespread system of certification for interpreters yet, high standards are now set everywhere for court interpreters as well as interpreters everywhere. Interpreters in court are recognized as a vital part of the legal process.
How to Interact with Interpreters in Court
While court administrators or other legal professionals welcome interpreters in court, there are some specific tasks to do and things to keep in mind that will make working with a court interpreter a rewarding experience.
Court administrators should include or provide the following essential items or services for interpreters in court:
* Access to administrative assistance as needed for data entry and correspondence.
* Courtrooms fitted with any equipment needed for language interpreting or tools for people who are hard of hearing.
* Electronic access to filed documents so that interpreters may review a case before working on it.
* A procedure for requesting interpreting equipment or other resources.
* A designated judge or other high-ranking court official that interpreters can petition for advice regarding any ethical issues that may arise during a trial.
Whether a court is working with interpreters on staff or freelance interpreters, training and improvement should always be considered. Offer courtrooms or other facilities for conferences or training programs for interpreters. Arrange for programs in which interpreters from other areas can visit and exchange ideas. These networking and training opportunities can be vital for interpreters in court.
모기지 융자서류번역 의무화
September 1, 2010 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
최근 모기지 융자 서류를 대출자가 사용하는 언어로 준비하는 것이 의무화되면서 로컬 번역업체들이 바빠지고 있다. koreaninterpreters.net에서 저렴한 가격에 융자서류의 영한번역을 제공한다.
30일 LA비즈니스저널이 전한 바에 따르면 모기지 융자에 있어 대출자가 영어에 익숙하지 않을 경우 은행을 비롯한 렌더들이 융자관련 정보를 대출자가 사용하는 언어로 제공해야 함에 따라 이에 대한 서류 또는 설명을 번역업체에 번역을 의뢰하는 일이 늘고 있다.
캘리포니아주에서는 모기지 대출자들이 융자를 하면서 영어 사용에 어려움으로 인해융자에 대한 정확한 정보를 숙지하지 못했다는 불만이 많아지자 지난해 영어외에 한국어와 스페니시, 중국어, 필리핀어(타갈로그), 그리고 베트남어로 된 융자 조건에 대한 내용을 설명하는 것을 의무화하는 법안(AB 1160)이 마련됐다.
이 법안은 지난해 10월 아놀드 슈워제네거 주지사가 서명을 했으며 지난달 1일부터 본격적인 시행에 들어갔다. 이 법안은 이들 언어 사용자가 모기지 융자를 할 경우 주요 내용을 대출자 사용언어를 사용해 서류 또는 구두로 융자조건을 정확히 알려주도록 하고 있다.
은행들이 융자에 있어 새로운 언어로 서류를 준비하거나 설명해야 하면서 이들 서류 및 정보를 제공하기 위해 번역회사들에게 번역을 맡기고 있어 번역업체들은 불경기 속에서 적지 않은 수입을 올리고 있으며 늘어나는 일감으로 인력채용을 하고 있다.
노스할리우드지역에 위치한 번역회사인 ISI 번역서비스의 조지 리마로어 사장은 “새 법안 시행으로 인해 번역 주문이 늘어나 4개의 스페니시 번역팀을 새로 만들었고 직원수도 17명에서 21명으로 늘었다”고 말했다.
Interpreting Health: Medical Translation in a City of Immigrants
September 1, 2010 by admin
Filed under Translation News
By Sarah Kate Kramer
New York, NY –
One out of four New Yorkers doesn’t speak or understand complex sentences in English. But at some point in their lives, every one of them will need to see a doctor. Language barriers can result in misdiagnoses, medication errors, and potentially fatal mistakes that are costly for both patients and providers. For this reason, hospitals in New York are required to provide “meaningful language access” to all patients. But in a city where more than 140 different languages are spoken, this is no easy task.
Slideshow: Medical Translation in a City of Immigrants
When Inocencia Nolasco landed in the Wycoff Hospital room with phlebitis, an inflammation of the veins, she knew exactly how she felt, but couldn’t explain it to anyone there.
“When I arrived the doctor didn’t know Spanish. We didn’t understand each other, and finally I called a friend who could come and be my interpreter,” Nolasco says.
Nolasco was lucky that she had a bilingual friend who could come to the hospital, but excruciating hours were wasted. “Time was passing and I was in pain. It was really horrible,” she says.
