What we learned as Interpreters in 2014.

Dear Colleagues,

Now that 2014 is coming to an end and we are working towards a fruitful and meaningful 2015, we can look back and assess what we learned during the past 12 months. As interpreters our career is a constant learning experience, and from talking with many of my colleagues, 2014 was no exception. I personally grew up as an interpreter and got to appreciate our profession even more. The year that ends gave me once again the opportunity to work with magnificent interpreters and many of my dearest colleagues.

Our profession had some positive developments this year: IAPTI and ATA held very successful conferences in Athens and Chicago respectively, many colleagues passed the written portion of the United States Federal Court Interpreter exam, the state of Illinois chose quality and rolled out its state court interpreter certification program, there were many opportunities for professional development, some of them very good, including several webinars in different languages and on different topics; we had some important technological advancements that made our life easier, and contrary to the pessimists’ forecast, there was plenty of work and opportunities. Of course not everything was good. Our colleagues in the U.K. continue to fight a war against mediocrity and misdirected greed, colleagues in other European countries, like Spain, are under siege by governments that want to lower the quality of translation and interpreting services in the legal arena to unimaginable levels of incompetence; interpreters around the world faced attempts from special interest groups to erode our profession by lowering professional standards and creating questionable certification programs, and of course, we had the para-interpreters trying to “take over” the market by charging laughable fees under shameful working conditions in exchange for miserable services.

During 2014 I worked with interpreters from many countries and diverse fields of expertise. I was able to learn from, and to share my knowledge and experience with many colleagues dear to me and with some new interpreters and translators. This past year gave me the opportunity to learn many things at the professional conferences I attended, from the interpreting and translation books that I read, and of course working in the booth, the TV stations, the recording studios, and many other venues.

On the personal level, 2014 was a very important year in my life: I met new friends, developed new relationships, realized and learned to appreciate how good some of my old friends are, noticed and understood how I had been taken advantage of and stopped it, and after careful analysis, I reaffirmed my determination to remain a citizen of Chicago by purchasing a beautiful condo in a skyscraper located in the heart of the Magnificent Mile. This year I had the honor and the fortune to present before conference audiences in different continents. During the year that ends I traveled to many professional conferences and workshops, all good and beneficial. Because of their content, and for the impact they had on me, I have to mention the Mexican Translators Organization / International Book Fair (OMT/FIL) conference in Guadalajara, Mexico: a top-quality event, the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators’ (NAJIT) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters’ (IAPTI) Annual Conference in Athens, Greece, and the California Federation of Interpreters (CFI) Annual Conference in Los Angeles, California. My only regret was that for professional obligations I was not able to attend the American Translators Association’s (ATA) Annual Conference in my own town of Chicago. This year that is about to end was filled with professional experiences acquired all over the world as I constantly traveled throughout the year, meeting new colleagues, including one who instantly became one of my dearest friends, and catching up with good friends and colleagues. Now, as I sit before my computer reminiscing and re-living all of these life-enriching experiences, I ask you to share some of your most significant professional moments during this past year.

Great news: Awaited changes for Spanish court interpreting are finally here!

Dear colleagues:

As many of you know, over the last few years there has been a tendency among Latin American countries to switch from their traditional, and much slower, inquisitorial written procedural legal system, based on Roman and Napoleonic Law, to the quicker adversarial oral Common Law system followed by many Anglo-Saxon countries, including the United States. These changes have been difficult and have required a long time. For many decades, and more so within the last twenty five years, many Spanish speaking individuals have been forced to seek the protection and advantages of the American adversarial legal system to assert their rights, exercise their defenses, and create brand new legal obligations. Differences in the two types of systems, and specialized terminology exclusive to them, made it difficult to communicate with accuracy and legal precision complex concepts that are essential to prevail in a contractual situation and in court. It was then that many concepts and terminology were created out of necessity by translators and interpreters in the United States and Latin America. In many cases with plenty of good intentions and in good faith, but without even considering legal figures and concepts. This is how we got the “first generation” of bilingual “legal terminology” born from a linguistic conception without a legal perspective.

Globalization, immigration, and the exchange of goods and services between the United States and Latin America, especially Mexico, brought us a more coherent and consistent terminology and legal doctrine based on comparative law. This made it possible for interpreters and translators (in the United States and Latin America) to work with attorneys and law firms that required an interpreter/translator with a more sophisticated knowledge of the subject matter and correct terminology than a defendant in a criminal case with no formal legal or business background. It is from this point in time that we see translations and hear renditions that make sense to the legally-trained individual, and use the same language and terminology that lay individuals used to hear back in their country of origin.  These terms and legal figures were correct and they could be found in the law; however, they still required of a legal expert interpretation to be correctly matched to their legal counterpart in the other legal system.

