By Flavia Lima & Monica Guelman After months of near-total lockdown in many US states, courts are reopening with a massive backlog of cases to work through as a consequence of the pandemic and interpreters are in high demand. We need to find solutions to assist court attendees who are Limited English Proficient (LEP), while maintaining social distancing. In the pre-COVID … [Read more...]
New challenges–and opportunities–for educational interpreters during a pandemic
The good, the bad, and the not-so-tech-savvy By Alina Avelar Roque On the morning of March 13, 2020, Anaheim Elementary School District, where I've been working for over five years as an interpreter/translator, held an emergency board meeting to vote on suspending in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That same day, all students were sent home with … [Read more...]
Phone, video, or in-person interpreting? One size may not fit all
By Anna Martorell Fuste and Daniela Elizabeth Obregon Andrea* and her mother begin their journey in Fullerton, CA. Slowly, they make their way through the greater Los Angeles area, braving the unusual rainy Southern California weather. They arrive safely and on time for Andrea’s cardiology appointment on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, home of Children’s Hospital Los … [Read more...]
Mobile Interpreting Technology
We all watched President Donald Trump being greeted in Spanish by the Argentinian President Mauricio Macri at the G20 Summit. Mr. Trump then tossing the mobile interpreting system on the floor while commenting that he understood him in Spanish better than when using the interpretation. Before commenting on this from the perspective of the interpreter, I would like to first … [Read more...]
Interpreting Delivery Platforms: Should You Get on the Bandwagon?
In cased you missed it, InterpretAmerica, established in 2009 to provide a national and international forum for the interpreting profession aimed at elevating its profile, posted an article on their blog about Interpreting Delivery Platforms, or IDP’s for short. We bring it to you here, with permission from Common Sense Advisory, the T&I market-based research … [Read more...]
Remote Simultaneous Interpreting: Options and Standards
By Cyril Flerov Even though experiments with Remote Simultaneous Interpretation (RSI) have been taking place since the early 1970s, it is only relatively recently that we have heard more and more about this type of interpretation. It may exist in several configurations, namely: Internal cable – interpreters are in the same building but not in the … [Read more...]