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 June 28, in Ottawa, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and AILIA (the Canadian Language Industry Association) and co-host, the University of Ottawa, will welcome language experts from over 60 countries. Canada has participated in the international terminology standardization activities of ISO/TC 37 (Translation, Interpreting and related technology) since 1975.

In 2010, I joined the International Standards Organization (ISO) Committee on Translation, interpreting and related technology as an expert member. For those of you who are unfamiliar with ISO, let me just tell you that ISO has published almost 23,000 standards covering almost every industry, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare – AND interpreting and translation. ISO standards have been developed for Legal Interpreting, Community Interpreting, and General Guidelines for Interpreting. And there are more in development.

Standards are a critical component of any profession. Standards provide guidelines about the work, the working conditions, the educational content, continued professional development, AND a base for certification exams. Without standards, there would be no profession. Standards are the glue that hold all of the parts together. 

As a member of the ISO TC 37/SC5 Translation, interpreting and related technology Committee, I have actively participated in the national and international meetings that have produced our industry-related standards. It has been, and continues to be, an honour to work alongside dedicated colleagues from across Canada and the globe. And I am excited to be a member of the committee that is welcoming all of the global experts to Canada to continue our work.

The commitment that I make as an ISO expert is a privilege that not only enriches me as a professional but also allows me to create interpreter education programs that are informed by the best thinking in our field, the best practices and the best content. I, along with our other talented instructors at The Interpreter’s Lab, care about the education we provide our students. We want to not only educate; we want to inspire. As one of the fastest growing professions, globally, interpreting has a world of wonders to offer you. Join us and let us spark a new passion in you.

*ISO TC37 serves all fields and applications, where human-to-human and human-to-machine communication are involved and refers in particular to the language industry products, such as language technology tools and content resources, and language services. The standards this committee produces are fundamental for language resource management, knowledge management, and content management.

Available for purchase from ISO:

1. ISO 20228 : Interpreting services — Legal interpreting — Requirements  
2. ISO 18841:2018 Interpreting services — General requirements and recommendations
3. ISO 13611:2014 Interpreting — Guidelines for community interpreting
4. ISO/CD 21998 Medical/healthcare interpreting [Under development]
5. ISO/DIS 20539 Translation, interpreting and related technology — Vocabulary [Under development]
6. ISO 20228 Interpreting services — Legal interpreting — Requirements [In publishing process]
7. ISO/NP 23155 Interpreting services — Conference interpreting — Requirements and recommendations [Under development]

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 courtrooms, tribunals, police and RCMP settings – as well as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) offices.

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 unique training opportunity offered only in through The Interpreter’s Lab.

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, from the perspective of Canada, but even more locally, British Columbia.

4 Key Trends 2018 – 2019
1. Standards and Certification
2. Consumer Knowledge and Education
3. Technology Rising
4. Knowledge Sharing

Standards and Certification – Ongoing commitment to standards

In addition to the 2014 ISO standards, a new, more general, standard for interpreting was published in 2018. And currently in draft is the ISO Health Care Interpreting Standard. This increased attention to the field through these standards means increased profile and professionalization.

• • ISO 13611: 2014 – General Guidelines for Community Interpreting
  • ISO 1884: 2018– Interpreting services – General requirements and recommendations
  • HSO Standard on Communication in Health Care (Canada)

Coming in 2019/2020

• ISO standards on interpreting in Health Care Interpreting
• ISO standards on interpreting – Legal Interpreting

Analysis

Interpreters must keep their professional skills updated and be advocates for the profession. Be aware of certification requirements and be ready to get certified. But also, be knowledgeable about what certification means and ensure that it is a legitimate process.

Consumer Knowledge and Education

In interpreting services the professionals and organizations (doctors, social workers, ministries, etc.) that use the services of interpreters are called end-users or consumers. In 2018 there was a marked interest in consumers’ interest to better understand interpreting services and how to more effectively work with interpreters.

Analysis

Increased awareness of the interpreter’s role and how to work with interpreters means that professionals will know what to expect from interpreters and that they will be more aware of standards of practice and the role boundaries. This is great for interpreters that are already working at peak performance, but means that interpreters lacking in some skill areas will need to improve their abilities.

Technology (in small bytes)
Community Interpreting (in Canada) is still on the margins of the technology waves, but it is coming. What we have observed in 2018 is:

• More remote (telephone) interpreting
• More distance education opportunities
• More wireless technologies – potentially reducing numbers of interpreters required
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Analysis:

In order to succeed interpreters are going to have to get comfortable with technology not only as a tool for working but also a tool for learning. More educational and professional development opportunities are being delivered online – The Interpreter’s Lab, for example, is taking advantage of technology and moving some programs and courses online.

