Workforce Language Services

InsideNoVa.com recently posted an interesting article about Spanish-speaking court interpreters in Norther Virginia.  The article gave a good overview of the challenges and benefits of entering this field.  While court interpreters generally work on a contract basis, the state General Assembly recently added eight salaried interpreter positions throughout the state. 

An especially important point was made about the role of interpreters:

Interpreters can’t say anything that’s not said in court or on a court document, Luna and Williams said.

“You cannot add or explain anything. That’s not your job,” Luna said.

The interpreters are not lawyers and aren’t supposed to give legal advice, he said.

“The fact is that interpreters cannot operate unless there is a third person present,” Luna said. “It’s not up to you to interact with anybody. You’re not a messenger, not a social worker, not a police officer, not any other category of human being. You’re just a conduit of communication.”

Also noted was the fact that simply speaking two languages (in this case Spanish) is not sufficient to interpret.  Rather, interpreters must be trained to do the work and also have to learn the specific terminology that they will be orally translating. 

There have been plenty of stories about unqualified people being grabbed to interpret on the fly in medical and legal settings that have had dangerous results because of inaccuracies.  The fact that this article treated interpretation as a specialized field and interpreters as skilled practitioners is a step towards legitimizing the field for the public.

To read the full article, click here.