I did an online computer survey of my colleagues and closed it on June 14, 2017, when we had obtained about 300 responses. It was publicized by Twitter, Facebook, and through listservs. Computer monitors at the home office […]
Spanish is the second most common language in the United States According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), in 2013 Spanish was the predominant language spoken by both immigrant and U.S.-born Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals. 37,459,000 people speak Spanish in the United States. 16,482,000 are limited English proficient. Hispanic dropout rate: Double the white [...]
I am often asked for guidelines to translate documents to submit to the courts. Rather than write my own explanation, I will provide resources to two authoritative sources: Guide to Translation of Legal Materials, prepared by the Professional Issues Committee of the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts in 2011. This document lists details [...]
Airplane pilots have checklists and follow them carefully. One of them reads items off the list, according to popular belief, and the other one says “check”. This way, both pilot and copilot verify that everything is in order. What happens when there is a “check” that isn’t said? “We would like to inform our passengers [...]
Translators and interpreters face a common problem: lack of clarity in the source message. Interpreters have a standard formula for addressing this: “the interpreter requests clarification”. Although translators deal with the same issue, a standard formula is missing. We deal with acronyms that are company-specific, missing terms, etc. and clarify them with clients over email. In the [...]
