Pain in the back of your throat. A pocket full of cough drops. Dry, hoarse coughing. We have all felt this at one point or another in our job as interpreters. Whether we have the flu, a cold, or even laryngitis, the symptoms could point...
The Couch is a place to exchange ideas and brainstorm, not only for its contributors but also for our readers who engage in the ensuing discussions. Sometimes, in spite of our needing to be a neutral language processor, our human side comes to the fore, and...
“Tell me about your mistakes,” Sara Blakely’s father used to ask every night while she and the rest of their family ate dinner. She and her siblings would go around the table, comparing notes, discussing when they had messed up. “Congratulations,” her father would tell them. They...
This article will exclusively address the interpretation aspect of the proceedings, omitting other case background and charges, which are readily available online. The defendant, Oscar Juracan Juracan, faces 1st-degree criminal charges before the Hudson County Superior Court in New Jersey and is a speaker of...
When Barb Fisher began interpreting for Marshallese-speaking people in 2011, she would never have imagined her whole family would soon be ushered into the same line of work. The Fisher family first became acquainted with the Marshallese language when they moved to the Republic of the...
Last fall, I started calculating the time it takes me to do my work including travel time, the courtesy pre-assignment time, the hours of waiting, the hours worked, the time for billing, e-mailing, confirmations, follow up, searching for work, etc. I realized that I was...
When I started freelancing again after six years of work in a staff position, eighteen months ago I asked old and new colleague friends about their current fee ranges to adjust my expectations and be able to plan a budget for my new freelance contractor...
It was one of those weeks when everyone hates the interpreter. Weather is bad. Call quality is awful. And tempers are slightly more miserable than the shift. Of course, everything the interpreter does makes things worse. When she asks clients to speak up over the static,...
No, I don’t mean the social “privilege” we all enjoy as interpreters or translators because of the education, general knowledge and specialized skills that give us a certain advantage over others a bit less fortunate. No, I mean the sort of privilege we are supposed...
The Couch is a place to exchange ideas and brainstorm, not only for its contributors but also for our readers who engage in the ensuing discussions. Today’s “Couch” article is a question about juggling that an interpreter would like help with. A thank you goes out...