But technology also means that interpreters are going to have to improve their enunciation, articulation and overall speaking skills. Take a look at our Speech Improvement and Accent Reduction packages for more information on how to improve your speaking.

Knowledge Sharing

In 2018 more organizations added more information online to provide interpreters with more resources for self-guided and ongoing learning. These community “toolboxes”, of a sort, are of great benefit to interpreters, so take advantage of these resources.

Analysis: Get Connected and Learn More

1. The Interpreter’s Lab updates and news (www.interpreterslab.org)
2. Critical Link International (www.criticallink.org)
3. AIIC (www.aiic.net)
4. EU Speech Repository (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/)
5. Online Training Resources (https://orcit.eu)

The Year in Review 2018 at The Interpreter’s Lab

When we look back we are so happy that we were able to provide so much information and professional development to our wonderful students and clients.

Live onLine Series: Guest speakers, special live forums and industry insight.

1. February 2018 – Dr. Tanya Elez: Vicarious Trauma and Interpreter Self Care

2. March 2018 – Tammy Johnston, The Financial Guides: How to Financially Manage a Freelance Business ​

3. April 2018 – Young Joe, Bilinguals International: Rocking Advocacy: Tools for the Profession and the Professional

4. May 2018 – Open Forum: The Fundamentals of Interpreting

5. June/July 2018 – Special Live Forum – Moral and Ethical Decision Making in Complex Care Settings

6. September 2018 – Marie-Claude, Change Your Accent: Accent Reduction Strategies for Professional Interpreters

7. October 2018 – Crystal Johnson, MSc, RSLP, Speech Language Pathologist, Providence Health: Strategies for Interpreters working with Speech Language Therapists – and other complex care settings

8. November 2018 – What to look out for in 2019

Remember that The Interpreter’s Lab is more than just courses. Here’s how we can help:

• Workshops for Intensive training
• Speech Improvement and Accent Reduction
• E-Book coming out soon “How to Survive and Thrive as a Community Interpreter”
• Language and Interpreting Assessments

Happy Holidays

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 can be a challenge. Without a forum to meet, share and learn, interpreters are left to their own resources. And for interpreters that are new to the field, the learning can be tough.

If you don’t know what you don’t know, where do you start?

The Interpreter’s Lab was created for just that purpose, as a gathering and sharing place for new, practicing or want-to-be interpreters. Sharing is the best!

Over the years, and there have been many years (in fact almost 30 years of experience here) we have learned a thing or two (or 3) and we want to share those with you.

Did you know that you belong to one of the largest, fastest, growing sector worldwide? The Language Industry is said to reach $47USD billion in 2018 and $56USD billion in 2021. So, why are you not feeling it? Well, a few reasons, some are out of your control (but we are working on it) and some are in your control. So, let’s work with what we can.

So, what are the 3 key mistakes that interpreters make? Well, we would categorize them this way:

1. Equating loyalty with exclusion
2. Thinking that profits and compassion don’t mix
3. Working aimlessly or aimlessly working

1. Equating loyalty with exclusivity
Interpreters are freelancers – that means you are your own boss. You can do what you wish, while you maintain your professional and contractual obligations. Are you only signed up with 1 agency? WHY?There are so many out there. Spread yourself out, sign up with as many agencies as you want. If you don’t like their practices, drop them. But if you do, now you have access to more work.

2. Thinking that profits and compassion don’t mix
We can be nice, and yet still think about the bottom line. Interpreting is a helping profession, for sure, but you are not a volunteer, nor a social worker. Working within your role and professional boundaries allows, in fact encourages you, to also think about the money. Where is it? How do you get it? Negotiate like a business person, not a volunteer. You are selling a service after all.

3. Working aimlessly or aimlessly working
How many of you are just taking in assignments as they come, not really taking charge of your career path? I would bet that many of you came into this industry thinking “I can make a little bit of money here” and are pretty passive about how that money comes. Well, like I said before the Language Industry is said to reach $47USD billion in 2018 and $56USD billion in 2021 – that means that there is money somewhere. Set some goals, learn more, expand your scope of where or how or for whom you want to work, aim at a goal and see what results.

At The Interpreter’s Lab, we love to teach not only core skills, but also all the exciting other stuff that helps interpreters grow, professionally and personally. There are, of course, other strategies for interpreters to grow their business. We hope that you will come back and continue reading this blog space – learn more and “Be a Better Interpreter.”

