Chinese translation leads to hilarity
This young man got two Chinese characters tattooed on his bicep and was told they meant “courage”. I have posted about the exact same tattoo earlier, when I first saw it in 2003.
The phrase 大過 means “big mistake” or “shortcoming”.
Communicating with Interpreters in Court
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.
What Skills Does a Good Court Interpreter Need to Have?
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!
Justice system compromised by unqualified interpreters
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.
UN to Punish Interpreter Over Nuke Mistake
Official misquoted as saying Israel struck nuclear facility Syria denies exists
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations said an interpreter responsible for an erroneous report that Syria has a nuclear facility has been reprimanded and the world body has apologized to Syria’s U.N. Mission.
Earlier this week, Syria denied that one of its representatives told the U.N. General Assembly’s committee that deals with disarmament on Tuesday that Israel had attacked a Syrian nuclear facility. It said the representative was misquoted, demanded a correction, and insisted that “such facilities do not exist in Syria.”
After more than seven hours of investigation Wednesday, U.N. officials agreed the Syrian delegate was misquoted. U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said “There was no use of the word nuclear.”
The unidentified Syrian representative spoke in Arabic and the interpreter who worked from Arabic into French was fairly accurate, but the problem occurred when an interpreter translated the statement into English from French, Haq said.
“Action will be taken against that freelance interpreter to the fullest extent of the U.N. rules and regulations,” Haq said on Thursday, refusing to comment on what the action might be.
But on Friday, he said: “The interpreter who was responsible for the unfortunate mistake has been given a note of reprimand.”
“While it was indeed unfortunate, mistakes can occur, as in any other area of work. The Interpretation Service maintains high standards, and mistakes of this nature occur very rarely,” he said.
Haq also said “an apology has been given to the Syrian Mission regarding the Tuesday interpretation error and accepted by them as an unintended mistake.”
The mistake made headlines in the Middle East and heightened concerns over Damascus’ nuclear ambitions. Those ambitions were under scrutiny following a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike on an unknown target in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey. Widespread reports say it may have been a nascent nuclear facility, a claim Syria has denied.
According to the corrected text, the Syrian representative said Israel was the fourth largest exporter “of lethal weapons in the world … (and) violates the airspace of sovereign states and carries out military aggression against them, like what happened on Sept. 6 against my country.”
Interpreter spans language gap in emergencies
Volunteer assists county Medical Reserve Corps during times of crisis
By Amy Daybert
Herald Writer
EVERETT — As the program manager for the South Everett Neighborhood Center and Familias Unidas, Winnie Corral enjoys helping people who speak different languages.
Sometimes she speaks Spanish, other times she’ll converse in Russian. So when flooding occurred at the Three Rivers Mobile Home and RV Park near the Snohomish River three years ago, and Spanish interpreters where needed, she volunteered her skills.
That was the beginning of her involvement as a volunteer with the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps, a group that responds in emergency situations throughout Snohomish County.
“I worked with the Salvation Army and helped with communication,” Corral said. “I remember I was brand new and I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. I didn’t know how disaster procedures work and I realized there was a whole group of people who didn’t know either but had a vital need for it.”
Corral, 53, has been a volunteer for the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps ever since, assisting in the aftermath of floods throughout the county in 2007 and during last fall’s H1N1 outbreak.
The Medical Reserve Corps is a national program. Snohomish County’s program is in partnership with the Snohomish Health District and the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, according to Therese Quinn, volunteer coordinator for the Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps. Corral is one of nearly 200 active support and medical volunteers with the county’s program, she said.
“Winnie is fantastic,” Quinn said. “She is one of those people who when she sees there’s a need she makes sure there’s a way she can be there to help out.”
At one point during the county’s H1NI response in October, Corral was called to help someone who only spoke Spanish.
Corral was happy to help, Quinn said.
“We got a call in to the call center and didn’t have anyone who spoke Spanish,” she said. “(Corral) was driving down the road and pulled over and was able to get all the information to the person who needed it.”
Corral immigrated to the United States from Honduras with her family when she was three. She taught language classes for elementary students in Southern California before moving to the Everett area in 1984. She has worked at the South Everett Neighborhood Center and Familias Unidas for the past 10 years.
She participates in training courses that are offered to Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps volunteers. The last course she attended focused on how to help people who are involved in a trauma, she said.
“They wanted us to know how to respond to people who are traumatized by the situation they’re in,” she said. “It’s important to have ideas because most of us have not been in a disaster.”
One hundred Medical Reserve Corps volunteers helped immunize more than 20,000 people in vaccination clinics throughout Snohomish County last October, Quinn said. The Snohomish County Medical Reserve Corps received a national Community Resiliency Award on June 3 at the Medical Reserve Corps 2010 Integrated Training Summit in Las Vegas, Nev.
