Blog
Communicating at various levels of formality
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Ability to communicate in all registers and at varying levels of formality What is a “register”? The “register” is the variety of the language we use in a [...]
The interpreter requests clarification…
I was talking with a colleague about Title VI. Interpreters are supposed to uphold Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and I was checking what, exactly, that meant. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the [...]
“Please speak directly to each other”, vs. “Please ask the patient to…”
The Minnesota Department of Health gives these recommendations for working with a healthcare interpreter. As professional interpreters, we often introduce ourselves telling the provider… “and please speak directly to each other. I am simply here [...]
Memory skills!
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Providing effective and accurate communication between individuals and providers To be able to accomplish this, memory skills are essential! An interpreter must be able to let the speakers [...]
How dual-role employees can keep track of their time
Several of my students are dual-role employees. They have told me that interpreting sneaks up on them, and we have discussed how to work this out. I created this spreadsheet to help them with this [...]
Purpose of interpreting (CLAS Standard 5) updated
I wrote this post in December of 2014. In April 2020, during the COVID crisis, there is a lot of remote interpreting. Only a few months ago, about 80% of the interpreting in the United [...]