Workforce Language Services

An Arkansas man who was tried for a DUI signed a court waiver translated into Spanish with a very different meaning.  Last February, his lawyer challenged the court’s decision because what he signed wasn’t what the court intended he sign.  How did this happen?  Because of a bad translation, one that was never caught, even though the waiver had been in use for years:

“We all just assumed the waiver was correct,” Rogers lawyer Doug Norwood said. “I did, the judge did, everyone did. Now, come to find out we’ve been stumbling around in the dark for years, and the thing is hideously wrong.” Norwood said the waiver was translated years ago by a court clerk who wasn’t certified by the state, although she spoke Spanish.

The issue is with the word assume.  Many monolingual language speakers simply assume that a document is correctly translated, when in fact, if a certified, qualified translator isn’t used, the exact opposite can be the case.

A certified court interpreter was quoted in the article:

“You would never say ‘crimen’ for a misdemeanor,” Simmons said. “Now, you’re raising a misdemeanor to a felony.” The word “annual,” can be mistranslated to “anus” if an accent mark isn’t placed over the letter “n,” she said. “If all you do is pick up a dictionary or go online to translate, the meaning can be lost,” she said. “A literal translation can mean nothing like what it should.”

To read the complete article, which includes the court’s take on the situation, click here.