Simultaneous Interpreters for Paralos Ninos and First5LA Events

Spanish, Korean and Sign language simultaneous interpreters and equipments for Paralos Ninos and First5LA events in Los Angeles, December 2010

Koreaninterpreters.net has provided Spanish, Korean, and Sign language simultaneous interpreters and equipments for a series of Paralosninos and First5LA events in Los Angeles in November and December, 2010.  The events are held once or twice a month in the neighborhoods of Downtown and Korea Town for the parents of elementary school students about baby and child friendly education environment. Koreaninterpreters.net takes pride in facilitating communication between the committed non-profit organizations and the parents who need the information provided.

TFT-LCD Litigation Translation

200,000 words in TFT-LCD litigation translation, December 2010

Koreaninterpreters.net  performed the translation of 200,000 words from Korean, Japanese, and Chinese into English for TFT-LCD litigation in November and December, 2010.  The translation had to be done in a short time within one week, but the team of certified translators worked day and night to meet the deadline.  The clients were happy with the consistently high quality of work done in a short time at a very reasonable rate.

Korean Government Produces Professional Medical Interpreters

The Ministry for Health and Welfare in Korea is now training professional medical interpreters and planning to implement an official licensing examination for medical interpreters.

If this interpreter testing process is formally established, it’ll be Korea’s second interpreter license exam run by a government entity.  As of today, the only government-issued interpreter license in Korea is for a tour guide/interpreter who is required to pass written/oral language exams as well as a basic Korean history exam.

Since the State of California indefinitely suspended its medical interpreter program, this certainly is a hopeful change for Koreans who are interested in medical interpreting.

For more updated info on medical interprets in Korea, please visit the following Website.

www.miko.or.kr/medical_interpreters/vision.jsp

Tour Interpreters Shape Korean Image

‘Tour Interpreters Shape Korean Image’

