I just couldn’t resist inviting Tony Rosado onto the blog again (see below for more), with this fantastic post he has written about judges working with court interpreters. It’s also great advice for all those lawyers and judges reading who might not realize what they’re doing wrong! Tony blogs over at The Professional Interpreter in English and Spanish, and as well as being a qualified attorney, has been a freelance interpreter for almost 30 years. He runs Rosado Professional Solutions in Chicago.
Tag Archives: court interpreting
Stop press – Official forum to collect evidence on UK court interpreting scandal
The ongoing scandal in the UK relating to the outsourcing of court interpreting services to Applied Language Solutions/Capita (see this post) reached the Parliamentary select committee last week, which can watched online at: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=11582
The Justice Committee has launched a call for evidence as an online forum (kudos for being so up-to-date!) but it will close in two days, on 2 November 2012.
Monterey offers 5-day course in court interpreting (2013)
The well-known Monterey Institute of International Studies is offering a 5-day course, details of which can be found below. I’m sure that many of you will have heard of the eminent Holly Mikkelson. Monterey also runs translation courses regularly. My only regret for those of us outside the US is that they don’t run more courses that can be attended online.
Japanese court interpreters under pressure
I recently saw an article in the online newspaper The Japan Times that I thought might interest you. Prosecutors in Japan have started video-recording interrogations. Those readers that have done recorded depositions (for example for American lawyers) will be familiar with the added stress, but in this case, due to camera directions, there is also a possibility that the interpreter’s face will appear in the video.
The article discusses how the interpreters are having sleeping problems and are obviously even more concerned than usual about any possible inaccuracies. The move to record interrogations followed a cover-up in Osaka and an evidence-tampering scandal. The recordings are not yet used in every case, but are common for special investigations and cases leading to a lay judge trial (see this post for details about Professor Okawara and Professor Hotta’s projects involving the new lay judge system).
Court interpreters, have you ever been recorded? Lawyers, if you have been involved in a recorded session with an interpreter, how did you handle it?
By the way, WordPress had a funny moment this morning. It published half of a post on the Brussels Translation Days which is due out tomorrow. Sorry if you were sent it by mistake.
Life as a rural court interpreter
Today’s guest post is by Kathleen Shelly, a Spanish/English certified court interpreter and translator working in Delaware and Maryland in the United States. It was also published last week by NAJIT (the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators), of which Kathleen is a highly respected and senior member.
Colonial ruling
It is an honour for me to introduce today’s guest post, by a man who has practiced as an attorney in two languages, taught legal English at a prestigious law faculty, and had wide experience of court interpreting and depositions – Jonathan Goldberg.
He also co-authors a highly erudite and multifaceted French/English blog called Le mot juste en anglais.
Applied Language Solutions – finally, something is to be done (hopefully)
Until now I have resisted the temptation to write about the British Applied Language Solutions / Ministry of Justice court interpreting contract – I felt that so many others had said all there was to say. For a tongue-in-cheek account, see Rainy London Translations’ post which contains lots of interesting links.
However, today, when I saw two tweets, I just had to put pen to blog, as it were.
Canadian radio show discusses court interpreting
Babel, a new show on the Canadian radio station CBC Radio One hosted by an Argentinian with a passion for languages “explores the impact of diversity, technology, and community on Canadian English”.
This 28-minute episode of the show discusses a variety of language-related topics including multilingual families, court interpreting, medical interpretation and forensic linguistics.
From Words to Deeds: translation & the law 
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