November 3,
2005
The News-Herald
7085 Mentor Avenue
Willoughby, OH 44094
Fax: 440-975-2293
Dear Editor:
I am writing on behalf of the National Association of Judiciary
Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), a professional court language
interpreter association. Our Association exists to foster a
professional attitude, ethical behavior, and high levels of
competence among our members and by all practitioners of our
profession.
We were gratified, as we always are, to notice the interest your
paper showed in our profession when you published “Accused no longer
lost in translation” in your web edition of October 30 of this year.
However, some of the statements and actions portrayed in the article
dismayed us. We hope you will permit us to clear up a few apparent
misunderstandings of our profession.
- First, there are no “court-certified interpreters” in Ohio.
Interpreters can be certified by the Federal courts, or by the
States. Ohio has no certification program at this writing, although
one is being formed under the auspices of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Ohio is a member of the Consortium for State Court Interpreter
Certification, sponsored by the National Center for State Courts.
Ohio recognizes the certification of interpreters certified by any
of the 34 Consortium states.
To the best of our knowledge, there only 5 consortium-certified
interpreters practicing in Ohio as of this date.
- It takes much more than fluency in two languages to make a
competent court interpreter, and more than twelve weeks of training.
Court interpreters are required to understand and speak legal
jargon, street argot, slang, formal English and target language, and
several dialects of the target language. In simultaneous
interpreting, often required for court proceedings, the interpreter
must listen to the source language, understand it, render the
concept in the target language, and utter the target language, all
within a lag of a few seconds.
- Court interpreters, those belonging to professional associations
such as NAJIT as well as those certified by Consortium states,
subscribe to and adhere to a code of ethics that requires, among
other things, strict avoidance of conflict of interest, strict
confidentiality, and strict impartiality. Quite aside from questions
of competence, ethical considerations should prevent probation
officers, court clerks, and family members from interpreting in
court. And no interpreter should be commenting outside court on his
interpreting subjects.
- We don’t believe that court interpreters “charge an average of $75
an hour” in any jurisdiction with which we are familiar. One of our
members suggests that perhaps what is being reported is the fee
charged by a language service company for an individual’s services.
- In any case, we are troubled by the suggestion that some
jurisdictions are charging defendants for interpreting services.
This seems to us to run dangerously close to a violation of Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or possibly of Executive Order
13166. Both of these require agencies that receive federal funds to
provide their services without discriminating with respect to
national origin (and thus with respect to language). We hope that
these jurisdictions have consulted legal counsel.
We encourage anyone interested in the profession of legal
interpreting to inquire further at the following websites:
http://najit.org/ NAJIT
http://ccio.org/ Community
and Court Interpreters of the Ohio Valley
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/Judicial_and_Court_Services/interpreter_svcs/default.asp
Supreme Court of Ohio Interpreter Services Program
Sincerely yours,
Alexander Rainof, Ph.D.
Chair, Board of Directors
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