Tips for Working with Legal Interpreters

1) Work with professional interpreters, as opposed to bilingual grocers/wait staff/etc. You are a professional and your client expects professional service from you and everyone you contract on his/her behalf.

2) Ask for the right type of interpreter. For legal proceedings, a legal interpreter is the easy default; however, if you're deposing an doctor about a malpractice suit, then you might need a medical interpreter instead. Make sure your interpreter specializes in the case's subject matter.

3) Request the right language. Many languages have multiple dialects. Spanish, for example, has 19 major dialectal forms.

4) For appointments slated to last longer than three hours, schedule two interpreters who will work in half-hour blocks. When working with only one interpreter, schedule regular breaks.

5) Allow for extra time. Everything everyone says will have to be said twice and, in addition, some languages simply take more words to say something than others. Spanish, for example, uses 33% more words than English.

6) Prepare the interpreter. Provide him/her any police report, transcripts from preliminary hearings, and other materials. In cases where multiple translations are available, knowing the context will help your interpreter choose the correct one.

7) Practice working with the interpreter when you prepare your client for questioning. You'll get the kinks worked out ahead of time, everyone will look more polished, and your client will be more at ease.

8) Keep it in the first and second persons. Instead of telling the interpreter "Ask him where he was on the night of the 15th," say "Where were you on the night of the 15th?"

9) Be as precise as you can with your questions. Anything in your syntax that is unclear (i.e., dangling modifiers, unidentified pronouns like "it," double negatives), may be interpreted incorrectly.

10) Be aware that EVERYTHING you say will be interpreted, even if it's just to ask the secretary for more coffee.

11) Don't be surprised if your interpreter has questions about seemingly simple vocabulary words. What's only one word in our language could be one of many words in the other language, depending on the context. In French, for example, the English word meeting could be a "tête-à-tête," a "rendez-vous," a "conference," or even a "meeting."

Money for Medical Interpreting

Quite often, medical facilities we work with ask In Every Language staff if we're aware of any financial assistance to help defray their medical interpreting budgets. If they work in a participating State, we tell them about Medicaid's reimbursement program. We also let providers know that occasionally workman's comp insurance or car and/or liability insurance may pay for medical interpreters when applicable. But when you're located in a non-participating State (such as Kentucky or Indiana), when it's not a workman's comp issue, and when liability insurance doesn't come into play, what's a provider to do?

Today, I came across a December 3, 2007 article from the Memphis Business Journal with some information that could help. In 2007, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded $1 million to the Med in Memphis to pay for interpreters. To better help all of In Every Language's medical clients, I've spent some time looking the Foundation's site over, trying to see any of this grant money is available to help the providers In Every Language works with. My clients know their needs better than I do, however, so I thought that I would post the Foundation's link here. Feel free to look this over and if there's anything we can do to help you with your application, please let me know.

Thanks, and good luck. Now let's all go help LEP patients together!

Source: "Med gets $1 million grant for interpreters." Memphis Business Journal. December 3, 2007.

Interpreting à la Lucy

Interpreting is about more than moving words from one language to another. It's about conveying the message.

Last week, I came across this I Love Lucy clip on another blog where it was provided as a good example of relay interpreting. While this is true, I think it really serves a better example of how so much more goes into a message than words. Interpreters must interpret tone of voice and body language as well in order to convey the speaker's true intent.

Translation: The Key to Excellent Customer Service

Foreign language translation could be your key to better customer service and to higher sales.

There's a German saying that I love to quote: If I'm selling, I'll speak English, but if I'm buying, Sie mussen deutsch sprecken (you have to speak German). I like that sentence because it points out the one thing that American companies seem to get right domestically, but not internationally: customer service comes first.

Here in the land of "the customer is always right," we tend to think that the customer always speaks English. And, a lot of the time, we're right. In Denmark, for example, English is taught from elementary school up. English is the most popular foreign language taught to grade schoolers in the EU and has quickly become a powerful language of commerce throughout all of Asia. But just because someone speaks a language doesn't mean that they speak it well or that you should expect them to. Your customers may speak English, but when it comes to strengthening your sales, is English the language of customer service?

