community interpreting

Community Interpreting

A specialization of interpreting that facilitates access to community services

Medical Interpreting

Interpreting for patients, their families, and healthcare providers, i.e., a specialization of interpreting that facilitates access to healthcare

What is the purpose of interpreting?

To facilitate communication between two or more parties who do not share a common language

Communicative Autonomy

The capacity of each party in the encounter to be responsible for and in control of his or her own communication

Which area of community interpreting has become the most professionalized?

Medical or healthcare interpreting

Minimum requirements for a community interpreter to practice as an interpreter

• Be 18 y/o

• High school or secondary school diploma or equivalent

• Proof of language proficiency

• Certificate for 40 hrs of interpreter training (required for us national medical interpreter certification: 40 hours of medical interpreter training)

Difference between a certificate and certification

Both are credentials. A certificate is a piece of paper (might attest that you attended a program or workshop or conference). Certification is a process. Involves a rigorous evaluation of interpreter skills and usually includes a written exam followed by an oral skills exam.

Which kinds of organizations develop recognized certification programs for interpreters?

The interpreting professions broadly, at least in North America, recognize only those certification programs developed by federal or state/provincial governments and professional bodies.

If you graduate successfully from a 40-hour interpreting program, are your certified?

NO! You are professionally trained. If you have also been tested for language proficiency, you can refer to yourself as qualified.

Name the organizations in the United States that provide national medical interpreter certification

CCHI(Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters) and NBCMI(The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters)

Is there national US certification for community interpreters?

No. Because there is state certification, in the state of Washington only, for both medical and social services interpreters.

Code of ethics

A set of directives that specifies the requirements or expectations intended to guide the conduct of practitioners of a profession. Ethics are the strictest requirements of any profession

Why ethics matter

They help you make decisions in difficult situations. They guide you about “right and wrong” in your work and conduct

What are standards of practice

A set of formal guidelines that offer practitioners of a profession clear strategies and courses of action to support professional conduct. Standards are the guidelines on how to support your ethics and perform at a professional level.

Differences between ethics and standards of practice

Ethics are the “Rules.” Standards are the guidelines

Ethics are what we should do. Standards are how we do it

Ethics are the goal. Standards are the way we get there.

Ethics are more strict; standards are more flexible

Standards are often organized under the categories of the ethical principles. They tend to be more detailed than ethics because they are showing you how to support your ethics

National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)

In what year do NCIHC publish the National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care?

2004

Nine Principles in the NCIHC Code of ethics (CAPRI)

Confidentiality, Cultural awareness, Accuracy, Advocacy, Professionalism, Professional Development, Respect, Role boundaries, Impartiality

Do you really have to interpret EVERYTHING that is stated?

Yes. Unless it’s an emergency or you are summarizing because the situation is out of control, interpret everything. Exceptions are rare!

If you arrive and you know the person you’re supposed to interpret for, what three steps should you take immediately?

1. Disclose the conflict to all parties

2. Try to withdraw

3. If everyone present asks you to stay, decide if you can be impartial and if the client/patient really benefits from you staying

Three steps in the SAY NO model (how to say no)

1. Be gracious

2. Offer choices

3. Give reasons

Working language

Any language the interpreter interprets in

Source language

The language you interpret FROM

Target language

The language you interpret INTO

Three stages of the encounter

1. Pre-encounter

2. Encounter

3. Post-encounter

Seven steps of the encounter

1. Pre-encounter: Preparation, briefing (optional)

2. Encounter: introduction, interpreting, mediation (if needed)

3. Post-encounter: debriefing (optional), analysis

Four interpreting protocols

• Positioning

• Professional introductions

• First person

• Turn-taking (managing the flow: interrupting the session for accuracy)

Goal of effective positioning? (Which guiding principle will help you decide which position to take)

Find the best position that promotes direct communication

Four elements of an interpreter’s introduction that come after stating his or her name/organization?