Kang Young-man, executive office director at the Korea Tourist Guide Association (KTGA), says unlicensed tourist interpreters are the major culprit in tarnishing Korea’s tourist reputation. By Park Si-soo Staff Reporter Last December a tour bus carrying 20 Chinese visitors abruptly stopped on its way to the Unification Observatory in Gangwon Province, which gives visitors a view of North Korea. Once the bus was stopped, a couple of tourists were forced off. The doors then closed and the bus went on its way, leaving those left there to stand in the freezing cold weather. Their crime? They had declined a tour guide’s request for an additional fee of 20,000 won ($20) for the trip to the observatory. Unwilling to let them sit on the bus, the driver forced them to spend more than two hours shivering on the roadside. Another group of Chinese tourists visiting Seoul were served “Bulgogi (marinated beef)” for every meal during their five day itinerary, with no option for anything else. The same group stayed at a small, remote “hotel” on the outskirts of Seoul, in stark contrast to the luxurious state-of-the-art facility they had seen on the leaflet issued by their tour agency. Their itinerary was frequently changed without prior notification. A tourism ministry official who accompanied them in secret to monitor Korean tourism witnessed their terrible treatment. Kim Jin-gon, the tourism ministry official who investigated the case, said “We presume unlicensed tourist interpreters who also served as tour guides were behind the incidents. In most cases, especially with Chinese visitors, the travel agency used to employ an unlicensed tour guide fluent in Chinese to save money.” The Korea International Trade Association conducted a survey from 2006 through 2007 on foreigners who had visited both Korea and Japan to gauge their views on Korean tourism, compared to Japan. Roughly 84 percent positively responded to Korean tourism, while more than 94 percent said they were satisfied with Japanese tourism. To the question over re-visiting, 70.9 percent said they would return to Korea, with the figure standing at 90% for Japan. To the inferiority of Korean tourism, Kang Young-man, executive office director at the Korea Tourist Guide Association (KTGA) pointed out “unlicensed tourist interpreters” as the major culprit in tarnishing Korea’s tourist reputation. “Unlicensed interpreters earn profit at the cost of the tourists’ discomfort,” Kang said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “Since 2003, the number of unqualified interpreters has `explosively’ increased and it has brought about soaring tourist dissatisfaction. In many cases, they force visitors to participate in an unplanned itinerary that imposes additional costs on clients and leads tourists to shopping malls rather than visit-worthy places so as to receive kickbacks from shop owners.” In January 2003, the government scrapped an article in tourism law, which had obliged tour agencies dealing with foreign visitors to only employ workers holding a tourist interpreter license in line with the government’s efforts to ease regulations on tourism. Most Asian countries including Japan, China, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia maintain the article to keep the quality of tourism in their countries from going backward. The director said Chinese visitors are most vulnerable to unqualified guides. The Chinese are the second largest group of inbound tourists following the Japanese. “Ethnic Chinese living in Korea are fluent in both Korean and Chinese. Many of them have served as tour guides for Chinese visitors. Chinese students here also serve as guides to make money. The two groups have dominated the Chinese tourist interpreters’ market,” he said. According to KTGA, the two groups accounted for more than 80 percent of the Chinese tour guide market. Meanwhile, roughly half of the English tour guide market and 20 percent of the Japanese market are run by those without a license. “Tourism interpretation is not merely translation from one set of words to another. It should be based on a strong understanding and knowledge of Korean culture and tradition,” the KTGA official said. “It’s possible that unqualified interpreters are more proficient in foreign language than licensed guides. But they lag behind qualified guides in the background knowledge needed to run a tour smoothly.” The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on April 8 that it would submit a bill to the National Assembly to revive the abolished article. “Foreign tourists’ distrust of guide continues to get stronger. But we will see the distrust disappearing once the bill gets endorsement from the National Assembly,” the director said. Need for upgrading payment system Currently, most tourist interpreters don’t belong to any tour agency, which means they serve as freelance tour guides, thus benefits such as insurance are not offered. They get payment in the form of a daily allowance and demand for their help depends on the season. The director stressed the “flexible” status of tourist interpreters is why they tend to pursue shopping-oriented and optional tourism programs. KTGA estimates a tour guide gets 150,000 won ($150) per day on average in return for leading a 8-hour-long guiding program, and work for 15 days a month. The interpreters’ association has strived to increase the daily allowance, which has been frozen for a number of years. “We think 200,000 through 400,000 won ($200~400) a day is reasonable,” he said. The association plans to grade its members according to language proficiency and prior experience in relevant industries to differentiate wages. “It will be worked out by 2013. The classified information will be posted on the Internet for guide-seekers’ convenience. If the information is recognized in the market, those ranked high would be able to demand higher wages,” Kang said. Noting the tourist interpreter market was already saturated due to a license test that has run with little consideration of market conditions, he said “We will also upgrade the test system to meet market conditions and fluctuating consumer demand.” Kang said a tour guide is another name for a “diplomat,” someone who shares most of their daily time with foreign tourists, helping them learn about Korean culture, tradition and society. “We believe tour guides have ample experience to know what inbound visitors think about Korean tourism and what is needed to upgrade tourist attractions around the country. We call on the government to set up an official channel to collect opinions from tourist interpreters.”

Conference Interpreters and Equipments for UCLA Event

Provided Spanish ,Portuguese, and Vietnamese simultaneous conference interpreters and equipments for UCLA event, October 21-28, 2010

October, 2010

Koreaninterpreters.net provided Spanish, Portuguese, and Vietnamese simultaneous conference interpreters and equipments for major seminars held at the Anderson School of Management in UCLA.  Those were the seminars for dentists, and business people.  Our certified translators arrived on time and performed excellent interpreting satisfactory to the customers.  The state of art interpreting equipments and the tabletop soundproof glass booths made it easy for the interpreters to quietly deliver their interpreting in a controlled environment.

Interpreters for a Patent Litigation

Provided interpreters for a 2-week patent litigation between Checkmate and Biovision in Seoul, Korea

October 18-30, 2010

Koreaninterpreters.net provided court certified interpreters for an Intellectual Property litigation lasted for 2 weeks in Seoul, Korea.  The deposition dealt with sophisticated IT software language in the presence of computer experts and patent attorneys, and our top interpreters competently helped communication flow smoothly by providing expert translation.

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

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