Session Description: This workshop will teach attendees how to better navigate the confusing territory of remote simultaneous interpretation. Team interpreting can be difficult but not impossible with the right tools and understanding of technical limitations. This session will prepare interpreters to be aware of ethical considerations and potential problems caused by the logistics employed by courts or other parties within the field of legal interpretation. Attendees will leave the session understanding how technology can be used to improve their rendition, protect their hearing, and enjoy a better professional experience. Special attention will be paid to the ethical problems that arise based on conditions that do not occur when working in person, but are common occurrences in virtual settings. Zoom will be the primary platform used for practice; however, additional platforms will also be discussed.

Objectives: This session will teach attendees the basic elements that all remote simultaneous platforms share as well as their key differences which affect the interpreter’s ability to work within the ethical bounds. Best practices have in the past focused on in-person hearings and court procedures, but as the pandemic has forced the world to interact virtually, special attention will be drawn to areas that deserve more attention. Court interpreting ethics and boundaries are pushed logistically into new territory by the many virtual setups employed by courts. Pitfalls and the strategies needed to overcome them will be shared.

Presenter Bios:

Aimee Benavides is a federally and CA court certified Spanish interpreter with over 19 years experience. In addition to having worked extensively in court, she specializes in technical agricultural conferences and training workshops, focus groups that require simultaneous interpreting into English, and educational interpreting. She has also innovated ways to connect phone lines into interpreting platforms as a way to overcome platform shortfalls and help interpreters avoid being stuck as the pinch point between LEPs and the courts. Tamber and Aimee are 2 of the 3 members of TEA Language Solution.

Tamber Hilton is a federally certified freelance Spanish court and community interpreter based in Washington, D.C. She is a tech and audio aficionado, with a passion for solving technical problems in virtual event management and for helping people look and sound their professional best, virtually. In addition to interpreting and experimenting with RSI technology, she is a licensed lead trainer for Cross Cultural Communications’ The Community Interpreter curriculum, and has been training and mentoring community interpreters since 2011. Tamber has led the technical team for several important events with several different language pairs, all working simultaneously. These experiences have shaped the teaching and tech support methodologies used by TEA Language Solutions which is a partnership between Tamber, Ernest Niño-Murcia, and Aimee Benavides.

Ernest Niño-Murcia is a freelance legal interpreter and translator based in Des Moines, Iowa. He received a B.A. in Anthro-Linguistics from Brown University. As a state and federally certified court interpreter, he has interpreted legal proceedings and prepared translations, transcriptions and expert witness reports/testimony for clients in the private and public sectors. He is a member of the Iowa Judicial Branch ́s Language Access in the Courts Committee. Outside of court, he has interpreted for public figures such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. He worked with Iowa PBS providing live interpretation for broadcasts of Governor Kim Reynolds’ daily press briefings on the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, Ernest is a Jeopardy! Champion (2012), whose greatest achievement on the show was beating an attorney to the buzzer to answer “co-defendant” in the “11 letter words” category.

Session Description: In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the main principles of long consecutive for conference interpretation. We will discuss analysis of speeches and how to grasp complex ideas with minimal notes. Participants will try their hand at longer consecutive using various speeches. We will then discuss lessons that can be drawn in the courtroom context, and how to improve their consecutive skills in general. Topics will include active listening, visualization, analysis and note-taking. Participants will walk away with a broader understanding of the consecutive mode.

Objectives: Participants will enjoy a deep dive into long consecutive for conference interpreters, with practical takeaways for their own work.

Presenter bio: Athena Matilsky holds an MA in Conference Interpreting from Glendon College, York University, as well as a BA in Spanish Interpreting and Translation from Rutgers University. She is a Federally Certified Court Interpreter (Spn<>Eng), a Certified Healthcare Interpreter (Spn<>Eng) and an Approved Court Interpreter (Frn<>Eng). She was formerly editor-in-chief of Proteus (NAJIT’s academic publication), and she is currently on the NAJIT blog committee. She served as a staff interpreter for the NJ judiciary from 2013-2016. Now, she owns her own company, Athena Sky Interpreting, where she coaches students on interpreting technique. When she is not studying or teaching, you may find her studying French or practicing Acroyoga. Website: https://athenaskyinterpreting.com/Acroyoga.

*NOTE: This is a business session. Not all organizations will approve this for continuing education. Before attending, please verify the session was approved by your state.

Session Description: Professionals provide their services to their clients or patients directly. Interpreters are no exception. An important step towards recognition of the profession is the ability to procure and keep clients that see, treat, and value interpreters as members of a profession. During the workshop, interpreters will learn how to identify potential clients who already exist in their personal environment and they have not noticed. Attendees will see how they can retain their best clients by turning them into happy and appreciative individuals who respect the interpreter. Interpreters will learn negotiation techniques to persuade a client to provide the working conditions desired and needed by the interpreter, and to how include them in the written agreement. Everything from fees to expenses, interpreting equipment to tech support, comfortable travel to Per Diem, payment conditions, default penalties, and remote interpreting will be discussed. Participants will learn what to include in their service agreements, and how to thrive in the new remote interpreting market.

Objectives: Attendees will learn negotiation techniques to persuade clients to provide desired and needed working conditions. They will learn how to keep clients, and through active discussion and participation, they will contribute their ideas to gain clients’ trust. They will learn how to include in the written agreement the working conditions needed to provide a good service, protect themselves from liability, and get top fees. We will cover all: from fees to expenses, equipment to tech support, comfortable travel to per diem, payments, default penalties, and conditions in distance interpreting, learning how to include them in their agreements.