• Everything will be interpreted

• Everything will be kept confidential

• Please speak directly to the client/provider

• Please pause when I make a signal to let me interpret

What are some exceptions to using first person?

Young children (esp. younger than 7), people suffering from dementia, those who are intoxicated/cases of substance abuse, emergencies

What to do if a provider keeps speaking in third person?

• First, adopt an unobtrusive position and cut off eye contact

• If that does not work intervene to perform a “role clarification” and remind the provider to please address the patient/client, not the interpreter

• If the provider persists, use a hand gesture to direct his or her attention to the patient or client

• If these attempts fail, as an absolute last resort consider interpreting in first person (but this is not technically accurate and NOT recommended)

• Then mediate outside the session to point out that first person is much faster, promotes direct communication and trust and is much easier to interpret

Why do memory skills matter for interpreters?

You will need to have sufficient memory skills not to interrupt the speakers too often because it distracts them, can upset their train of thought and cause them to forget things. Also, you will never be a professional community interpreter without developing enough memory skills to avoid interrupting a completed thought or statement

Chunking

Breaking a message down into chunks of meaning to make them easier to remember

How can imagery help an interpreter’s memory?

Try to visualize what you hear as a story and see (“who did what to whom”)

Message transfer skills for interpreters

• Anticipating

• Message analysis

• Parroting/shadowing

• Paraphrasing

Three modes of interpreting

1. Consecutive

2. Simultaneous

3. Sight translation

Steps for sight translation

Before the sight translation:

1. Make sure that the provider remains present

2. Assess the text to see if you should sight translate it or not (using the CALL model)

During the sight translation:

1. Read the text from beginning to end

2. Identify any challenges, such as unfamiliar terms, complex syntax or high register

3. Ask for clarification as needed

4. Consult dictionaries, glossaries or electronic resources, if necessary

5. Render the text from beginning to end, keeping a natural reading flow

6. Do not stop-and-start, or start over

7. Do not simplify or change any parts of the text

After the sight translation

• Self-assess the accuracy of your sight translation

• Decide if you should continue to sight translate such texts

Note: The steps highlighted in bold above are the most important ones to know

Which documents is it acceptable to sight translate?

Very short, simple documents that you feel comfortable sight translating

What does CALL stand for?

Complex, Advanced (advanced terminology), Legal or long

It basically helps you to remember which documents you probably shouldn’t sight translate

If you decide not to sight translate a document, what should you do instead?

Ask the provider to explain the document and you will be happy to interpret the explanation or (if the provider is rushed) have someone else come in to explain the document while you interpret the explanation.

What’s wrong with summarizing? Any exceptions?

Dangerous because you are deciding what is important yourself and undermining direct communication and communicative autonomy.

Summarization is a last resort for emergencies and other completely out-of-control situations (like many people speaking at one, mental illness, angry or emotional people who won’t stop, developmental disabilities…)

How is note-taking for interpreters different from other kinds of note-taking?

Symbol-based, top to bottom, NOT focused on words or capturing everything, focused on meaning.

Page is divided in half. One thought per line. Follow seven steps of Rozan

Rozan: 7 Steps to Note-Taking

1. Note the idea, not the word

2. Abbreviated words (indicating gender/tense)

3. Use links between ideas

4. Indicate negation

5. Indicate emphasis

6. Take notes vertically

7. Use the space on the page to capture movement, time, and sequences

Note-taking pointers

• Use text message abbreviation

• Arrows: use for direction, increase, decrease, come, back, reverse, rise/fall, etc.

• Basic math symbols (+, =, -, <, >)

• Science symbols:

• Keyboard symbols: (*, &, ^, %, $, #, @)

• Emoticons, such as smiley faces and sad faces

• Abbreviations: use work-related ones (like Tx from treatment) driving example

Bias

Refers to a personal attitude or perspective that is not impartial and tends to favor one viewpoint or social group over another. It is usually unconscious

Project Implicit

A Harvard-based project supported by decades of research that lets you explore your own unconscious bias in a series of tests

Intervening

The act of interrupting a session for any reason

Mediation

Any act or utterance of the interpreter that goes beyond interpreting and is intended to address a barrier to communication or service delivery (or access to the service)

When should you mediate?

