By Andrew Dafoe CHI™ If I had to pick a defining word for the year 2020, at the top of my list would be crisis. It really became what felt like a never ceasing stream of natural disasters, global pandemics, the resulting economic downturns, political divisiveness, and racial injustices. Collectively, we’ve experienced and continue to experience more crises than could be listed … [Read more...]
New challenges–and opportunities–for educational interpreters during a pandemic
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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...]
Interpreting in the face of a pandemic
By Carol Shaw On January 21, 2020, the state of Washington reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States; on February 29, it announced the country’s first COVID-19-related death. The virus has since spread across the country, just as it has around the globe. And as the world hunkers down against COVID-19, those of us who work in language access services … [Read more...]
Interpreting in WA public schools
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Do you have experience lobbying for meaningful language access? How about dealing with government entities? Here is your chance to help the State of Washington’s public schools develop a program geared towards providing interpreters in K-12 settings. Find out more about what you can do to advocate for our profession: It appears that Washington State is finally going to … [Read more...]
A Bad Interpretation Can Ruin —Even End a Life
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By Monica P. Almada Are you bilingual? Can you carry on a conversation in another language? If so, how deep can your conversation be? How detailed? Can you talk about a variety of subjects: medicine, law, psychology, history, geography, construction, etc.? How about hearing an expert in any of these areas provide testimony in one language that you would … [Read more...]