Presenter bio: Tony Rosado is a U.S. Department of State conference level independent contractor (highest classification in federal government), an Attorney at Law and Foreign Legal Consultant. He has over 30 years of experience practicing interpreting and teaching and is a guest professor, instructor and examiner in universities and colleges in all continents except Asia. An attorney from Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City. He has worked internationally as a conference interpreter, and interpreted for high profile court proceedings, Olympic Games, and TV broadcasts, including presidential debates and political conventions. He has worked with many top level politicians, celebrities, athletes, and entrepreneurs. The author of two books on court interpreting, he is a visiting professor at various universities in the U.S. and overseas, a well known conference presenter, and the author of the popular blog, “The Professional Interpreter.”

Session Description: As some court systems have reduced the rates for judiciary interpreters, many court interpreters actively look for assignments outside the court system. There are plenty of opportunities available, and depositions, which are typically held at law offices, are one of these proceedings that oftentimes require interpreters. Little has been written about the role of interpreters in depositions, and this workshop will provide an overview of the structure of depositions, the parties, the objectives, the terminology, etc. Attendees will receive plenty of real-life advice on how to manage the flow of information, how to deal with difficult situations, and exactly what to expect during the course of the deposition. In addition, there will be an interactive session on ethics during depositions and a review of pesky situations and how to deal with them. This workshop will be held in English and is thus suitable for interpreters of all language, but some Spanish-language examples will be provided. The presenter is a federally certified court interpreter who has interpreted at more than 1,200 depositions. She is not a lawyer, but is married to one.

Objectives: Attendees will learn at which point in the judiciary process depositions are held, how they are structured, who the players are, what the interpreter should know to prepare, what to expect during the proceedings, how to handle the flow of information, how to deal with difficult situations, etc. In addition, they will gain a good understanding of specific depositions involving common cases, such as car accidents and personal injury claims. This workshop will be held in English with occasional Spanish-language examples, but is suited for interpreters of all languages.

Presenter bio: Judy Jenner is a Spanish and German business and legal translator and a federally court certified Spanish interpreter. She has an MBA in marketing and runs her boutique translation and interpreting business, Twin Translations, with her twin sister Dagmar. She was born in Austria and grew up in Mexico City. She’s a former in-house translation department manager and serves as one of the spokespersons for the American Translators Association. She writes the blog, “Translation Times,” pens the “Entrepreneurial Linguist” column for The ATA Chronicle, and is a frequent conference speaker, including at recent events in Czech Republic, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, etc. She is the co-author of The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation. She teaches translation and interpreting at UC-San Diego and at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas).

Session Description: Join Agustín de la Mora, president of DE LA MORA Institute of Interpretation, for a highly interactive skill-building workshop for the simultaneous mode! Designed for intermediate to advanced skill levels, this presentation takes a highly practical approach to improvement through detailed self-evaluation exercises. Be sure to HAVE A RECORDING DEVICE AND HEADSET AVAILABLE! You will not want to miss this chance to apply the interpreting theories that continue to make DE LA MORA a nationally recognized name in interpreter education.

Participants should have a recording device and a headset available.

Presenter bio: Agustín Servin de la Mora is the President of DE LA MORA Interpreter Training. He was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico, and has been a professional interpreter for 30 years, both as a freelance and a staff interpreter. He is one of the supervisor raters for the National Center for State Courts and has been a lead rater for the federal and consortium oral exams for court interpreters. He was the lead interpreter for the Ninth Judicial Circuit for over a decade, and served as a member of the Project Advisory Committee responsible for the creation of the National Standards for Healthcare Interpreter Training Programs for the NCIHC. He was a member of the Florida Court Interpreter Certification Board and a voting member of the Technical Committee of the National Consortium for Interpreter Certification. He is a state and federally certified court interpreter, as well as a certified medical interpreter. He has been a consultant for the National Center for State Courts for 20 years.

Session Description: As court interpreters, we rely on our short-term memory, our general knowledge of the subject matter, and note-taking skills. Unfortunately, people focus more on developing their short-term memory and learning new terminology and shy away from note-taking. Why? Because people think that note-taking is just shorthand or that it is not a skill that can be learned or developed. This could not be further from the truth. During this three-hour language neutral workshop, participants will familiarize themselves with their own learning style and how it improves their note taking. Also, participants will learn about Rozan’s 7 Principles, and how to take notes effectively. Participants will leave the workshop with basic symbols, improved techniques, and even their own symbols and techniques!

Objectives: After completing this three-hour workshop, participants will be able to explain Rozan’s note-taking techniques; differentiate different symbols and abbreviations developed by the presenter; develop their own symbols and abbreviations; and apply the techniques taught during exercises in class. In this workshop interpreters will review basic techniques needed to perform in long consecutive mode and will practice targeted drills to hone subskills. This session will provide instructions to implement basic preparation techniques to enhance memory and examine the steps in the long consecutive process. Attendees will also evaluate the product of their interpretation based on the needs of each setting as well as the type of question. Participants will review their own aids to memory and analyze which components of their personal note-taking systems are useful or useless.

Presenter bio: Dr. Gloria M. Rivera, CMI, CHI is an English<>Spanish certified medical interpreter, conference interpreter, translator, and instructor. She is a physician/surgeon who obtained her degree from Universidad San Martin de Porres (Lima, Peru). She holds a professional certificate of translation and interpretation from UCSD Extension and taught for said Professional Certificate. Dr. Rivera is part of the core faculty of the National Center for Interpretation (University of Arizona). She is also the owner of Blue Urpi, a company focused on providing medically accurate training for certified and aspiring medical interpreters. She is the recipient of 2018 CHIA’s Instructor of the Year Award.