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...
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...
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, it feels like your code of ethics and your concern for a person’s well-being can conflict – but is...
This week, the Blog team felt it pertinent to re-publish a short post from 2019, in the spirit of Thanksgiving. This is a time to celebrate gratitude; a time to recognize, acknowledge and be thankful for our experiences. A good life is not one free of hardships;...
During the first pandemic winter, I took on one of the hardest teaching assignments I’ve ever experienced: I tutored the son of a dear friend of mine with his fifth-grade homework. He was struggling a lot, and there were concerns that he might not be...
I was so comfortable, but man was I bored. I had the privilege of being a Spanish teacher for two and a half decades, which brought with it tremendous success, along with some cool perks. I had taught in the International Baccalaureate program for twenty...
There is one aspect of all judiciary interpreters’ certification exams that I find somewhat inconsistent with real-life practice. In real life, being able to anticipate and appropriately reformulate what judges and attorneys say is very closely linked to the repetitious nature of legal language. There...
Interpreters are proving to be an indispensable resource to indigenous communities as the demand for their services increases. While a handful of language-service agencies claim to offer some of these languages, they cannot guarantee the interpretation provided is true or accurate. This is why, to...
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. A common fallacy in our time is to say that nothing is real unless you’re able to explain it. But...
Dear Fellow NAJIT-ers, Happy September! How the heck is it September again?! Time. It never stops. Jules, our fearless Editor-in-Chief, just sent me the nicest e-mail telling me he’d like to hear from me again. Eeek. I have been hiding all summer, you see. Thank you so much to...