Nolasco was in the ER a decade ago. Until quite recently it was common that patients had to wait for hours for language interpreters at hospitals. Dr. Danielle Ofri, an internist at Bellevue hospital in Manhattan, says it was a confidentiality nightmare ripe for miscommunication and error.
“We rely on whoever is available, whether it’s a clerk who’s bilingual, a cousin, a six-year-old kid, an uncle in a taxi cab calling from their cell phone. There are so many things that are highly inappropriate, but we would do that,” Ofri remembers.
In 2003, with immigration levels rising, health advocates began filing complaints against hospitals in the state attorney general’s office. They argued that without language services, immigrants couldn’t get equal medical care.
Nisha Agarwal, an attorney with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, says, “When language access isn’t provided, it’s like doing veterinary medicine, just guessing randomly what they needed to do instead of having a conversation with the patient.”
In 2006, New York State passed regulations requiring all hospitals to provide free interpretation for patients within 10 minutes of arriving in the ER, and 20 minutes elsewhere in the hospital. The city has taken additional steps — in 2008, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered all public hospitals to have a language access plan. This fall, major pharmacy chains were required to translate prescriptions into the top seven languages spoken in the city.
Maps: Languages of New York City
Many hospitals now rely on telephone interpreters to be the crucial link between patients and doctors. By dialing a central number, within a minute doctors can be connected to someone who speaks one of 180 languages. Each room at Bellevue now has one of these special phones installed.
One day recently, Dr. Ofri visits Tong Woo Lee, a Korean American patient who is isolated in a room at Bellevue. They speak to each other while holding telephones to their ears. Dr. Ofri wears a mask and she tries to maintain eye contact, but it’s difficult.
“Can you tell me a little bit about when you first started to feel sick?” Ofri says into the phone, while looking at Lee. There’s a slight pause. Lee listens to the interpreter’s voice, and looks away. He responds in Korean. Line-by-line, their sentences are translated. The conversation takes twice as long as it would if they were speaking the same language.
Through the telephone interpreter, Lee tells his doctor that he called an ambulance because his back hurt so much he couldn’t walk. He assumed it was because he had lifted something heavy. But Ofri tells him that he has a more serious problem — an infection in his spine.
Tong Woo Lee at Bellevue Hospital (Photo by Sarah Kate Kramer).
On this day, Ofri has 20 patients to see, and can only spend a few minutes with each one. She tells Lee — through the interpreter — that he may have tuberculosis, which is why he’s in isolation with an IV in his arm, being subjected to tests.
According to Ofri, the interpretation phone is much better than the old ad-hoc system of hoping there’s a native speaker nearby. But she still finds it a frustrating and awkward tool. Her bedside manner goes by the wayside because there’s no possibility of chitchat, and the interpreters speak in neutral voices that don’t always transmit her tone. Ofri is always worried that details about her patients are lost in translation.
“I don’t always know what they’re saying and I think vice versa. It’s like speaking underwater; everything’s a little bit blurry. It’s the sensation that we’re doing pretty well, but I can’t be completely confident, and it’s frustrating and it’s frightening. I imagine it’s frightening for the patient. I’m nervous I’m going to miss something or do something wrong, but it’s also the best we can do,” she says.
When a person walks into one of the city’s public hospitals now, they are greeted by signs with directions in 12 different languages. In fact, so many immigrants rely on Bellevue that it has become a leader in the interpretation field. Bellevue has built a remote simultaneous medical interpreting center for the hospital’s top eight languages right on site, similar to the system used at the United Nations. On the fifth floor of Bellevue, 28 people are sitting at stations waiting for their phones to ring. They’re grouped by language. There’s an area for Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Polish, Bengali, French, and Haitian Creole.
Simultaneous interpretation means the workers translate each word as they hear it, so the two ends of the conversation don’t have to wait for each sentence to be repeated. The workers were trained to create the illusion that doctor and patient are speaking directly to each other.
On average, this in-house system, called TEMIS (Technology Enhanced Medical Interpreting System) receives almost 6,500 calls a month, and more than half of them are for Spanish speakers.
Walking through the cubicles, the eight languages mingle together, creating a cacophonic soundscape that mirrors the city’s diverse population.