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 list of other specialists and authorities. And yet, this mutual arrangement is not always acknowledged. Interpreters are often seen as ad-hoc language aides that come as needed and leave when they are no longer required. This short-term presence can have some long-term effects.
​
Frequently the conversation is about interpreters’ work in mental health settings, and less about interpreters’ own mental health status and, more importantly, what we, as the community of educators, service providers and advocates, can do to ensure better support and responsiveness to interpreters’ needs. We teach interpreters the required skills and provide the necessary education that admits them to work in complex care settings so that they can serve as critical communication links, but we must also recognize the impact that working in these settings may have on the practitioner’s own mental health, and not expect them to endure, unaffected by what they experience. Interpreters have shared that even 4, 5, 6 years after an assignment, they are still haunted by the events of the appointment.

The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is an unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet.
Rachel Remen, MD (1996)

Community interpreters experience a daily mix of scenarios and settings. They are chanced with working alongside a wide-ranging medley of clinicians, professionals, personnel, clients, and the associated family and friends. Their day may include visiting an immigration detention centre, attending at a domestic violence investigation at the police station, or at a ministry office for a financial assistance application, or perhaps an end-of-life discussion at the palliative care ward, or a visit to the emergency room for a patient experiencing a psychotic episode, who has been strapped to a bed. And what happens after each of these events? The professional in attendance, the other professional that is, signs the appointment form to confirm the interpreter’s presence. The interpreter gets into their car and travels to the next appointment. At the end of their day, they go home, take on their familial role, and try to ignore the people that they became, the experiences that they had, and the vicarious emotions that they experienced.

To honour a professional tenet of confidentiality, interpreters are not permitted to divulge any appointment-specific information, and this is correct. But somehow breaking confidentiality has become synonymous with not speaking at all, and that is wrong. A part of any competent professional practice is the facility to debrief, to check in, to learn and to heal. Interpreter’s work alongside professionals who have — embedded in their own professional training and education, or as a service provided by their employers — trade unions, professional memberships and networks, as well as education and training on resilience, self-care, understanding trauma and vicarious trauma, professional boundaries, and strategies to promote mental health and wellness. What about freelance interpreters?

Interpreting is an exciting, dynamic job done by passionate people (as an interpreter once said to me, “This thing that started out as just a small thought, has become a whole new career.”) While interpreters are driven to this mandate by having the right qualities to do the job, we must also provide them with the necessary foundation and healing space to continue.

Angela Sasso

December 2017

Tags:

mental health care interpreting

interpreters

medical interpreters

community interpreting

healthcare interpreting

cross cultural mental healht

interpreters’ self care

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 asked to present the opening plenary at the 6th International Translation and Interpreting Conference in Spain, at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. The presentation text has been posted on the Critical Link International website and can be found here. Also while in Spain, I was asked to be a panel member at the 6th Career Guidance Conference of the Bachelor’s Degree in Translation and Interpreting at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellon de la Plana. Speakers from across the EU and the UK were asked to present and provide the hopeful, and soon-to-be, graduates with some insight and overview of a field in motion.

My final, and yet most inspiring event this spring was the ISO TC37 meetings in Vienna. As a committee member on ISO TC37: Terminology and other language and content resources since 2010 – providing content matter expertise in the development of international standards – I am fortunate to be involved in the development of international standards that apply to our industry. In 2014, the first set of ISO standards were published as guidance standards for Community Interpreting – the ISO 13611:2014 Interpreting – Guidelines for Community Interpreting (many of you may have already read our previous posts on this standard). The ISO 13611 opened the door to the development of other standards and currently the ISO TC37 Working Groups are working on standards for interpreting in health care and in legal settings, among other specializations. As a member of the project team for the health care standards, I hope to learn, as much as consult, on these very important standards. More news as it develops.

Some of you may be asking, “What does this all have to do with me and the interpreting work I do here in British Columbia?” Well, it has a lot to do with it because these international standards form the foundation for training, certification, accreditation and working conditions. So ultimately, they are critically important for all interpreters – those working casually or formally. And standards provide us with an opportunity to unite in a common vision for our profession. The more you know, the better informed you are to advance in your field.

We have a lot of new and exciting projects coming up at The Lab so stay informed. Visit us online www.interpreterslab.org or on Facebook.

Industry Updates

The National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), a US-based organization, recently created a wonderful resource for all interpreters on advocating for the profession. Titled Advocacy 101 for Interpreters and Translators, this resource primarily speaks to interpreters and translators in the US, where different systems exist. However, the key points and lobbying ideas are transferable to Canada and provide some fundamental learnings about advocacy and lobbying. It is a valuable tool and can be found on the NAJIT site or by selecting it here: Advocacy 101

Are we in a growing industry?

