Ask!
I recently went to the hospital to have a minor surgical procedure. After I was prepped and ready to go into the OR an anesthesiologist came in to introduce herself. “How long have you been doing this, I asked? And how many times have you worked with this surgeon doing this procedure?” She looked stunned. Insulted even..and then looked at my chart. “Ohhhhh, you also questioned the Dr as to how many times he has performed this procedure,…interesting!” Interesting? – Why wouldn’t I ask about the background of someone that was ready to do a surgical procedure or the background of someone that was going to ‘put me to sleep’?…evidently not many do……..
By now everyone has seen the footage of the so-called “Sign Language Interpreter” standing next to the leaders of the world at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. He is making jerky gestures. He is totally expressionless. The gestures he does make are few. You don’t need to be a linguist to know that there is no interpreting going on here. The deaf population in South Africa commenced the outrage; they had no access to the service. The outrage continued as the international deaf communities and professional interpreting organizations proclaimed this man a fraud.
However the news got scarier. This was not just a case where someone with no training as an Interpreter attempted to ‘interpret’ on a world stage. This man had a record. A criminal record. Murder allegations. Admittedly a schizophrenic. And he stood inches away from our President. And many other heads of state.
The world wanted to know “WHO hired him?..was he hired or a volunteer?…who put him that close to world dignitaries?”…….
Ten years ago I wrote down a list of values, ethics and mandates for Empire Interpreting Service. Before I hired my first Interpreter. Before I booked my first assignment. Most of those were based on what I saw not happening in our industry. The first two were:
– All Interpreters must be screened for proficiency and show proof of formal education in linguistics.
– All Interpreters would have criminal and sex offender background checks (local, state and national).
It seems simplistic, however unfortunately it is not. There are too many people in our industry, (which is highly unregulated), ‘claiming’ to be professional Interpreters and Translators. And our customers have no way of knowing. This is not excusing what happened in South Africa. This is an explanation of how important it is to have people credentialed. To use a professional language service provider and NOT just the cheapest. We are a growing industry. Others see dollar signs and many open businesses with only money in mind. With no regard for professional standards. And surprisingly no one asks.
If no one asks ‘How many times have you performed this surgery?‘…then they probably aren’t asking ‘Is this Interpreter credentialed? …do they have a criminal record’…etc.
Please!! Ask!
Empire Interpreting 