Finally this all changed. Due to the tremendous judicial backlog and the need for more transparency in the administration of justice, several Latin American countries decided to reform their procedural legal systems shedding the old written inquisitorial system and replacing it with the faster and more transparent adversarial system where proceedings are oral and open to the public.

There were many that debated the change but Chile and Mexico undertook the greater changes. Chile decided to create a new system based in part on the German legal system. Mexico decided to base its reforms on the legal system of the United States.

Dear friends and colleagues, the journey to an acceptable, accurate and coherent translation and rendition is finally over: On March 5, 2014 Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law the new Federal Code of Criminal Proceedings applicable throughout Mexico.  This new legislation will apply to all criminal proceedings at all levels: local, state, and federal. This new system embraces an adversarial system similar to the one applied in the United States with public and oral hearings, rules of evidence taken from the American legislation and adapted to the Mexican culture, and a sentencing system based on the one used in America. The biggest differences between the Mexican and American systems are found in the trials. Mexico will only have court trials, the U.S. has both: court and jury trials.

These new legislation gives us the equivalent legal figures, procedural stages and terminology necessary to do a precise rendition and an accurate translation. Moreover, by integration, reference and interpretation, all substantive terminology contained in the criminal, civil, constitutional, and administrative legislation will now make it easier for any interpreter or translator to use the correct terminology and legal concepts. This legislation has been analyzed and drafted by legal professionals; it contains all required legal concepts and structures needed to have a coherent product, and creates, just like American legislation, a separate but precise legal terminology derived from legal concepts and not linguistic considerations. Remember, this is not English, this is not Spanish. We are talking about legal English and legal Spanish. In fact, we are referring to American legal English and Mexican legal Spanish. Translators and interpreters will be able to communicate the legal message to their clients without any ambiguities. No more “agreement/ contract/convenio/acuerdo/contrato salad.” We now have the correct legal figures for each situation. This new terminology is the one that the brand new Mexican court interpreters and legal translators are learning and will use during the proceedings down there.

Some of our colleagues may resist this change but it is inevitable. Arguments that the terminology is too technical and their clients will not understand it do not apply anymore. This is the same terminology they will hear in their own countries, at least the overwhelming majority of the litigants who are from Mexico, or have a connection with Mexico.  We have to keep in mind that we have been using a combination of terminology that was never correct and some valid terms that are now obsolete. You cannot continue to say something wrong and make it right by mere repetition. It is also important to remember that good court interpreters should widen their practice, and only those who can be understood will work with Mexican attorneys. Even attorneys and judges from other Spanish speaking countries will favor the Mexican terminology as it is legal terminology and not just a translation with no legal foundation. Those of you who may consider taking the Mexican court interpreter certification (not in place yet) in order to work in court south of the border, and even those of you who may want to do depositions in Mexico will need these new legal terms. This is the time to learn and grow. This is the time to be ahead of the rest and find your place in the new market. Unfortunately, this is also the time to become obsolete and irrelevant.

Although the law is already gone into effect, the new legal system will be fully implemented by 2016 so there is time for all of us to learn and be ready.

For all of these reasons I have been studying the new legislation, and because of my unique position as an attorney who knows both, the American and the Mexican systems, and as an interpreter who has plenty of experience in both systems, I have designed a series of workshops on this subject. I will teach the first two workshops based on this brand-new Mexican legal system in Mexico City on March 29 & 30, and in Guadalajara Mexico on April 5. In the United States I will teach these legal changes for the first time on May 16 as an all-day pre-conference workshop within NAJIT’s annual conference in Las Vegas Nevada. I invite you to attend these or other workshops that I will be teaching on this subject, and I invite your participation and comments on this issue right here on the blog.

What we learned as interpreters in 2013.

Dear Colleagues,

Now that 2013 is coming to an end and we are working towards a fruitful and meaningful 2014, we can look back and assess what we learned during the past 12 months.  As interpreters our career is a constant learning experience, and from talking with many of my colleagues 2013 was no exception. I personally grew up professionally and got to appreciate our profession even more. The year that ends gave me once again the opportunity to work with magnificent interpreters and many of my dearest colleagues.

Our profession had some positive developments this year:  IAPTI held its very successful first conference in London England, Asetrad had a magnificent anniversary event in Toledo Spain, from the evidence so far it looks like the new grading system for the U.S. federal court interpreter certification worked fine, there were many opportunities for professional development, some of them very good, including several webinars in different languages and on different topics; we had some important technological advancements that made our life easier, and contrary to the pessimists’ forecast, there was plenty of work and opportunities. Of course not everything was good.  Our colleagues in the U.K. continue to fight a war against mediocrity and misdirected greed, interpreters around the world faced attempts from special interest groups to erode our profession by lowering professional standards and creating questionable certification programs, and of course, we had the pseudo-interpreters trying to “take over” the market by charging laughable fees under shameful working conditions in exchange for miserable services.