Evens Jean, a French and Haitian Creole interpreter who has language maps taped to the walls of his cubicle, says the stakes are high — patients are essentially trusting their lives to his voice. And even using this innovative system, he knows there are communication gaps.
Evens Jean translating at Bellevue Hospital (Photo by Sarah Kate Kramer).
“Not every single patient is going to see things from the American perspective, they come from their own culture with their own baggage, they have a way of seeing and understanding health care,” Jean says.
In many cases — for both doctors and patients — cultural interpretation is equally important as word-for-word translation. Many interpreters report they hear patients saying yes, even when they don’t really understand.
Dr. Ofri, the internist at Bellevue, has seen this many times.
“It’s a different cultural experience to be at a doctor’s at other countries. So many of my patients are extremely respectful, they say yes to whatever I say no matter what. So I don’t know if they know what I’m saying and agree, or they have no idea what I’m saying and say yes because that’s what they’re supposed to say and be polite. So, yes can mean any one of a hundred things,” she says.
That’s why Ofri says it would be ideal if every immigrant patient could have a bilingual and a bicultural interpreter at the hospital. But she says that’s not realistic given the hospital’s budget. For her, the true connection often begins after she and her patient hang up the interpreter phones and the physical exam begins. It’s the age-old non-verbal conversation between a sick person and their healer.
“When you touch someone, it’s an intimacy, an unromantic intimacy, but an intimacy nonetheless, and sometimes in that setting the patients can really tell you what’s going,” Ofri says. “So that’s when our connection is formed.”
Dr. Ofri at Bellevue Hospital (Photo by Sarah Kate Kramer).
Bellevue hospital alone spends $2.5 million a year on interpreting. And Maribel Castillo, the hospital’s language access coordinator, says she sees the need rise each month. But Castillo maintains that even though the service costs the hospital a lot of money, it’s a necessity.
“This kind of service helps the patient adhere to treatment and for them to get better, and that’s what ultimately matters the most,” Castillo says.
But even with the hospital’s efforts, a 2008 survey by the New York Immigration Coalition and Make the Road New York showed that one out of five limited English proficiency patients in the city felt their medical care had been compromised by language barriers. Almost half said they wanted to ask a question but couldn’t.
Theo Oshiro, director of health advocacy at Make the Road, says even if hospital administrators may understand the regulations, information about language services doesn’t always trickle down to caregivers, like nurses, aides, and receptionists with whom patients interact.
“A lot of front-line staff have not been trained. [They] don’t know how to access the system of the hospital to get an interpreter quickly. Just a couple of years ago I was talking to a hospital resident, he was saying, ‘I can’t understand a lot of people at my hospital, I don’t know what they’re saying, I don’t know what their complaints are,’” Oshiro says.
Advocates agree the 2006 language access regulations have had a big impact, like ending the practice of using bilingual children to interpret sensitive topics for their parents. But patients say the quality of interpretation still varies widely across the city. In September, the New York State Department of Health issued a citation to St. Barnabas in the Bronx because of its failure to provide an interpreter to a Spanish speaking patient.
Nisha Agarwal, the attorney with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, represented that patient in court. “She did not get an interpreter at all, and when she did get interpreters, in the hospital, it was usually somebody who had been pulled in from somewhere else who was actually not trained to be an interpreter. So half the time they couldn’t even do a good job,” Agarwal says.
A good medical interpreter is much more than just bilingual. The interpreter must know medical terminology, and never insert her own opinions into the translation. But one problem is it’s up to the hospitals to train their own staff — and to figure out how to pay the interpretation bills. Language access is an unfunded mandate in New York.
“New York has been quite good in terms of language access issues. Our state regulations are very strong. Some of the ways New York has not been as much of a leader has been in terms of funding language services,” Agarwal says.
The language of medicine is difficult to understand, even for native English speakers. The names of diseases, medication instructions, and general hospital systems are confusing, especially when people are worried about their health. When these issues are compounded by language and cultural barriers, many immigrants are lost and can’t make informed health decisions. There’s no question that language access in hospitals has improved since Inocencia Nolasco landed in an emergency room where no staff spoke Spanish. But hospital administrators across the city say the need for trained interpreters outweighs the supply. And with an ever-growing immigrant population, the need is getting acute. Listen to part two of Interpreting Health: Cultural Barriers at New York City Hospitals
This story was produced as a project for The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.