Thinking about saving money by having your Aunt Betty translate a few simple words for your organization? Really, what could go wrong? Plenty, needless to say. Check out 40 hilarious translation fails from different languages, published on The Language Nerds … Continue reading →
What goes into making an ASL version of a song? Find out in this New York Times story, Making Music Visible: Singing in Sign. The piece describes a performance of Midnight Train to Georgia, the 1970s Gladys Knight and the … Continue reading →
Somewhat to the side of medical translation and interpretation, but interesting nonetheless: here’s a summary of a study on how words commonly used in English to describe disasters might be heard differently by immigrants from other cultures. In Losing cultural … Continue reading →
Seemingly overnight, the COVID era also became the age of the Zoom meeting. But how does that work out for the deaf and hard of hearing? The answer has been, Not very well. For example, you might start out with … Continue reading →
If you thought interpreting was already a fraught exercise, here’s another wrinkle to consider. How to do effective interpreting during sessions intended to test cognitive functioning in children? The American Translators Association takes on this issue in an article, Cognitive … Continue reading →
Here’s an interesting COVID infection control animation from Sanford Medicine that tells patients and caretakers what they need to know without the use of words. Well worth a look for both the information conveyed, and for alternate methods of presenting … Continue reading →
Do patients know what you’re talking about? Especially now, in the scramble to deal with the coronavirus crisis, language access issues can expose patients, interpreters and the broader public to increased risk, according to an analysis in US News and … Continue reading →
Do you have limited-English patients who want answers about the City of Saint Paul’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? A new phone line at 651-266-6000 is staffed with interpreters available to answer questions in Hmong, Karen, Oromo, Somali and Spanish. … Continue reading →
Among the dislocations of the COVID-19 pandemic is the effect on health system interpreters, who are discovering new complexities in the already fraught world of medical interpretation. As revealed in the New York Times story, When Coronavirus Care Gets Lost … Continue reading →
And the answer is … well, no one really knows, according to writer Dan Nosowitz in the online journal Atlas Obscura. “This question, frankly, is a nightmare,” Nosowitz observes. But on his way to leaving the question dangling, he provides … Continue reading →
Wonder sometimes why interpreters seem to be scratching their heads? Watch a group of Spanish speakers struggle to find English equivalents to Spanish expressions in this video from the Pero Like YouTube channel. Part of the BuzzFeed online juggernaut, Pero … Continue reading →
Consider the poem, A une Damoyselle Malade (To a Sick Young Lady), written in 1537 by Clemont Marot for the daughter of a queen. Twenty eight lines, three syllables per line. How complicated can it be to translate from French … Continue reading →
Yet another sign that the future is catching up with us fast: the availability of interpretation devices that fit in your ear and instantly render foreign languages into your own. A recent article in the New York Times, The Latest … Continue reading →
Here’s another item to stuff into your Brave New World file — a hand-held translation device that, according to Bloomberg News, is taking Japan by storm and is also now available in the US. (“Tourists are fueling a boom in … Continue reading →
Here’s an inside look at a skilled interpreter’s complicated work. This video focuses on interpreting in a diplomatic environment as it explains the advantages and pitfalls in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation — but the lessons are broadly applicable to the … Continue reading →
Here’s a conversation starter that will most likely lead to some interesting laughs with your organization’s interpreters and translators. Check out the bi-lingual translation site, Tr-ex, which provides translations for phrases you enter, then shows their use in a sentence. Tr-ex … Continue reading →
Okay, this story about the interpreter who makes the declutter maven Marie Kondo understandable in English might seem a little off track. But here’s the redeeming feature that makes the piece relevant — it’s also full of nuanced description of … Continue reading →
Despite the advances in machine translation that have moved it from the ridiculous to the potentially useful, there remain glitches — particularly in the area of assigning gender, as pointed out in an article in Slator: Language Industry Intelligence. A … Continue reading →
Here’s a interpreting/translation-related lawsuit that could have a major impact on your organization. The case started in 2015 when Houston resident Song Xie was sent home from the hospital with discharge instructions in English that his caretaker son couldn’t read. Song … Continue reading →
What if it was widely understood that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had said, “We will outlast you,” instead of “We will bury you,” in 1956 at the height of the Cold War? What if, days before the atom bomb was … Continue reading →
The topic in this short video isn’t health care — it’s about a new version of The Odyssey rendered by Classicist Dr. Emily Wilson. As the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English, she discovered that many men before … Continue reading →
Of course you’ve been wondering, What are the top ten movies of all time that feature interpreters? Well, wonder no more. That list has now been assembled by the United Kingdom blog, Kwintessential. Take a look here. The top ten … Continue reading →
Have colleagues who are working with interpreters for the first time? Here’s a short video that covers the basics. For old hands, the video’s directives might seem obvious, but for first time users these instructions on seating, sentence length, … Continue reading →
So, that Spanish-speaking patient shows up in the clinic. The doctor believes he or she speaks Spanish well enough to get through the encounter. But is this a case of delusion? Would an interpreter be the better solution? Here’s research … Continue reading →
Though not quite from right down the street, this video series from the University of Glasgow on the complexities of the medical interpreter’s role is unusually well filmed and acted, with nuanced scripts that go beyond the usual easy … Continue reading →