Take a look at this interesting blog on the Leading with Languages website. While the article cites US-based workforce statistics, you can be assured that the interpreting and translation industry is growing in Canada as well.

Interpreting or Translating: Do you have a preference?

Read this interesting blog about one student’s experience at the Universidad de Alcalá

“I went into my master’s program at Spain’s Universidad de Alcalá convinced I wanted to be an interpreter. A year later I was a passionate translator.” You can find that article here

Tags:

community interpreting

interpreters

“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 to Vancouver, Canada to improve your job opportunities. And if that does not work out, you might consider living in Toronto, Canada, or any number of other cities where there is a significant population that speaks Punjabi as a minority language. Community interpreting, “bidirectional interpreting that takes place in communicative settings (2.2.3) among speakers of different languages for the purpose of accessing community services…may involve both private and public services provided by private or public interpreting service providers…[and]… includes, for example, services to tourists and disaster victims.” (ISO13611), is an ebb and flow occupation that tends to parallel global immigration and refugee migration trends. Which means that a community interpreter can experience both an economic drought and a fiscal feast. What if interpreters, instead of waiting for markets to come to them, went to their markets? Or as Silver Keskküla says, “change your coordinates and you might just find yourself out of an employment dislocation situation.”

Read more….
Read the full article online at MutliLingual.com​

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 few questions.

A. Hello Angela, not a problem at all. In fact it is my pleasure.

Q. Can you tell me a bit about the service you provide?

A. As you know, the PLS is the only provincial interpreter services program in Canada and what makes us more unique is the fact that we are a part of BC’s health care system. That means that our standard of service has to meet a high threshold for quality and efficiency. I believe it is imperative that PLS encourages interpreters to acquire the skills and education that is necessary to achieve a certain competency.

Q. Why do you think it is important for interpreters to have training specifically in working in healthcare settings?

A. The importance of using professional, vetted and qualified interpreters in health care cannot be understated. They are essential tools in the delivery of appropriate and accessible health care. The skills involved in interpreting go far beyond those of speaking two or more languages. Just as having two legs doesn’t make one a marathon runner, having two languages doesn’t make one an interpreter. To finish a marathon, training is required and certain techniques are learned, employed and perfected through the training process. Similarly, a professional interpreter possesses learned skills that are developed and perfected through training. The cognitive process of interpreting can indeed be as grueling as a marathon run.

Q. What do you look for when recruiting interpreters?

A. We look for people who are trained, have proven language proficiency in their language pairing and have interpreting experience.

Q. From your experiences, how is the work of interpreters trained to work in healthcare setting different than that of interpreter without that specialized training?

A. A health care encounter is, more often than not, a collaborative encounter in which everyone is on the side of the patient or client getting well. Interpreters with health care training are more confident in their role and fully understand the context and the possible dynamics at play. A trained health care interpreter will know when it is appropriate to sight translate material (patient education material) and when it is not (consent documents). They will understand that sometimes providing cultural context is necessary to achieve positive health outcomes and ensure patient safety. For example, when a health care provider instructs a patient to take medication after every meal, the health care provider is coming from a Canadian context of three meals a day, whereas the patient may be from a cultural context in which tea time is consider a meal and therefore may take the mediation four times a day. A cultural frame must be provided.

“At PLS we strive to only assign mental health appointments to interpreters that have taken the effort to gain that extra education and training.”

Q. What is the feedback you hear from healthcare professionals in terms of the quality of interpreting?

A. Health care providers often comment on the high quality of our interpreters. They have said that PLS interpreters are professional and an important tool in ensuring appropriate and effective patient care. HCP’s are also quick to point when an interpreter does not meet the expected standard. It is important to note that the quality of an interpreter does come through in every encounter.

It is no doubt that the training was helpful in two folds. First of all, interpreters are more familiar with the terms used in the field. Secondly, interpreters are taught how to deal with some common situations in mental health.

PSL Interpreter
2015

Q. What are your views on specialized training for mental health settings or complex care situations?

A. Interpreters that work in mental health are especially challenged to ensure that the message is accurately and faithfully transmitted. This is for many reasons, least of which is the significant role that culture plays in concepts of mental health, mental illness and stigma. In addition to that, mental health issues and the system of care are a complex maze of interactive conditions and factors. At PLS we strive to only assign mental health appointments to interpreters that have taken the effort to gain that extra education and training. It makes a big difference both for the client, the family and the mental health care professional.

