In March of this year a court date occurred which was supposed to take place on the 16th, but 20 minutes after it started Magisterial District Judge James R. Ferrier decided to stop and reschedule for a further date. Why?

Because rather than hiring a professional interpreter, the court let one of the witnesses’ uncle do the interpretations.

The problem occurred because rather than following Ferrier’s instructions of interpreting word for word what the witness said, the interpreter went beyond relaying and started to explain what his nephew was saying.

Usually courts will not allow anything but professionals to interpret for this exact reason. Most court interpreters are trained exactly for this purpose so that there is no need to explain anything that the witness is saying, thus, preventing complications like this one.

Source: http://republicanherald.com/news/problems-with-interpreter-lead-to-continuance-in-auburn-attempted-homicide-case-1.1315986

If you ever wanted to say hello to someone from everywhere in the world, you would have to be able to say that in at least 2,700 languages. And if you wanted to say this to every person that’s alive, you would be greeting at least 6.5 billion people.

Now, it’s not entirely logical to think that one person could talk to that many people or know that many languages. But interpreters may know many various languages, and may have to greet thousands of people daily. Monterey Language Services alone has interpreters in over 175 languages, enough to say hello to the vast majority of those 6.5 billion people.

Someone could be thinking: Why would it be necessary to be able to say hello in that many different languages? Well, consider someone with a role in customer service. Tourists from other countries still have stuff to buy, so they have to shop in stores here. Nothing is a better greeting than a simple hello in their native language. Also, it even just makes you sound smarter knowing many different languages.

Photo taken from
http://www.mozilla.org/causes/subtitles/?utm_source=gsnippet&utm_content=subtitle&utm_campaign=s010410

Interpreter goes the extra mile for MLB pitcher client.

To expand on the sports post we published last week, we found some interesting information that looked into the life of a baseball interpreter. Most specifically, the relationship between Japanese interpreter, Mike Peters, and his client, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Ryota Igarashi has blossomed into a great friendship.

Professionally, Peters acts as a bridge between Igarashi and the coaches, but he also plays the role of friend and even driver. Unfortunately, Igarashi’s career has taken a turn for the worst when he was sent down to the minor leagues after playing for the New York Mets. He then was traded to the Pittsburg Pirates, released, and eventually picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays. This relationship was strongest when Igarashi was a member of the New York Mets.

When the pitching coach of the Mets would go over the complicated game plan, Peters would frantically write down every detail and translate the notes to Igarashi later. Peters, who is half-Japanese, would teach Igarashi English, find good restaurants in each city the Mets traveled to, and showed him the way through confusing American airports. One time, when Peters couldn’t lead Igarashi through the airport, he texted Igarashi the words to say.

This type of personal relationship between interpreter and client is fairly common and can be beneficial in helping the client assimilate to American culture. It has been said that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn, but with interpreters who go the extra mile, it can make for a smooth transition.

Photo provided by Associated Press

Story and photo found at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576514683404636782.html

A study put on by the Common Sense Advisory found that more translation in Africa could improve economic development, human rights, and even save lives. The study titled “The Need for Translation in Africa” surveyed a total of 364 interpreters and translators for African languages in 49 countries. Combined, these people represented 269 different languages.

269 languages is a large amount, but that only accounts for a little more than 10% of the languages on the continent. Major languages are used by millions of people such as Amharic, Berber, Hausa, Igbo, Oromo, Swahili, and Yoruba, however, across the continent there are over 2000 languages. Problems occur because of the 2000 languages, only 63 are used in the judicial system and around 56 are used in public administration.

Some of the data from the study is as follows:

• 97.14% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help individuals in Africa understand their legal rights.
• 95.85% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help protect human rights in Africa.
• 94.92% of respondents said greater access to translated information would have a positive impact on the collective health of people in Africa.
• 94.87% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help Africans in times of emergency or natural disasters.
• 91.96% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help people in Africa contribute to the political process.
• 88.78% of respondents said greater access to translated information would help prevent international, civil, ethnic, or communal conflict in Africa.
• 63.07% of respondents said greater access to translated information could have prevented the loss of life of Africans in their family or circle of friends.

If you are interested in looking into some data collected here is a link to the study: http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Portals/0/downloads/Africa.pdf

Picture taken from: http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m8/map1.php
Source: http://kontax.com/Greater_Access_to_Translation_Could_Save_Lives_and_Protect_Human_Rights_in_Africa-341-en.html

Look at an event such as the World Cup. The top 32 teams in the world are all gathered in one country, to play a sport that is adorned by hundreds of millions of people. There are obvious language barriers between the countries involved, and also the host country. Without interpreters, these barriers wouldn’t be able to come down, and the event wouldn’t be nearly as successful.

Another sport that constantly uses interpreters is Major League Baseball. Currently, the majority of the league is Latino based. Often, to avoid misinterpretation, players will hire interpreters whenever they have press conferences to announce anything important, such as a player signing or a player retiring. Another strong presence in the MLB is from Japan.  These players always have interpreters when they first come to the league, for they are still assimilating to the American culture while trying to adjust to playing at the highest professional level of baseball.

A third sport that relies on interpreters heavily is basketball. Next to soccer, the NBA is the most global sport. Many of players have been drafted overseas to come to America so that they can have a chance at playing against the best talent in the world. Also, some players leave America to try to find a job playing basketball in other countries. For both situations, interpreters are needed to break down the language gap for these athletes so they can focus on their job as professional basketball players.

