It’s completely understandable that you want to maximize your investment in interpretation and translation services. Here are a few suggestions to help you make the most of your time and the interpreter/translator’s skills.
 Do I need an interpreter?
 You need an interpreter whenever a patient or client requests an interpreter, or whenever you as a provider believe that there may be a breakdown in clear communication between you and your patient or client due to language or cultural differences.
Healthcare providers are required by Federal law to provide language assistance for limited-English speakers if your organization receives federal financial assistance of any kind.
According to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recipients of federal funding may not conduct any of their programs or services in a manner that subjects any person or class of persons to discrimination on the grounds of race, color or national origin. A frequent cause of discrimination of the national origin is the use of ineffective methods of communication between English-speaking staff and persons who, because of their national origin have limited proficiency in English.
Further, the Office for Civil Rights released a Guidance Memorandum in 2000 regarding compliance with Title VI, which serves as clarifier as to what interpreter services are not acceptable for entities to meet its Title VI responsibility.
How do I choose an interpreter?
There are some minimum recommended qualifications an interpreter must meet:
- Mastery of both languages involved.
- Formal training as an interpreter. Just being bi-lingual DOES NOT make a person an interpreter: there are special skills needed. Untrained interpreters are at high risk for giving opinions, changing the message, adding or omitting information, getting involved in conversations with the provider or limited-English speaker, while excluding the other.
- Not a family member. In a healthcare situation, for example, family members are often unfamiliar with medical terminology. They are also prone to adding their own opinions, editing the patient’s message, answering for the patient and possibly compromising confidentiality.
- Never ask a child to provide an interpretation. In addition to the previous concerns, using a child reverses the family role where parents—not children—should be in control. A child may become traumatized in the event of negative news and they also often lack the appropriate vocabulary to accurately express the source information.
How do I work effectively with an interpreter?
Here are some tips to facilitate communication between you and a limited-English-speaker, and maximize the efficiency of the interpreter:
- Speak directly to the patient or client, not to the interpreter
- A professional interpreter will use the first person in interpreting, reflecting exactly what the limited-English speaker said. This allows you to hear the message more accurately and deal with the question or problem posed. For example: “My leg hurts,” instead of, “She says her leg hurts.”
- Speak at an even pace and pause frequently to allow the interpreter to interpret.
- Avoid slang, complicated sentence structures, sentence fragments, changing your idea in the middle of a sentence, and asking multiple questions at one time.
- Be aware that many concepts you express, like idioms, often have no linguistic or conceptual equivalent in other languages. Therefore, the interpreter may have to paint word pictures in order to transmit the message. This may take longer than your original speech.
- Don’t make assumptions about the limited-English speaker’s educational level. The inability to speak English does not necessarily mean lack of education.
- Do not hold the interpreter responsible for what the limited-English speaker says or doesn’t say. The interpreter is just the medium and not the source of the message.
- Acknowledge the interpreter as a professional in communication. Respect his or her role. If you are concerned that an interpreter has not interpreted everything you said, simply ask him/her to do so.
- For those in the field of Law, the Supreme Court of Ohio has published a Bench Card for Judges, “Working with Foreign Language Interpreters in the Courtroom,” that includes several helpful tips here.
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/JCS/interpreterSvcs/benchcard.pdf
Why should I use a professional translator instead of translation software?
If you’re in a tremendous hurry and simply need a basic understanding of content, translation software might be appropriate. However, for communications to clients or patients, or any sort of legal documentation, it is critical to use a professional translator. Otherwise you run the risk of looking inarticulate, making a costly mistake or worse, potentially risking legal liability.
How do I work effectively with a translator?
Here are some tips to facilitate the translation process and reduce the number of revisions required to complete your project:
- Explain the purpose of your text to the translator—is it a business proposal, a speech, a web site, a sales presentation? Understanding how you intend to use the content will help the translator to craft the appropriate tone.
- Be available to provide clarification should your translator need additional information about the intention of a section.
- Save time and money by only having the relevant portions of the text translated. Padding, self-congratulatory text and redundancies are counterproductive to both the translator and the target audience, who is unlikely to care.
- Avoid clichés and other jargon such as cultural metaphors that do not have direct equivalents in other languages.
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