Q. Well, we would like to thank you once again for giving us a few minutes of your time and hope that we can talk again in the future.

A. I would love to join you again. Thank you.

Tags:

medical interpreters

community interpreting

mental health care interpreting

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 more understandable that the interpreter’s role in these encounters take on a certain fluidity.”

Although the conventional characterization of the community interpreter is that of a language conduit, healthcare settings have had a significant influence in a redefinition of the role, and considerable research has shifted the lens to broader scope of the interpreter role, one that moves beyond that of message transmission. It can be said that all situations in which interpreters work are intercultural situations and that the dynamics of the intercultural space becomes even more heightened in healthcare settings, where cross-cultural concepts of health are permeated by the often emotional and traumatic circumstances of illness and wellness.

The Oldest Profession

Interpreters have been around for a very long time – perhaps as far back as 2500 BCE according to Yvan Leanza – but did not establish a designated title until the 1950’s, when the Association Internationale d’Interprètes de Conferénces (AIIC) successfully championed the conference interpreter title. Changing migration patterns experienced later in the decade shaped a linguistic and cultural diversity now found within many nations, which in turn fostered the development of new brand of interpreting known as community or public service interpreting.

Community interpreting was initially an ad-hoc response to these changing linguistic and cultural demographics and one that was often found service in family or friends of minority-language speakers, or institutional staff that were thought to have adequate language skills. Even if the language skills were present, for which there was no guarantee, bilingual staff pulled from other duties, or family members asked to assist, can hardly be considered professional language resources.

Interpreters in Healthcare

Community interpreters are generalists that work across public services, but research has shown that the largest consumer of interpreting services is the healthcare sector, which also has a major impact. Interpreters are both active and impartial participants in a communication exchange, because they are contextually situated between 2 or more people that do not share a language, do not share a culture and may also not share an understanding of the system in which they are involved. Nonetheless, community interpreters working in healthcare settings have been expected to maintain role boundaries that tell them to not get involved. In 1999, Joseph Kaufert reported in the journal Anthropology & Medicine on his ground-breaking study Cultural mediation in cancer diagnosis and end of life decision‐making: The experience of Aboriginal patients in Canada, in which he conducted an ethnographical study of 10 cancer patients, through interviews with the patients, their families and care givers and Aboriginal language interpreters and found interpreters claiming that maintaining strict boundaries as an interpreter in healthcare forced them to provide “reductionist or decontextualized explanations of diagnosis and treatment options.” What does this mean for the accuracy of the intended message?

Community interpreters act as both language conduits and as intercultural communicators in healthcare settings as they often must become a part of the process in order to ensure that the intended message is understood. As communication facilitators community interpreters serve a vital role in multicultural, multilingual societies, and moreover, as bilingual and bicultural resources they connect service providers with service users while navigating cross-cultural issues, non-verbal communication and intercultural communication. 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 more understandable that the interpreter’s role in these encounters take on a certain fluidity.

The definition of health varies from culture to culture and region to region. Complex factors such as ethnicity, religion, age, gender, acculturation and migration further influence those definitions. It is not surprising that the healthcare domain is exerting influence on the shifting role of the community interpreter, at least within this venue. The interpreter would not be able to meet the most fundamental element of their mandate of conveying the intent of the embedded meaning as offered by the speaker, if they did not provide some cultural context. Culture in this sense is both the culture of the community and the culture of the healthcare syst≤ ı∫So, how do we begin to understand the interpreter in a healthcare setting? We must start first by having a dialogue on what the role is, engaging practitioners, trainers, service providers and policy makers, in addition to our cultural communities, to come to a common understanding and move forward as a healthcare team. And we must stop putting the interpreter between a rock and a hard place, and focus on the goal of effective communication in interpreter-assisted appointments. As Robert W. Putsch (1985) so succinctly stated, “communication in health care is a complex issue. Language and cultural barriers complicate the situation.”

Angela Sasso – Director. Interpreter’s Lab

Resources

Kaufert, J.M. (1999). Cultural mediation in cancer diagnosis and end of life decision‐making: The experience of Aboriginal patients in Canada, Anthropology & Medicine, 6:3, 405-421.

Leanza, Y. (2005). Roles of community interpreters in pediatrics as seen by interpreters, physicians and researchers. Interpreting, 7(2), 167-167.

Putsch, R.W. (1985). Cross cultural communication, the special case of interpreters in health care. Journal of the American Medical Association. 254(23), 3344 – 3348.

Tags:

healthcare interpreting

interpreters

community interpreting

medical interpreters