Proteus: Members Only
Issue: 2016 Summer Volume XXVIV Issue No 2Table of Contents
Editor's Corner
Letter from the Editor: Summer 2016
By Athena Matilsky I laughed out loud when I read this issue’s question in Ask an Interpreter: “Why do interpreters wear such unfashionable shoes?” As a court interpreter who spends her day strolling between the criminal and family courthouses and walking up and down stairs...
Meet the Editors: Summer 2016
Athena Matilsky is a Spanish-language interpreter certified by the United States federal courts and approved at the master level by the New Jersey state courts. She is also a certified healthcare interpreter, and she holds a B.A. from Rutgers University in Spanish interpretation and translation….
Feature Articles
Decoding and Constructing Meaning from Text Messages: Pragmatic Considerations for Court Interpreters
By Pilar Cal-Meyer Text messaging has become one of the most ubiquitous and convenient means of communication in our times. People from virtually every sociocultural and linguistic background in the United States have at their fingertips a new way to exchange information and to express...
Maximizing Existing Processing Capacity in Legal Interpreting
By Denise Green, Sign Language Interpreter, NIC Interpreters’ brains are calibrating innumerable bits of information every second we are on the job. Despite the old adage that we only use ten percent of our brains, and although the actual percentage of unused potential is widely...
BREXIT AND STANDARD ENGLISH: A Discussion Paper
By James Nolan, JD, AIIC, ACI, Deputy Director, Interpretation, Meetings & Publishing Division, United Nations (ret) Head of Linguistic Services, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ret) (Editor’s note: This has been reprinted, with permission, from the following publication dated 7/1/16: http://www.irishlegal.com/4673/blog-brexit-and-standard-english/) As...
NAJIT News
2016 Conference Roundup
2016 Conference Round-up By Rosemary Dann I <3> BEING AN INTERPRETATOR INTERPRETOR INTERRUPTOR I-N-T-E-R-P-R-E-T-E-R That’s the official NAJIT shirt that made its debut at the 2016 Annual Meeting and Educational Conference, and both the shirt and the conference were a hit! The shirt, in navy or...
2016 NAJIT Scholars’ Takeaways
By Garrett Michaelson Bradford How good it was to be back home in San Antonio. The 37th Annual NAJIT Conference provided my fellow scholars and me with new techniques and the opportunity to meet you, our colleagues. As an interpreter-in-training who was looking ahead toward...
Susan E. Castellanos Bilodeau 2016 Conference Scholarship Reflections
By: Heba Abou Alsaad I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to attend the NAJIT conference in San Antonio, Texas. The sessions were very educational and informative, the extra knowledge I acquired about the field was great, and the number and quality of...
A Call to Arms to All Interpreters
By Agustín de la Mora (Editor’s note: republished with permission from De la Mora Interpreter Training dated 5/17/16: http://interpreter-training.com/2016/06/15/a-call-to-arms-to-all-interpreters/) Dear Colleagues, I just came back from the NAJIT convention in San Antonio this past weekend, and I'm glad to report that it was a great...
The NAJIT Renaissance
By Janis Palma (Editor’s note: republished with permission from the NAJIT blog, dated 5/27/2016) Yes, I heard someone use that word during the NAJIT conference this past May 14 & 15 in San Antonio, Texas. And it was so fitting! The energy in the air...
Regular Columns
Cracking the Code
By Cecilia Golumbeanu The online Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the word backlash as “a sudden violent backward movement or reaction; the play between adjacent movable parts (as in a series of gears),” and as “a strong adverse reaction (as to a recent political or social...
Ask an Interpreter: Why do Court Interpreters Wear Such Unfashionable Shoes?
By Dan DeCoursey Why do Court Interpreters Wear Such Unfashionable Shoes? Court interpreters must think on their feet, literally, because often there is no place for them to sit on the witness stand. Some days court interpreting resembles firefighting as interpreters scramble to cover unexpected...
Interpreting: A Passion…and a Challenge
By Maria Teresa Perez I was born in Spain and immigrated to the United States in 1975. My first exposure to consistent conversational English was in California. Their version of the spoken language is different from other parts of the country, just as in New...
How I handled it: You’re Not the Attorney
By Kathleen Shelly I must admit that when I first started out as an interpreter, I didn’t really understand the ethics canon regarding scope of practice. The wording may vary from state to state, but in my state it says the following: Interpreter shall limit...
Items of Interest
Links of Interest
Resources for Interpreters The Savvy Newcomer NYC helps freelancers avoid non-payment Revision, editing and proofreading explained Grammar resources for professionals Simultaneous interpreting tips Video: How interpreters juggle two languages at once Language Issues in the News Finding Nemo dubbed into Navajo Could robots help kids...
For Better or Verse
By Hal Sillers Time is short when we’re in court, As the docket we survey. For criminal court or a civil tort The message we convey. We sight translate, don’t hesitate, And meaning we purvey. In “simul” mode we are not slowed By speech that...
Notable Quotables
Translation is the art of erasing oneself in order to speak in another’s voice. –David Cole The translator is the only one who truly reads a text and reads it in its profundity, in all its layers, weighing and appraising every word and every image...
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions: Printing Proteus
Q: Can I Print Proteus using my computer printer? A: Yes, all Proteus articles are specifically formatted to print out in readable format on your computer. The print out will not include banner advertisements or comments. You may print individual articles or you can print...