I have just finished reading Found in Translation, the new book which has just come out by Nataly and Jost, and is already lined up for a third printing! I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the T&I sector. Having worked in the industry...
The hotel housekeeper has a complaint, and I am there to interpret it. Sitting beside the housekeeper, I speak into a cheap handset speakerphone. On the other end, the hotel owner and district manager listen, encouraging the employee to air her concerns fully into the...
I wonder how long it takes the average interpreter to realize that their working environment has begun to reflect in who they are as a person? It’s pretty common to set up barriers to prevent a situation from striking at the core of our being; yet,...
A couple of weeks ago I was driving home from an interpreting assignment listening to NPR radio, as is my custom. The program was “Fresh Air,” and Terry Gross was interviewing an author named Michael Lewis on a piece of his in the magazine Vanity...
A few weeks back, I traveled to a distant town for a court interpreting assignment. It had been well worth the trip from a financial point of view, but I was really beat when I got home. As I was drifting off to sleep for...
I didn’t exactly grow up on a farm, but my small town was indeed surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans. When I was in my teens I started out on what turned out to be years of travel, living in enormous cities both in...
Two weeks ago, we considered an ethical dilemma that had come up in my office. Today I would like to discuss the concepts of "demands" and "controls". These terms were first used by Robert Karasek in his work on occupational stress in the late 1970s,...
I’d like to share with you an ethical dilemma that has been an ongoing subject of debate among interpreters I know for the last several years. First I’ll set up the situation for you; then I’ll offer you the two extreme opposing points of view....
The following is the first of a two-part series on the importance of certification standards with a view toward achieving recognition of the interpreting field as a profession on a par with those already regulated and standardized in the United States. Part 1: Why Certification Matters Early...
By Barry Slaugther Olsen, Co-President, InterpretAmerica The word “technology” means different things to different people. But when it comes to interpreters, the “T” word tends to conjure up all sorts of largely unfounded fear and denial. “Will I be replaced by a computer?” or “Oh, a computer...
