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...
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...
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...
The Couch is a learning place, not only for its contributors but also for our readers who engage in the ensuing discussions. So much has changed in the performance of our profession that educating clients about how to work more effectively with interpreters has become...
Interpreters face somewhat of a conundrum upon entering the profession. That is, we are expected to have “native-level” discourse and comprehension skills in all of our languages. Advertisements boast “perfect fluency,” and respectable interpreting courses necessarily steer their content away from language acquisition. Yet, of...
We have another Guest Post. This time, our guest is Ryan Bridges a contributing writer and media specialist for the Presentation Training Institute. Ryan regularly produces content for a variety of business and presentation blogs, based around the transitional challenges that come with communication and...
By Athena Matilsky © 2017 Last year I left my job as a Superior Court staff interpreter, and moved from New Jersey to the beautiful city of Montreal. I’m here temporarily, working on a book and improving my French. The idea is that with increased language...
Do you want to know the funny thing about notes? The better you get at taking them, the less of them you need. I noticed this one day in court, a few years into my career when I took a look at my notepad and...
This article has been edited for length, with the author's permission, and it was first published in the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Journal, January 2018. [vc_row] [vc_column width='2/3'] Accessibility to all is one of the truly inspiring hallmarks of 21st century American society. Whether it’s the court reporters working...
I kind of feel like my fall should be entitled, Conference Interpreting: The Final Frontier. Because (that’s right, drum roll!) on September 10th, I begin classes at Glendon College, York University, for the Master’s in Conference Interpreting (MCI) program. The start of my classes will mark...