During 2013 I worked with interpreters from many countries and diverse fields of expertise. I was able to learn from, and to share my knowledge and experience with many colleagues dear to me and with some new interpreters and translators.  This past year gave me the opportunity to learn many things at the professional conferences I attended, from the interpretation and translation books first published in 2013 that I read, and of course working in the booth, at the courthouse, the formal dinners, and the recording studio.

This year I had the honor to see how several of my students became federally certified court interpreters in the United States, and I had the fortune to present before conference audiences in different countries.  During the year that ends I traveled to many professional conferences and workshops, all good and beneficial.  Because of their content, and for the impact they had on me, I have to mention the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators’ (NAJIT) Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, the Spanish Association of Translators, Proof-readers and Interpreters’ (ASETRAD) Conference in Toledo, Spain, the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters’ (IAPTI) Annual Conference in London, England, and the Mexican Translators Organization’s (OMT) conference in Guadalajara Mexico where I had the pleasure to attend the magnificent International Book Fair.  My only regret was that for professional obligations I had to cancel my trip to San Antonio Texas to attend the American Translators Association’s (ATA) Annual Conference.  This year that is about to end was filled with professional experiences acquired all over the world as I constantly traveled throughout the year, meeting new colleagues and catching up with good friends. Now, as I sit before my computer reminiscing and re-living all of these life-enriching experiences, I ask you to share some of your most significant professional moments during this past year.

Lo que aprendimos como intérpretes en 2013.

Queridos colegas:

Ahora que 2013 ya casi pasó a la historia y nos encontramos trabajando hacia un 2014 lleno de logros profesionales, podemos analizar lo que aprendimos durante el año que está por concluir.  Como intérpretes, nuestra carrera es una experiencia de aprendizaje constante y después de platicar con muchos de mis colegas me doy cuenta que el 2013 no fue la excepción.  Yo en lo personal crecí profesionalmente y aprendí a valorar más nuestra profesión.  Este año que termina me dio nuevamente la oportunidad de trabajar con intérpretes magníficos y colegas entrañables.

En 2013 nuestra profesión se benefició de algunos cambios positivos:  La IAPTI celebró con gran éxito su primer congreso en Londres Inglaterra, la Asetrad festejó su aniversario a lo grande con un evento fabuloso en Toledo España, por lo que se ha visto hasta este momento parece que el nuevo sistema para calificar los exámenes para la certificación judicial federal en los Estados Unidos funcionó bien; asimismo se ofrecieron muchas oportunidades para el desarrollo profesional académico, algunas de ellas muy buenas, incluyendo varios seminarios web sobre temas diversos y en diferentes idiomas.  Se dieron avances importantes en el mundo de la tecnología que nos facilitaron nuestro trabajo, y a pesar de lo que decían los pesimistas, hubo mucho trabajo y oportunidades. Por supuesto que no todo fue positivo.  Nuestros colegas en el Reino Unido continúan su lucha contra la mediocridad y la ambición malentendida, en muchos lugares del planeta los intérpretes enfrentan las acciones de los grupos con intereses especiales que erosionan nuestra profesión al reducir los estándares profesionales y creando programas de certificación bastante cuestionables; y por supuesto, tuvimos a los supuestos intérpretes intentando “apoderarse” del mercado con su estrategia de cobrar honorarios irrisorios en condiciones de trabajo vergonzosas a cambio de la prestación de un servicio de ínfima calidad.

Durante el 2013 trabajé con intérpretes de muchos países y de diversas disciplinas.  Pude aprender de ellos y también compartir mi experiencia y conocimientos con colegas muy queridos y con nuevos intérpretes y traductores;  El año que termina me dio la oportunidad de aprender nuevas cosas en las conferencias profesionales a las que asistí, en los libros sobre nuestra disciplina que se publicaron este año, y desde luego en la cabina, el juzgado, el banquete y el estudio.

