About the LEP’s Right to “Hear Everything” in Court Janis Palma   [caption id="attachment_37467" align="alignleft" width="300"] The United States Supreme Court building, a symbol of justice and the rule of law[/caption] One of the rules of thumb that interpreters often follow in court is the if-then structure, which we...

The Importance of Being Called by Your Name By: Ann Heath-Huynh   As the year draws close to an end, we all seem to have different reasons to be scrambling about. Perhaps, in a rush to close business deals or to buy Christmas presents, or planning holiday events. We...

“Elephants have six toes.” “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.” “My friends are named Sam, Stan, Stu, San, Sandy, Dee, and Dan.” What do all these phrases have in common? These three phrases are typically used in the popular children’s game “Whisper down the lane.”...

For a long time, I have wondered why the interpreting profession is respected more in some places than it is in others.  I have asked myself how this affects the work we do and the pay we receive for it.   I believe part of this...

As we were reading the Summer 2023 issue of Proteus (a great issue, by the way), we were both struck by an article entitled “Are we comfortable telling someone that they are limited because English is not their language?”, written by Ingrid Oseguera, an experienced...

The popular phrase “follow the money” is what people recommend when you are trying to get to the bottom of a suspicious matter.  What if, instead, we follow the words?  What truths can words reveal? Last night, as I was cooking a huge pot of...

You are sure to have encountered jokes concerning non-Thai speakers’ mistakes in their attempts to speak a tonal language. As funny as it may be, these jokes have a firm basis in real life since, from a tonal perspective, Thai is much more complicated than...

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...

The Milwaukee-Chicago urban corridor has a diverse offering of food markets. This summer, I stopped in at the Seven Mile Flea Market in search of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Ever since I can remember, I have been curious about two things: language and food.  I...

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...