Friday, January 28, 2011

Getting a new start

It's not easy to begin again.  It is common for refugees to arrive in the United States with only one bag of possessions.  Often their credentials and degrees from other countries do not transfer to our American system, and they are left with difficult choices about how they will work to support their family. 

Samuel "El Hag" Albino was once
a professor in Egypt.  He now works
as a CCME Language Partners
interpreter and a case manager
at Community Counseling Center.
(Image Source:Portland Press Herald)

Recently many of our interpreters participated in a job fair, aimed at solving this very problem.  Sometimes the most difficult barrier is just getting to know the right people.  Catholic Charities Maine and other community partners worked to organize an event where qualified refugees and immigrants could meet and network with industry leaders.  This event was the first of its kind. 


I'm excited about this new endeavor.  We're amazed daily at Catholic Charities Language Partners by the background and experience of our interpreters.  We have among our staff doctors, professors, nurses, architects, and engineers.  It is an honor to offer our positions as interpreters as a means for our staff to move back to the professional credentials they once had. As we all know, sometimes getting the right job is as much about who you know as what you know.  And getting to know these sorts of highly skilled refugeees is one of the perks of my job.  I'm glad that these industry leaders got the chance as well.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

It's more than being bilingual

Boston University's news outlet, BU Today, published an article about their professional interpreter training program and the role of interpreters in the hospitals and courts today .


Years ago, I enrolled at this same Boston University program because I knew that interpreting is more than being bilingual.  So many times, lives literally hang on the turn of our words; I wanted to be sure I was getting it right.  I remember my assessment test, and how my palms sweated--"Am I good enough to become an interpreter?" 


Today language testing is becoming standard practice among professional interpreters.  It is not enough to be bilingual, we have to know nuances and double-meanings, slang and technical jargon.  Every interpreter will tell you that's one of the things that makes our job fun--we never stop learning! 


As a user of interpreter services, stop to ask if your interpreter is language tested (and ask to see a copy of the results!).  Or work with a company like Catholic Charities Language Partners that provides a guarantee of quality screening and credentials.  If you are interested in learning more about interpreter credentialling, you can contact Language Access for New Americans (LANA), who is leading the movement in Maine towards more rigorous interpreter quality standards.


Yes, until we achieve state and national licensing of interpreters it will be cumbersome to check the credentials of every interpreter you use.  However, lives hang in the balance, and interpreting is more than being bilingual.

Friday, January 21, 2011

"Neither snow nor rain nor..."


Walaa Al Dabbagh


On December 27th, Maine was struck with a fierce blizzard. Some offices even began issuing cancellation notices the day before. The morning of the blizzard, while the rest of the state was still sleeping soundly, blanketed with over a foot of snow, Walaa Al Dabbagh went above and beyond the call of duty. She awoke early and began digging out her car. Scheduled to interpret for a surgery at 6:30am that morning, she called Malvina at 6:35am to tell her that she was very very sorry, she was going to be a few minutes late to her appointment. She arrived only 10 minutes late and then when she got there interpreted for not one, but two patients who needed interpreters that morning. A gold medal for reliability!

Thank you Walaa! On that snowy morning and every day, you are always a paragon of responsibility and dedication to the field. We thank you for all your hard work.

Walaa has earned herself a chance to win a registration for the IMIA Annual Conference this fall, and a Catholic Charities Maine messenger bag to carry her planner, dictionaries, and timesheets!

And a thank you to all of you who venture out in these snowy months, second only to the U.S. Postal Service are the Catholic Charities Interpreters! :)