Addressing issues of Defense & Intelligence; Technology; Employment and Wages
Attempting to break these issues to digestible elements
The Need
Organizations and individuals both need services that are:
accurate
timely
affordable
in every language
Demand for interpretation services is growing and language diversity continually gets more complex
Dynamic
Quality – Need – Capacity
recruit – train – maintain – develop
Challenges
Requests are often very challenging, like getting an albino parrot in Alaska
Reality is that people want the service when they need it
Some interpreters have experience but not necessarily training and may be resistant to new ideas of how to practice (The Maestro)
Also how to monitor interpreters to see if they are providing quality
Provision of interpreting services is complex
The goal
Started with high standards
based on conference and court interpretations
Very high standards – nice, but not very realistic
Reality was that interpretation was provided in a variety of ways, but not with a consistency in quality
Family members doing it
Some trained interpreters
Goal is to have interpreting services that do no harm (The Olive Garden standard ~ not a 5 star meal, but it won’t kill you)
This more realistic goal requires to rethink our approach to training and curriculum
Topics of Defense & Intelligence, Technology, and Employment & Wages are all interrelated
Defense/intelligence needs lead to new technologies; New technology like internet development lead for more need for defense/intelligence to have material interpreted;
Work as a community interpreter in a town of 5,000
Elephant in the room is “What is…” the reality of what we are living through our culture and as a society
Change – our pace of change is one of the three big revolutionary changes
Agricultural revolution – happened over thousands of years Going from hunter/gatherer to settled society
Industrial revolution – happened over 100 years – changed the landscape of human geography
Digital Revolution – 30 years – Most of the interpreting profession leaders are not digital natives (Only 5 people raised their hands that they were in their 20s.)
Interpreting is expected to grow from 42% from 2010 to 220
Will have new job descriptions
Will also have traditional work models
Will need to work in a variety of technology platforms
These changes will happen with or without our involvement and better to have a say in the changes
Our professional associations need to address these issues
How do our ethics and standards apply across these technologies?
sierraskyit@gmail.com (Katharine Allen, MA)
Ms. Melinda Paras, President and CEO, Paras and Associates
Formerly a community organizer
Sea change & what you can do about it
Development of remote interpretation
Based on call-center technology
AT&T as a monopoly with expensive switches
Only one Language line services
Sea change in the field is Voice over IP (VOIP)
Moved away from the telephone line switches
Now happens over Internet Protocol/data line
Now easier to get into the telephone services
Led to competition for language services which has suppressed price
Had a number of small companies that have now been bought up to have smaller number of large companies
What can interpreters/educators do about this picture?
Need to Organize to move from Powerless to Powerful
InterpretAmerica & IMIA – efforts to bring interpreters together to raise standards and have a collective effort
Critical Link conference – organizers of the conference
Political advocacy – efforts to change policy
Purchasers ~ noted Toronto LIHN – have purchasers talk about not the lowest price, but instead “a reasonable price for high quality” Ask for high quality and reasonable price. And best if can band together to purchase in quantity
Quality interpreting is the goal
Experience in California – Organized CEOs of Hospitals – Healthcare Interpreter Network was hospitals working together
Providers can do that
Interpreter services paradigm requires partnership, but important to come to the table with power – and to get power, organizing is required
The more we pursue this in a conscious way, the more power we will have to fight for the quality and will have a reasonable wage that can support a family.
Organize and partner with those who share your values
Partner with those who share your ethics, your goals, and your standards
All the armed forces that have been active in conflict zones have been working with interpreters and are developing expectations of what working with interpreters means from theses conflict zones
Military leaders then become leaders in business, education, finance
As we organize, it is in our interest to understand the lived experiences in those conflict zones so we can reach out and ahve conversation about quality interpretation should be in the institutions where these former military leaders work.
Demand for interpretation services prior to 9/11 was low – Cold War model
Defense Language Institute – train people as “cryptological linguists” focused on Russian
After 9/11 – huge demand for new languages related to Afghanistan/Iraq & northern Africa
US Army does things very quickly and does it on a large scale
Also reached out to native speakers in the countries to provide these services
Initially no quality control or guidance
Call them “terps”
Might have had positive experiences or experiences that they couldn’t trust
Interpreters (many of them) have immigrated to US, Canada, or UK
They also bring their experiences from interpreting in a war zone and their habits need to be adjusted
An interpreter helped translate the Iraqi constitution and is now in California and can’t get a job
Army recruited heritage speakers from US and brought to war zones and paid a lot of money to be paid a lot of stuff
Important Point: Reach out and listen to these groups because they are highly influential for agencies that are consuming interpreter service
US Army figured out that USA doesn’t do language or culture well
USA has an entropy toward monolingualism & monoculturalism
Developed a crashed course in cross-cultural communication workshop in 2 hours
Every soldier was being taught critical survival skills in the language where they are being deployed
Those cross-cultural communication skills can be applied in jobs as managers
Important for all of these people to be a part of the dialogue about quality interpreting services
How to Start Organizing:
Join efforts in existence
Join professional associations ~ volunteers
Push leadership to be more forward thinking
Read outside your profession
Need to find partnership because we can’t do it alone
Dealing with different modes of provision of services
Will be a variety of approaches, still a need for face-to-face
Need to understand the Affordable Care Act in healthcare and the impact that will have on healthcare interpreting
Some hospitals in California have increased staff how are able to use it with remote interpreting so use of remote technologies does not necessarily equate into using “outside” resources
