23 Dec Preparing to Do Relay with a Colleague Abroad
Preparing to Do Relay with a Colleague Abroad
Reme Bashi
Have you ever had to do relay interpreting with a colleague who is outside the United States, and who doesn’t speak English?
Here are some tips to help you achieve the best team interpreting performance.
Effective communication and collaboration are key to successful teamwork
Before I share my tips, I have an embarrassing confession to make. Although I’ve been certified to interpret in state courts since 2008, I only attended my first NAJIT conference in 2023. It was thanks to Hilda Shymanik that I finally got involved with NAJIT, writing for the blog, and attending my first conference. At the conference in Las Vegas in 2023, the topic of my presentation was relay Interpreting for Spanish and Native Language Interpreters. My presentation addressed my experience, together with my co-presenter Rosario Patricio Martínez, a certified Mixe Interpreter from México.
A colleague of ours, in Mexico, has been involved in training native language interpreters, and it was through her, I was able to locate Rosario. At that time, I didn’t know of any resources to be able to connect with Interpreters of native languages of Latin America. Now I know there are several companies in California and recently, a company specializing in Mayan languages has entered the court scene.
If you are going to be working in a team with an interpreter who is possibly abroad and who doesn’t speak English, these are some suggestions to achieve success. These are some of the actions that we took before, and during the hearings where we interpreted in relay from English into Spanish and Spanish into Mixe.
- Get to know your colleague and their background: Establish a relationship of trust and let them know you will keep communication open and support them any way you can.
- Go over the details of the case together: Give them any names, addresses, acronyms or any other information that may come up that might be common in the United States and not abroad.
- Help your colleague to sound out unfamiliar names in English: Reassure them perfection is not expected, as long as they try to pronounce names as best they can.
- Explain the Interpreter oath: Even how to raise your hand, because other countries use different hand gestures to be sworn in.
- Depending on your colleagues’ experience in US courts, you might have to emphasize the need to always be transparent and interpret anything that is being said: Explain that if they need to speak to the native language speaker to ask for a clarification, it is appropriate to announce the interpreter needs a clarification.
- Emphasize the role of the Interpreter in the courts of the United States: Sometimes, interpreters of native languages, particularly from other countries and cultures, are used to being not only an interpreter, and cultural broker, but even somewhat of an advocate.
- Keep an open channel of communication: In Latin America and many other parts of the world, certain apps are widely used for communication and information exchange. Take some time to explore and find the app that best suits your needs for staying connected and sharing information effectively.
- Before the hearing, make sure your colleague is ready: Make sure they understand American punctuality. If the video session has not started, communicate with them to let them know what is happening and aim to reduce any stress coming from technology issues.
- Make sure your native language colleague understands that repetitions, and clarifications are acceptable: Offer them phrases to use such as “your honor, the interpreter requests a repetition” or, “your honor, the interpreter needs to clarify a term.”
- When you can anticipate a term or a name or concept that your colleague might be confused by: Send them a message via the app you both use to communicate.
- If you expect to be working in tandem with your colleague in the future, and even if not, take a few minutes to debrief after the hearing: This will help you understand their struggles, and it’s also an opportunity to praise them for their amazing work and hear their feedback.
- If you haven’t had the opportunity to connect with your native language colleague days ahead of the hearing: You can always ask the Court for a few minutes to establish contact and go over the basic logistics of working in relay and answering any questions they may have.
While these suggestions are common sense and easy to do, I hope this offers you a simple guide to follow when you face a relay assignment with a remote colleague.
Empowering remote collaboration with a simple and effective workspace setup
Be the supportive teammate your remote partner needs!
Are there any more tips from our community?
Write them below and let us know!
Happy international collaboration!
The images used in this post are sourced from Unsplash. They are used for illustrative purposes only.
A woman with a warm smile in the autumn sunlight
Reme Bashi
Blog Writer and proofreader
Hello, everyone, I’m Reme Bashi, and I have been a certified court interpreter in Wisconsin since 2008. My career began in Mexico, where I majored in pedagogy at the University of Veracruz and transitioned from language teaching to interpreting and translation. Over the years, I have gained experience in education, manufacturing, legal, and community settings, including conference interpreting for media and government events. I’m passionate about continuous learning, which I believe is essential for growth in our profession. Recently, I have ventured into areas like hospitality, urban gardening, and ancestry research, enriching my perspective as an interpreter and writer. I look forward to contributing content that sparks dialogue and deepens our understanding of the field.
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Thank you for your blog Reme. The list is handy. I had a couple of experiences with relay interpreting many years ago and I wish I had the good sense to do a pre-hearing prep meeting. In general, there is nothing better than preparing conscientiously for assignments, especially when the circumstances are unusual.
Great prep work, Reme!
Excellent suggestions. I am in Australia and when we work relay or tandem interpreting, we usually have WhatsApp open with our colleague throughout the proceedings; we find this is a very good way to communicate and support each other, sometimes with terms that the other person may not be aware of their meaning or you yourself don’t know.
Thank you, Reme, for your blog post. I only want to point out that the correct term is “Indigenous languages” and “Indigenous peoples.” This is considered the most respectful and accurate way to refer to languages and people native to a particular region, as recognized by international standards and preferred by Indigenous communities themselves. Spanish interpreters ought also to be more culturally competent to understand that not everybody coming from a Latin American country will necessarily speak Spanish fluently.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and tips on relay interpreting, Reme. These useful tips can also be used for team interpreting in general. Las Vegas conference was my first NAJIT conference as well!
Thank you for your (as always) insightful article, Reme.
Among other things, I was glad that you addressed circumstances in which interpreters may find themselves working in tandem without the benefit of previous interaction with their partners (let alone the all-too-common occurrence of being thrown into a case with no prior preparatory interaction with the persons for whom we are interpreting).
Interpreters may hesitate to follow up on your excellent suggestion to “ask the Court for a few minutes to establish contact and go over the basic logistics of working in relay and answering any questions they may have.” I ‘d like to assure and encourage our interpreter colleagues to feel confident in asking for this, as the practice (sometimes known as a “pre-appearance interview” when referring to defendants, plaintiffs, respondents or witnesses) is supported by the ethics and practice codes of individual state as well as federal courts.
In a situation like this, seek an opportunity, if possible, to discuss your request with the judge as soon as you become aware that there will be a need for relay interpreting , rather than on the day of court itself, even if your relay partner hasn’t been identified yet.
While logistics might not allow you to actually have the contact with your tandem partner before the appearance, this will make it so that the judge isn’t taken by surprise and obligated to change their anticipated schedule, which is likely to be time-constrained as is.
Most judges not only welcome learning about the challenges that interpreters face, but take pride in being supportive of our unique needs – if they only have a chance to discover what they didn’t know they didn’t know!