“People were afraid volunteers would not come out if we had a pandemic,” Quinn said. “Just the opposite happened. When we put out a volunteer call we could not answer the phones fast enough. I just think it’s so wonderful our volunteers are so giving.”
Corral will volunteer at Empower, a disaster preparedness fair, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at McCollum Park, in Everett. She hopes a crowd of Snohomish County residents will attend the fair to learn how to be better prepared for a disaster.
“I will be one of many interpreters there that day making sure people have access to information,” she said. “We can’t ever have too many prepared people.”
http://heraldnet.com/article/20100722/NEWS01/707229871
Frustrated crowd pleads for city interpreter rehire
http://www.northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=53823
Guillen Clarifies Comments on Spanish-Speaking Playe
On the eve of an important series with the Tigers, Ozzie Guillen waved reporters into his office Tuesday morning. This would be a clarification session for Guillen, the always colorful, never dull White Sox manager.
After Chicago’s 4-1 victory over Oakland on Sunday, Guillen made inflammatory comments that Asian players were given preferential treatment because they routinely had interpreters. He wondered why Spanish-speaking players, many of whom struggle with English, were not provided with interpreters.
The White Sox, who lead the American League Central, were off Monday, so this was Guillen’s first opportunity to respond to angry criticism — the commissioner’s office was bombarded with calls from teams pointing out their programs designed to accommodate Latin players — including a statement from the White Sox saying that he was incorrect.
A number of players, including the Mets’ Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez, recalled their experiences early in their careers and agreed with Guillen.
Guillen explained himself in a 30-minute conversation that, in typical Guillen fashion, was a whirlwind of good points and contradictions.
He said the tempest began innocently enough when he was asked about Dayán Viciedo, the White Sox’ Cuban-born infielder.
Viciedo and his family defected from Cuba in 2008 by boat to Mexico. Once there he crossed into the United States and went to Miami. Baseball approved him as a free agent on Nov. 10, 2008, and a month later, Viciedo and the White Sox agreed to a four-year, $10 million contract.
Guillen’s point was how hard it was for Viciedo to come to the United States from Cuba and assimilate into a new culture.
“When a Japanese player is done playing major league baseball, they go back to their country and enjoy their life,” Guillen said. “When the Cuban player comes to this country, I don’t think they can go back to their country and see their families.”
Then Guillen expanded his comments, explaining how difficult it is for Spanish-speaking players without interpreters to communicate effectively.
Guillen made a similar complaint in 2004 about the Hispanic presence in baseball, the language divide and what he said was the apparent favoritism toward Asian players. He wondered whether greater accommodations could be made given the assistance that Asian players received.
He said: “I always make a joke that we bring a Japanese guy (as an interpreter) because (the Japanese players) don’t speak the language,” Guillen told USA Today. “Why don’t we bring a Latin guy to help? … I told Tony Bernazard (of the players’ union), we bring guys here who can’t speak the language and we don’t care. Then they tell us to learn the language.”
In the intervening years, baseball, largely in response to criticism and pressure from people like Guillen, has established programs to accommodate baseball’s phenomenal Spanish-speaking influx. Almost 30 percent of major league players are Latin American. Every major league team has multiple Latin players, and Hispanic players also make up a significant portion of minor league teams.
According to the commissioner’s office:
- The basic agreement requires notices provided to major league players be translated and printed in Spanish and made available to all Spanish-speaking players.
- All drug-testing program documents and presentations are in English and Spanish.
- During the season, each club makes available an English as second language course — provided that at least one player on that club requests such a course.
- At the minor league level, all documents provided to minor league players are translated into Spanish.
- All club academies in the Dominican Republic provide educational programs in English to players under contract.
If a player wants to have an interpreter during pre- and postgame interviews, he can make arrangements with the team. In fact, there should be dedicated interpreters for every language. But on Tuesday, Guillen, in response to a direct question, said he did not want the league or the teams to supply interpreters. He wants the players to buckle down and learn English.
Freddy Garcia, a White Sox pitcher, said he didn’t have strong feelings one way or the other about Guillen’s comments.
“I’m one of the guys who doesn’t talk that much,” he said. “I don’t need a translator to say I feel bad and that I got my butt kicked. It’s no big deal for me.”
While he plays down the role, Guillen is the voice, the backbone and the conscience of Latin players. He is an advocate.
“I just want my people, these kids, to have a better life on the field, off the field,” he said. “That’s all we want. That’s what I was saying. I was saying I want to help Latino kids.”
The solution is that more reporters should learn Spanish and more Latin players, for their own sake, should take advantage of Major League Baseball’s bilingual programs.
The two sides will meet somewhere in the middle. Outside Ozzie Guillen’s office, of course.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/sports/baseball/04rhoden.html
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
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
