Login | Join Today

Beware of false friends! I don’t mean the people, I mean the words.  One of the first impulses a young interpreter must overcome is the use of words that may, at first glance, seem to be equivalent terms and concepts in two languages... but are not. Taking that direct path from similarly-sounding words in our source and target languages is not always wrong, but part of being a good interpreter is knowing exactly when to take this path and when not to. In the rapid pace of judiciary interpreting, our brains may lean heavily towards cognates in source and target languages. Cognates are words with a common origin or etymology. True cognates, like “library” and “librería” in Spanish or “livraria” in Portguese, with a common Latin root -- liber -- may come to have new and different meanings with usage and the passage of time. In this example “library” is a place where books are kept for people to read or borrow, whereas “librería” or “livraria” is a place where books are sold. So although they may be true cognates, these words have become false friends, or faux amis.
13 June, 2014 /

Without a doubt, a staffer can face precarious positions on an ethical level. We develop close relationships with those around us, and we become very knowledgeable about the processes in our courts. Such familiarity can lead us to become more likely to act outside our...

02 May, 2014 /

- by Gio Lester © 2014 Title VI was devised and implemented in the second third of the 20th century. Since then, our world has changed and so has our society. The demands and profiles of the services and tasks targeted by Title VI have also changed. We...

17 April, 2014 /

  María Cristina de la Vega is sponsoring this article by Veronica Perez Guarnieri, an AIIC colleague, because of its relevance to the legal interpreting profession. VERÓNICA PÉREZ GUARNIERI was born in Argentina. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Translation and Interpretation from Universidad del...

11 April, 2014 /

I used to be a grasshopper, you know, like the one in Aesop’s fable. It wasn’t that I didn’t work—I did. It’s just that after paying for rent, utilities and expenses, I considered that whatever was left over was mine to spend on whatever took...

28 March, 2014 /

How and when did you get into the field of Interpreting?  What is your background? I had some experience with interpreting and translating when I was an office manager and trainer for a direct sales company in the late 80’s and early 90’s in Miami, FL....

14 March, 2014 /

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...

07 March, 2014 /

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...

07 February, 2014 /
Show more
Loading...