Facebook friends can now translate posts in different languages to their default language.

In this era of social media and instant communication, translation has stepped up to meet the needs for the Facebook generation. Most people have some friends on Facebook who speaks more than one language; personally I see posts in Spanish, Italian, French, and Croatian.

Recently, I have noticed a new feature underneath these posts in languages other than English that says “See Translation.” This is a button to click that will automatically translate the above text to English, or whatever default language you may have. I tried this out with a post in Spanish and the results were subpar. Instead of translating the text as a complete sentence, this feature translated every word individually, which can change the understanding of the post.

If I knew someone was translating my Facebook posts from English into a language of their choice, I think it could be unfortunate for them to take the post out of context because of poor translation. This could cause for a strain on a relationship with someone who is a Facebook friend, but may speak a different language.

The benefits are for those trying to learn and practice their vocabulary with a new language. It can be beneficial to follow a celebrity who posts in Spanish with proper vocabulary and translate their posts into English. Another way it can be positive is that these words that were once unknown can at least be given a general idea of what the post is about. Pau Gasol is one person who writes his posts in English followed by the same post in Spanish in order to avoid confusion.

By Sam Pereira

Arnel Valencia is 39 and a village elder in Porac, Pamanga (in the Philippines) He says that during his time in his first-grade classroom his teacher would tell him, “Stop talking like a bird. You should use English or the national language.” The reason for this is because he chose to speak the language he used at home and in his village, which is just one of the Philippine’s 175 native languages.

There are only 3,000 people that speak Ayta Magindi and they live in the hills northwest of Manila. Because so few people speak the language, and people like Valencia’s teacher prefer students speak in English or Tagalog (the native language of Manila) this language has a chance of dying out.

Ayta Magindi is not the only language that could be lost forever, according to the chief anthropologist at the Philippine National Museum, Artemio Barbosa, up to 50 of the country’s minor languages could be lost within 20 years.

Info: http://www.rappler.com/nation/4537-a-long-fight-begins-to-save-philippine-languages
Picture taken from: http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t66996.html

If you stop on a treadmill when it is running, you fall off. If you stop moving forward in life, there is no difference.

This semester I participated in an internship at Monterey Language Services. My learning expectations when going into the internship were to learn how to respond to opportunities.

After my internship, I exceeded my educational expectations. I learned that being proactive is the best way to be successful. It will allow you to start tasks, complete them and if you do them correctly, you will be set up for more in the future. Also, deadlines and quality are vital.

Monterey Language Services has this desire. A need to produce things on time in the best means possible. This is a good strategy to follow for every product or service developed by a company.

Overall my internship at Monterey Language Services has expanded my horizons much more than an in-text education would bring me. It has focused my attention to finding the opportunity in every problem instead of finding the problem in every opportunity.

I now own a company called Interkonnekt where we do social media marketing. This would never have happened without the help of Monterey Language Services giving me the realization and motivation to take action.

Baby steps, one step at a time in the right direction. That is all it takes. Always moving, never stagnant. That is the key to success.

By Matthew Stone

Professional interpreters are extremely important in order to avoid misunderstandings on the job. Amateurs and machines often cannot get the job done correctly.

People in the translation and interpretation business stress the importance of having a professional on site, no matter what the job is. In an everyday conversation using a bilingual friend or relative may be acceptable; however, trouble arises when that relative is put into stressful settings such as a medical, legal, or business situation.

When a professional interpreter is sent to one of these places, not only do they know how to fluently speak the necessary languages, but they are also trained in the specific field. For example, a professional interpreter that gets dispatched to a hospital will know how to say all of the different medicines and terms in both languages. On top of this, they have the knowledge to make the translation smooth and grammatically correct in order to avoid any confusion.

One thing to avoid when looking for precise translations are automated translation machines on the internet; although these are useful for translating short lines of text, more than a sentence may cause confusion. This leaves you with a poorly constructed block of text that is not fit for homework, business, or even a short conversation.

If you want proof, go to one of these websites and enter a large block of text from a book or magazine in English to a different language. After you have received the translated text, re-enter it and switch the languages to translate from the one you chose back into English.

Notice anything different?

~By Greg Will

Interpreters provide the bridge for language barriers to be crossed.

Fact: In order to interact with any person, one must have proper common ground.

Fact: People need social interaction to fully be a part of society.

Fiction: It is difficult to connect with someone of a different language origin.

Even if you don’t believe these to be true, it is still a fascinating concept to think about. Relating this to the world of interpreting and translating, it is safe to say that the role that interpreters provide in society would be similar to the role a bridge provides. Both connect two separate areas (The bridge connecting land mass, while the interpreter connects two separate languages)

There would be no possible way to consider unifying all languages into one. There is simply too much culture and barriers in the way to do this. Also, this seems drastic and extremely unreasonable. This is where an interpreter comes into play. The interpreter allows whoever may be crossing their bridge (whatever language that may be) to effortlessly be able to access the other side of things, helping find the ultimate goal: understanding.

Due to the varying differences of language, the interpreter’s bridge would have many rises and falls, mixed in with some parts that open up and split apart. However, this bridge would be the most elegant and sturdy that could ever exist. This is due to the fact that this world has been formed and shaped based on the varying languages we as a people have.