“We need more pay for the work we do.” “Nobody respects us interpreters.” “Can we please stop having intruders in this profession?”[1] “When will people understand that being bilingual doesn’t mean you can interpret?” “We should boycott if they try to bring in video interpreting.” “Maybe conference interpreters can demand...
Last year, InterpretAmerica published a document titled “Best Practices in the Interpreting Profession: Simultaneous Interpreting in Non-Conference Settings[1]” which I co-authored. Last month, we completed a draft document titled “Best Practices in the Interpreting Profession: The Professional Medical Interpreter”. Last night I interpreted for a local school...
I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead[1]. So said Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher in a letter to a friend in December 1656.[2] The quote, often misattributed to Mark Twain and Abraham...
The hotel housekeeper has a complaint, and I am there to interpret it. Sitting beside the housekeeper, I speak into a cheap handset speakerphone. On the other end, the hotel owner and district manager listen, encouraging the employee to air her concerns fully into the...
By Katharine Allen, Co-President, InterpretAmerica “Crowdsourcing is the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of a specialized few.” So said Jeff Howe, a magazine writer credited with coining the term crowdsourcing in his 2006...
By Katharine Allen, InterpretAmerica © 2012 "Rejected Afghan Interpreters Get Second Chance to Come to Canada"[1] “US Contract Interpreter Missing and Believed Kidnapped in Iraq”[2] "Families of Dead US Soldiers Sue Over Afghan Interpreter's Armed Rampage"[3] “Iranian Refugee Nearly Latest Victim of Poor Translation”[4] “Japanese Earthquake Highlights the Need for Multilingual...
