Can non-bilingual people make critiques about Interpreters?

Yadi did some interpreting the other day in a court and got a ton of great feedback about how well she interpreted.  That was really a confidence booster, until you think about the credentials of those who did the evaluation.  None of them spoke any more Spanish than what is needed to order at Taco Bell.

On the other hand, I have heard comments that so-and-so the interpreter isn’t doing a good job interpreting.  Coming from non-biligual folks, I think to myself: “and how do you know that?”

There are several issues, but one of the big ones is that some people expect the interpretation to be about the same as the source language.  For example, the spanish word “tocayo”.  “Tocayo” is used to mean someone who shares the same name you do.  So if my name is James and I meet James Brown at a concert, he is my “tocayo”.  It is different than a namesake, who someone is named after.  There really is no English equivalent that I am aware of.   When in court, we have a defendant explain that “El es mi tocayo”.  In English, there is a little more explaination to state “He has the same name that I do”.  Now on that one phrase, the difference isn’t too great, but as you add a bunch of those together, you could get a big difference.

New FAQ page

Every respectable website has a FAQ.  So not to be outdone, we have posted a FAQ page here.

This FAQ includes the following questions:

What do court interpreters do?
Is simultaneous interpreting difficult?
What does it take to become a competent court interpreter?
What is the difference between interpretation and translation?
What languages are most frequently used?
Is there such a thing as certification for court interpreters?
Where can I find out about federal certification?
What if an interpreter doesn’t know how to translate a word or phrase?
What happens if an interpreter makes a mistake?
Is there a Code of Ethics that court interpreters and translators must follow?
Is there a statutory or constitutional right to an interpreter?
Have cases ever been successfully appealed because of interpreter issues?
How do you study to become a court interpreter?
Does court interpreting pay well?
What kinds of cases do court interpreters do?
Is the work interesting?

So just click on http://www.arkansasinterpreting.com/resources/faq-spanish/ to see all of the answers !!!!