When you receive wise counsel, it’s not a hypothetical in a book; it’s wisdom applied to your life. Receive it and say, “Thank you.”[1] This is a short story about a fearless trailblazer I admire who is going through some very difficult times. She recently stood...
For me, among the specific skillsets that court interpreters use on a daily basis, true old-fashioned consecutive is the one that has the highest potential to showcase our talents. Because this is the mode that we use most often to go into English, on the...
At the memorial for deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela on December 10, 2013, the world-wide interpreting community was stunned and dismayed when a fake sign language interpreter was shown on television and the internet pretending to interpret the words of heads of state...
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln Recently, I was watching the “Special Features” on a DVD my kids were enjoying. One of the costume designers was interviewed and spoke about how her role was to put...
Continuation of “Freudian Tales” posted on December 20, 2013. Miami: Arriving at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, to Judge Rubin’s courtroom promptly at 8:15 a.m. Friday morning, Harry introduced himself to Lia, the new interpreter, originally from Madrid, more recently from Salt Lake...
A couple of weeks ago someone sent me a link to a video from Spain of a talk show host conversing with a student who had called in to the program. The host asked the viewer what she was studying, and the young woman answered...
Background It was November 14, 2004. A blustery winter evening in New York. The sun had gone down and the wind was gusting hard. My stomach rumbled relentlessly and I shivered in spite of my down parka. I sprinted briskly along West 63 St., to reach...
There are many phrases we use in English on a regular basis that don’t have a direct translation into our other working languages and we may not even know how they became part of the English language to fathom a meaning. I have chosen a...
Today we welcome guest blogger Sabine Michael. Sabine was born and raised in Germany. She has the equivalent of a Masters Degree in Translation from the University of Mainz at Germersheim for Spanish and English (Diplom-Uebersetzer) and worked as a sworn translator and interpreter for the German...
There is quite a bit of talk lately among those of us in the interpreting profession about the professionalization of community interpreting. In Great Britain and Canada, community interpreting, also referred to as “public service interpreting” is an umbrella term encompassing any kind of interpreting...
