Have you ever taken a dash of one language with a sprinkle of another, mixed them together and simmered to taste? Of course you have! You’re bilingual. You’re bound to have stirred your languages together at one point or another. There’s actually a fancy name for...
An open or shut case? A couple of weeks ago, a woman I was interpreting for started chatting with me before an interview, and she asked me if I had heard about upcoming plans to reopen the courthouse. During this conversation, she shared her view that...
“No me falte usted al respeto, no soy cualquier cosa, soy el acusado. Yo ahí afuera tengo otro detalle, no así no se porta con uno la gente.” - Cantinflas, “El juicio,” available here No small ripple In 1992, the Real Academia Española accepted the term “cantinflear” for...
The Couch is a learning place, not only for its contributors but also for our readers who engage in the ensuing discussions. The subject of this month’s Couch is the transition to “normal.” As in-person services gradually resume (or at least are on the horizon), what do...
“Welcome to one of the world’s most beautiful professions.” That’s a variation on a book title I heard during my second year of translation studies, in the fall semester of 2015. The book title was Profession: Traducteur by Georges Bastin and Monique C. Cormier, and the student...
When I hear fellow interpreters say they entered the profession for their calling to help others, I worry. I guess, in a sense, we do help people. We are a communication bridge, making it possible for a voice to be heard in a different language....
This article by Athena was first published in November 2014. We liked it so much that we decided to share it with our readers once again. Enjoy! Those who know me outside of interpreting know that acrobatics (specifically, partnered “Acroyoga”) is my not-so-secret other love. I...
Has it ever happened to you that there is something you have believed all your life, something you have never even considered questioning, and then out of nowhere you see something or hear someone say something that makes you feel like your brain has been...
I pulled up to the National Guard’s State Emergency Operations Center on Monday April 20th, 2020 unsure of what to expect on my first day interpreting a COVID-19 press briefing by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. I passed through a sign-in desk and had my temperature scanned...
I was born Puerto Rican. I was actually born in New York, but that doesn’t make me a New Yorker any more than being born in Hawaii or Japan makes my cousins Hawaiian or Japanese just because their military parents happened to be stationed there...