Este año me dio la satisfacción de ver como varios de mis estudiantes obtuvieron su certificación de intérprete judicial federal en los Estados Unidos  y de presentar como ponente en varios países. En 2013 viajé a muchas conferencias profesionales entre las que destacan por su contenido y el impacto que tuvieron en mi persona la conferencia anual de la Asociación Nacional de Intérpretes y Traductores Judiciales de los Estados Unidos (NAJIT) en San Luis, Missouri; la conferencia de la Asociación Española de Traductores, Correctores e Intérpretes (ASETRAD) en Toledo, España; la conferencia anual de la Asociación Internacional de Traductores e Intérpretes Profesionales (IAPTI) en Londres, Inglaterra, y la conferencia anual de la Organización Mexicana de Traductores (OMT) en Guadalajara México que  me permitió deleitarme en la maravillosa Feria Internacional del Libro.  Sólo lamento que por razones de tipo profesional tuve que cancelar mi participación en la Conferencia Anual de la Asociación Americana de Traductores (ATA) en San Antonio Texas.   Este año que termina estuvo colmado de experiencias a nivel profesional que fueron adquiridas en todo el mundo mientras viajaba constantemente durante todo el año, conociendo a nuevos colegas, observando su trabajo y reencontrando a buenos amigos. Ahora, mientras me encuentro frente a mi computadora recordando, y por tanto viviendo nuevamente todas esas experiencias enriquecedoras, les pido a ustedes que compartan con el resto de nosotros algunos de sus momentos más importantes a nivel profesional durante el año pasado.

What we learned as Interpreters in 2012.

Dear Colleagues,

Now that 2012 is history and we are working towards a fruitful and meaningful 2013, we can look back and assess what we learned during the past 12 months.  As interpreters our career is a constant learning experience, and from talking with many of my colleagues 2012 was no exception. I personally grew up professionally and got a new appreciation for our profession. This year that ended gave me once again the opportunity to work with magnificent interpreters and many of my dearest colleagues.

2012 put me in direct contact with interpreters from many countries and diverse fields of expertise. I was able to share my knowledge and experience with many colleagues dear to me and with some new interpreters and translators.  This past year gave me the opportunity to learn many things at the professional conferences I attended, from the interpretation and translation books first published in 2012 that I read, and of course working in the booth, at the courthouse, the formal dinners, and even in open space, literally on the fields, during some livestock, oil, and agriculture events that I interpreted for in 2012.

During my year 2012 I experienced the satisfaction of publishing my first book, to see how several of my students became federally certified court interpreters in the United States, and I had the fortune to present before conferences in different counties.  During this year that ends I traveled to the Mexican Translators’ Organization (OMT) conference in Guadalajara Mexico where I was ecstatic over the magnificent International Book Fair. This year was filled with professional experiences acquired all over the world as I constantly traveled throughout the year, meeting and observing new colleagues and catching up with good friends. Now, as I sit before my computer reminiscing and re-living all of these life-enriching experiences, I ask you to share some of your most significant professional moments during this past year.

Lo que aprendimos como intérpretes en 2012.

Queridos colegas,

Ahora que 2012 ya pasó a la historia y nos encontramos trabajando hacia un 2013 lleno de logros profesionales, podemos analizar en retrospectiva lo que aprendimos el año pasado.  Como intérpretes, nuestra carrera es una experiencia de aprendizaje constante, y después de platicar con muchos de mis colegas me doy cuenta que el 2012 no fue la excepción.  Yo en lo personal crecí profesionalmente y adquirí una nueva apreciación por nuestra profesión.  Este año que terminó me dio nuevamente la oportunidad de trabajar con intérpretes magníficos y colegas entrañables.

El año 2012 me puso en contacto directo con intérpretes de muchos países y de diversas disciplinas.  Me permitió compartir mi experiencia y conocimientos con colegas muy queridos y con nuevos intérpretes y traductores;  El año que terminó me dio la oportunidad de aprender nuevas cosas en las conferencias profesionales a las que asistí, en los libros sobre nuestra disciplina que se publicaron este año, y desde luego en la cabina, el juzgado, el banquete, y hasta en el campo durante un trabajo de ganadería, otro de petroleros y uno más de agricultura para los que interpreté este año 2012.

Mi 2012 me dio la satisfacción de publicar mi primer libro, de ver como varios de mis estudiantes obtuvieron su certificación de intérprete judicial federal en los Estados Unidos,  y de presentar como ponente en varios países. Este año que se extingue me vio viajar a la Conferencia de la Organización Mexicana de Traductores en Guadalajara México y me permitió deleitarme en la maravillosa Feria Internacional del Libro. Este año que termina estuvo colmado de experiencias a nivel profesional que fueron adquiridas en todo el mundo mientras viajaba constantemente durante todo el año, conociendo a nuevos colegas, observando su trabajo y reencontrando a buenos amigos. Ahora, mientras me encuentro frente a mi computadora recordando, y por tanto viviendo nuevamente todas esas experiencias enriquecedoras, les pido a ustedes que compartan con el resto de nosotros algunos de sus momentos más importantes a nivel profesional durante el año pasado.