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Welcome to the NAJIT Observer

The NAJIT Observer (TNO) was created in 2011 in response to NAJIT’s members need for a tool

to share information, first-hand experiences, and the occasional fun moment with colleagues.

We are delighted with the response TNO has received from our members and subscribers. And

thanks to our dedicated and generous contributors, TNO’s archive features an amazing number

of posts that you can search by category or author.

Do you want to contribute a post?  Send us an email at TNO_editor@najit.org.

Enjoy The NAJIT Observer!

13 Feb

Posted at 14:57h in Advocacy, Attorney Education, Certification, Community Interpreting, Conference Interpreting, Court Interpreting, Ethics, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Language Associations, Leadership, Medical Interpreting, New Ideas, Recent Posts, The Profession by
0 Likes

The act of interpreting has been taking place ever since two groups of people met but could not speak each other’s languages. A friend of mine, who is working on her doctoral dissertation, found this quote from the work of Marzena Chrobak[1]: “In the Near East,...

06 Feb

Posted at 14:06h in Business Practices, Court Interpreting, Finances, Hilda Zavala-Shymanik, Interpreters, Recent Posts by
2 Likes

Per Diem vs. Per Assignment I have been a freelance interpreter since January 2007. For the first seven years of that period, I was hired exclusively to work per assignment by agencies. It wasn’t until 2014, when I first became certified, that I started working per...

30 Jan

Posted at 15:01h in Conference Interpreting, Court Interpreting, Idioms, Jules Lapprand, Language, Professional Development, Technology, Terminology by
0 Likes

Two questions: 1) Is technology going to replace us? (Ironically, the “age-old” one.) 2) Does language really evolve so fast? I want to bring perhaps a different perspective, which others may have evoked in other places. As to technology, it is possible that AI becomes powerful...

16 Jan

Posted at 10:42h in Attorney Education, Community, Court Interpreting, Finances, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Language Associations, Leadership, Leadership, New Ideas, Professional Practices, The Profession, Tools of the trade by
0 Likes

It’s a lot of fun when you work in a venue where you can get together with colleagues to share anecdotes, ask questions, and learn new things to help you be a better interpreter. I was with some fellow interpreters recently talking about sayings in...

09 Jan

Posted at 15:26h in Advocacy, Attorney Education, Business Practices, Conference Interpreting, Equipment, Ethics, Hilda Zavala-Shymanik, Interpreting, Leadership, Professional Development, Professional Hazard, Professional Practices, Terminology, Tools of the trade by
1 Like

During the first NAJIT event I ever attended, the 35th Annual Conference in Las Vegas in the spring of 2014, my friend Gerda Prato introduced me to Tony Rosado. I was so excited that I still have the picture. I already knew who Tony was from reading...

19 Dec

Posted at 12:20h in Business Practices, Certification, Community, Court Interpreting, Interpreters, Janis Palma, Language Associations, NAJIT Affairs, Odds & Ends, Recent Posts, The Profession, Volunteer by
0 Likes

I know it may seem like a tired old cliché but, come on! You have to agree with me: it has been a great year! For me it was a year of enormous challenges chairing the NAJIT Board of Directors during the first half, and...

12 Dec

Posted at 18:12h in Certification, Continuing Education, Court Interpreting, Hilda Zavala-Shymanik, Language, Professional Development, Recent Posts by
2 Likes

I first heard about the University of Arizona’s Court Interpreter Training Institute (CITI) program at NAJIT’s 35th Annual Conference in Las Vegas in 2012. Some colleagues were talking about it while we had lunch. They shared information and spoke highly of the program, so I...

08 Dec

Posted at 12:02h in Advocacy, Attorney Education, Business Practices, Community, Continuing Education, Court Interpreting, Interpreters, Leadership, NAJIT Affairs, Professional Practices, Recent Posts, The Profession, TRAINING by
0 Likes

Oh, no! It happened again. A client insulted you. They had a non-native, non-translator correct your work and asked for a refund. They asked you to volunteer to interpret out of the goodness of your heart.  Maybe it wasn’t intentional, or maybe it was. Perhaps it...