Papa Johns International, CNN, Wells Fargo, the American Lung Association, Lowe's, even the IRS--across multiple industries, through online and print advertising, American business are starting to tap into the 52 million people in this country who speak a language other than English at home. These people just aren't immigrants; they're a target market. That's why companies like Bank of America, DISH Network, and AT&T are offering their websites in Spanish--because they want to reach out to this market. Because if they don't reach out to them, someone else will and their money--that sale--will go to the competition. Trick of the matter is, however, if you want to reach them, you can't do it in English. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2005, over 29 percent of all Spanish speakers, 22 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander speakers, and more than 13 percent of Indo-European speakers in the US today speak English "not well" or "not at all." This is in a country where English is the spoken vernacular, the language of education and commerce, the main language used for publishing and broadcasting news, as well as the language used in the medical field. This is the United States of America, where there is a higher concentration of English speakers than anywhere else in the world. Yet even here, you can not assume that your customer speaks English.

This is only if you do business domestically. If you want to do business on an international scale, you must also think and act internationally. You may not speak French, but if you are selling to the French, you need to at least learn how to say "Bonjour." Like the German saying I quoted earlier, a German business man looking to buy will buy from the salesman who uses German.

American companies are known worldwide for their superb capabilities for customer service. And while many might argue that it is harder to get waited on in a store than it used to be, that is still the mantra of sales in America today. The customer comes first. The customer is always right. The customer is our top priority. This is why I find it shocking that many companies doing business in non-English speaking countries fail to see the practicality of foreign language use. It's simply good customer service--communicating with them, marketing to them, and making deals with them in a language they can understand.

So, in a nation where many of our top execs and graduating talent pool do not speak a foreign language, where does this leave us? The world changes quickly. One minute, the popular business country is Japan. Then it's India. Then it's China, then it's India again. And not everyone is good at learning languages. Some people, no matter how hard they try, just can't get past lesson six. And it may not be cost or time effective to become fluent in the language of every company you have dealings with.

This is where translation comes in. This is why the translation industry exists--because someone has to be there to break the communication barrier. My company, In Every Language, for example, offers services in 155 different languages. There is no way any single employee could become fluent in 155 different languages. Translation companies therefore save businesses time and money by doing the linguistic legwork for them. It's why we're here. It's our job. We speak those languages so you don't have to. For a just a few cents per word, translators can get your material in front your buyers in a language they can understand.

Yes, translation costs money. But how much money could a good translation make you? If you made one dollar from every non-English speaking American, the US Census Bureau says you'd make 12 million bucks. 12 million. You may or may not see the benefits of reaching out to the non-English speaking market, but you can bet your competition does. And once they already have that market, there may not be much room in it left for you. We all know the power of brand loyalty. If your competition achieves brand loyalty before you do, you may one day have to spend money on translation just to stay alive. Wouldn't you rather spend that money on making a profit?

Translation services are therefore not just a way to provide customer service, but they're a way to increase your sales. Customer service does come first, but in this case, customer service goes out before you, paving your way to profits and sales success.

Introduction

Dear Readers:

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Over the next few months, I hope to discuss several matters facing the translating and interpreting industry today. Some of this information is for our clients--for companies who currently use translating or interpreting services and for those growing businesses who anticipate a need for language services in the future. There will also be information here, however, which may prove useful to translators and interpreters as well, if only to help linguists learn more about the clients they serve.

Your suggestions for a topic are welcome and I do encourage you to make comments; both agreement and disagreement are welcome. And even if you don't have anything to say, please feel free to simply say hello. I'd love to know you dropped by.

Thanks again for your visit and, as always, thank you for considering In Every Language for your language needs,

Terena Bell, CEO
In Every Language
http://www.ineverylanguage.com
terenabell [at] ineverylanguage [dot] com
+1 (502) 213-0317 from the US
+44 (0)20 7993 4494 from Europe