Blog
Kudos to our Founder & Director – Angela Sasso
Handbook of Research on Medical Interpreting Founder and Director of Shifting Pictures and The Interpreter's Lab, Angela Sasso, has been recently published in the Handbook of Research on Medical Interpreting - a textbook for interpreting students. Angela's chapter,...
What is an Interpreter? Educating for Change.
Just as music is the marriage of notes and pauses, communication is in the verbal and non-verbal alike. In a recent conversation I was having with the manager of an LSP – he, the manager, being new to the industry and field – commented that “interpreting is a...
Interpreting in Community Settings
Interpreting is a highly specialized profession that requires strong language and communication skills - in addition to important protocols and abilities. This lively, intensive short-course program covers core skills and competencies required of interpreters and is a...
Interpreting in Healthcare Settings
Interpreting in Healthcare Settings can be an emotionally, but rewarding, context for interpreters. This course, is a second level program that provides fundamental skills to allow interpreters to work in healthcare settings confidently. Read More
Standards, Certification and Education – how it all connects
Why do we teach what we teach? Who decides what courses and skills interpreters must have? It all starts with professional standards. This year, Canada will host the most important ISO* language standards event, the ISO TC 37 International Meetings. From June 23 to...
Interpreting in Court and Legal Settings
This course is an intensive introduction to working in court and legal settings and includes an introduction to the Canadian court system. It will provide students with a strong foundation of knowledge and skills to get them working in diverse settings such as ...
Interpreting in Mental Health Settings
Mental health settings can be one of the most complex of all the interpreting contexts. Combining health, culture, communication, the interpreter must navigate sensitive communication processes. This nationally recognized, intensive educational program provides a...
A Year in Review and a Year in View
A look at local and international events from 2018 - with a view into 2019. There are many perspectives from which to examine the world of interpreting in 2018 - local, national and international. This blog posts examines the events of 2018 from a local perspective,...
Why Being an Interpreter is a Good Career Move for Foreign Trained Health Care Professionals
Immigrating to a new country is rarely a stress-free experience. Even with the best made plans, adjusting to a new culture, system and language is a hard transition. It could even be said that these transitions and adjustments may be hardest felt by professionals with...
The Top 3 Mistakes Interpreters Make …that are costing them financially and professionally.
Interpreters, especially community interpreters, tend to make mistakes that can be costly – both financially and professionally. Most interpreters work independently, without having many real opportunities to connect with other interpreters, so learning best practices...
Let’s Talk About Interpreters’ Mental Health
Interpreters share the stage alongside other professionals. Community Interpreters, interpreters that work in health care and mental health settings, work in synergy with doctors, nurses, social workers, police officers, lawyers, immigration officials, and an ongoing...
The Lab Report – A Field in Motion
This past year has been a busy one for the Interpreter's Lab. After finishing a wonderful series of courses here in BC, I once again had the opportunity to travel and experience community interpreting advances in other countries. In March, I was honoured to have been...
Lifestyle: Tourist. Citizenship: Global, Community Interpreters at the Cusp of a Postmodern World
“It is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny” Benedict R. O'G. Anderson Read the latest article at MultiLingual.com If you are a Punjabi/English community, liaison or public service interpreter living in Lucerne, Switzerland, you might consider moving...
The Importance of Quality in Interpreting in Health and Mental Health Care Settings
A Q&A with Kiran Malli, Director of the Provincial Language Service (PLS). The PLS is a program of the Provincial Health Services Authority of British Columbia January 19, 2017 Vancouver, British Columbia Q. Hello Kiran and thank you for taking the time to answer a...
The Evolving Role of the Healthcare Interpreter
A call to stop positioning the interpreter between a rock and a hard place. “When one considers the enormous task with which the interpreter in the healthcare setting is entrusted, one that involves such a multiplicity of factors and relationships, it becomes much...
Empathy and Interpreting: The Curious Case of Healthcare Interpreting
Empathy can be a tricky situation for interpreters. How do we show empathy and respect for individuals while maintaining our roles as impartial and unbiased communication facilitators? And how do we keep our own emotions balanced? Tianyi Zhang presents a few tips and...
Surviving and Thriving as a Community Interpreter
For most Community Interpreters that are currently working in Metro Vancouver, the career path to being an interpreter has been more of an evolution than a conscious career decision and there are many for whom the decision to utilize their language skills as a vehicle...
Certification For Medical And Community Interpreter Titles: Benefits For Everyone
I had been working as an interpreter on-and-off for a while when I moved back to Canada. Hoping to pursue a career as a full-time interpreter, I wanted to figure out the path I needed to take. I had spent all of my life assuming that all skilled professions require...
The Interpreter’s Lab is now OPEN
The Interpreter’s Lab is now OPEN. The first session – Situational Ethics – is on January 27th 6:00 – 7:30 pm. For complete details and to register, go to http://www.interpreterslab.org. Initially designed as a space for interpreters to meet and network, the The Lab...
First International Survey on the Status of Community Interpreting
Paola Gentile, a Ph.D. student in Interpreting Studies at the University of Trieste (Italy), under the supervision of Professor Maurizio Viezzi, is conducting the first international study on the status of community interpreting. The survey, available in 5 languages,...