When the potential consequence of NOT intervening exceed the risks of intervening. Mediate for:

• Linguistic challenges

• Role confusion

• Cultural misunderstanding

• Service system barriers

What is a mediation script?

• A mediation “script” is a mental statement that helps prepare you to mediate effectively. You can write them down

• If you have a few basic mediation scripts, you can adapt them to almost any situation where you have to intervene to perform a mediation.

Why should you have a mediation script?

They will make you more efficient mediators

What is a good guideline for mediation? (Hint:When in….)

When in doubt, stay out!

Does the interpreter need to report or interpret (for the other party) what they say when they intervene?

YES. Transparency is required under the NCIHC (and the textbook) ethics and standards. You have to interpret everything -including what you say!

Why is transparency so important when you mediate?

If you are not transparent you undermine communicative autonomy and direct communication as well as trust. Some interpreters who are not transparent can be patronizing or paternalistic….

What are the five steps for mediation?

1. Interpret what was just said

2. Identify yourself as the interpreter

3. Mediate briefly

4. Report your mediation to the other party

5. Resume interpreting

How would you handle a term you don’t know if it comes up during the session?

• Request a clarification.

• Use a dictionary.

• Check an electronic glossary

• Clarify that you don’t know how to interpret the term.

• Request that the speaker/signer offer another term.

Why shouldn’t you explain a cultural misunderstanding yourself?

You could be wrong. You are taking away that person’s voice. You undermine communicative autonomy. You might be patronizing or paternalistic. You could lead the other party to mentally stereotype that culture based on your information.

What does it mean to identify or point out a cultural misunderstanding without explaining it?

You identify a cultural barrier by stating what you see is causing the misunderstanding. For example you could say, the interpreter senses a misunderstanding about what hot and cold foods are to both parties and let the doctor ask what the patient thinks about hot and cold foods.

In other words, you facilitate a cultural discussion. You don’t explain anything or speak for the patient or client.

Professional identity

The process of building up a sense of self in a work-related context

Why does it matter:

• Interpreters work in isolation. “Anything goes.” If you have a sense of professional identity, you can learn to work “on the same page” as other interpreters. Then people know what to expect of professional interpreters.

Language access law in the US

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Elements in the professional interpreter’s toolkit

• Resume

• Portfolio of credentials

• Trade name

• Business cards

• Professional email

• Mobile phone with professional voice message

• Business forms

• Website or social media presence

• Branding statement

• Consistency in marketing materials

Legal interpreting

A specialization of interpreting that involves interpreting for any legal process or proceeding

If you don’’t know whether an assignment is legal or community interpreting, what do you do?

Treat it as legal interpreting

If you decide to stay and perform legal interpreting, and you don’t have training for it, how will you handle that situation?

Restrict your work to interpreting and requesting clarification of terms you don’t know how to interpret. Try not to mediate except for clarification. If you do, be sure to focus only on the linguistic aspect of the message (e.g., The interpreter is concerned that what she’s interpreting about XYZ isn’t clear or The interpreter is concerned there may be a break in communication about ABC.)

Other specializations of community interpreting

Medical, educational, social services, mental health, faith-based, refugee services

Remote interpreting

Interpreting that involves at least one interpreter who is not physically present with other parties to the session and who is interpreting using a remote platform.

Remote interpreting usually involves interpreting via phone or video. Sometimes all participants to the encounter are located in different places.

Challenges of performing telephone interpreting compared to in-person (face-to-face) interpreting

Telephone interpreting cuts out some of the acoustic spectrum so it’s harder to hear and understand. It requires more concentration. It is more fatiguing. There is no body language to observe. Cultural barriers are difficult to address. Even intervening for clarification can be difficult. It’s harder to mange the flow.