NC Schools Accused of Discriminating Against Hispanics

June 12, 2012

T. Keung Hui

The complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children's Services charges that Wake is violating the civil rights of Hispanic families by not providing them adequate translation services. The complaint asks the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to require North Carolina's largest school system to make changes such as providing documents about suspensions and special education services in Spanish to parents with limited proficiency in English.

"Wake County public schools must end this discrimination and recognize that these students and their parents have the same right as English-speaking students," Caren Short, a staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a written statement. "This is about ensuring every student in the district has the right to succeed."

The two groups had sent a notice to Wake on May 8 warning that they might take action unless the district made changes.

Peggy Nicholson, a staff attorney for Advocates for Children's Services, a project of Legal Aid of N.C., said today that the school system offered to provide translation of documents when requested by families. But she said the groups making the complaint considered that to be too much of a burden to place on the families. 

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By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK — Many doctors-in-training with shaky Spanish skills are willing to discuss medical care with their patients in Spanish — but that may change after they are tested for fluency, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have shown residents often use their subpar second-language skills to talk with patients, the researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics, sometimes with consequences due to misinterpretations.Researchers surveyed 76 pediatric residents and found 64 percent were willing to use Spanish with their patients. That number fell to 51 percent after they were evaluated on their Spanish skills — a difference due to fewer non-proficient speakers using the language after testing.

"Residents are working hard and are possibly less likely to take the extra time to get a professional interpreter," said Dr. Casey Lion, the new study's lead author and a pediatrician at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Lion told Reuters Health she believes doctors may forego getting an interpreter because they want to build a rapport with their patient.

"That's the thing people don't want to give up. They don't want to have to speak through somebody else," she added.

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Translators Hold Critical Role in Court

July 02, 2012 2:30 am  •  BY ALISON GENE SMITH

By the Numbers

2010: 910 hearings in Spanish, 156 in languages other than English or Spanish

2011: 879 hearings in Spanish, 231 in languages other than English or Spanish

TWIN FALLS • Erica De La Rosa is in court nearly every day, but she never speaks for herself.

“We’re not supposed to exist,” she said.

De La Rosa is a court certified Spanish interpreter for Twin Falls County 5th District Court. Interpreters are not lawyers or advocates and don’t give legal advice or even explain to defendants possible outcomes in their case.

“You say what they say,” she said, no matter how shocking or strange it might be, Idaho law requires that courts ensure access to all people, including those with limited English proficiency or those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The courts meet these requirements by developing programs that improve the quality of interpretation and increase the number of qualified interpreters in the courts, according to the Idaho Supreme Court website.

Interpreters are under oath to completely and accurately translate what is said in court to the best of their ability, said Mary Jo Palma, the coordinator for translators in Twin Falls County, and a certified Spanish interpreter.

“If an interpreter becomes aware they’ve made a mistake they’re under obligation to correct it,” Palma said. “If an interpreter is challenged, the judge will rule accordingly.”

One case where an interpreter was questioned is currently making its way through court in Twin Falls County.

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AMA calls for pharmacies to offer interpreter services

Delegates also adopt policy seeking appropriate payment for physicians and others who provide such services.

By PAMELA LEWIS DOLAN, amednews staff. Posted July 2, 2012.

Chicago American Medical Association policy encouraging the use of interpretive services at hospitals that treat a significant number of non-English speaking or hearing-impaired patients has been expanded to include pharmacies.

“The AMA already believes that offering these services is important, and it is clear that understanding medical instructions including, but not limited to, medical dosage and timing are all essential elements in providing health care services,” said Bethany Bush, a regional medical student delegate for the West Virginia State Medical Assn., speaking for the AMA Medical Student Section, which drafted the resolution approved at the organization’s Annual Meeting in June.

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The Translation Industry Interprets 'Recession-Proof'

By Karen E. Klein on July 03, 2012

I’m looking into starting a translation business, but I worry that with online translation services getting better, my company may one day be obsolete. How well do I have to speak another language to do translation, and is the industry considered recession-proof? —submitted online anonymously

If any industries can be considered recession-proof, the field of interpreting and translation may be one, especially as business transactions across borders increase. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reportprojects 42 percent growth in the industry from 2010 to 2020, outpacing average growth for other occupations studied by the BLS. “Employment growth reflects an increasingly diverse U.S. population, which is expected to require more interpreters and translators,” the report states.

“Translation is one of the few industries that has seen minimal impact from the global economic downturn,” says Nataly Kelly, chief research officer with Common Sense Advisory, a Lowell, Mass., market research firm. Areport (PDF) Kelly co-authored last month shows that the market for outsourced language services is $33.5 billion in 2012 and has seen a compound annual growth rate of 12.17 percent. This is a fragmented market composed of more than 26,000 companies around the world, according to her report, which shows that only nine had more than $100 million in 2011 revenue.

Free Web-based translation programs such as Google (GOOG)Translate, have not dented the market for translation services. “Machine translation—especially the free, online kind—serves as an awareness campaign, putting translation in front of the average person,” says Susanne Evens, founder and chief executive of AAA Translation in St. Louis. While automated translation can quickly scan and summarize large bodies of text, reduce cost, and improve consistency, humans will be needed to use it intelligently and proofread the results, at least for the foreseeable future

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In Chile, foreign children's books, translated, open worlds for kids

In Chile, foreign children's books, translated, open worlds for kids

Published 05 July, 2012 11:56:00 PRI's The World

Anne Hansen is the Danish founder of Libro Alegre.

Chile's children's book industry isn't known for light-hearted, fun reads. It's about morality-building and lesson-teaching. So a Dane, who lived in Chile for a time, decided to change that. She's organized a library that receives foreign-language books and then translates them into Spanish.

In Valparaiso, a city on the coast of Chile, a small library is working to introduce local children to a new universe of books.

The library is called Libro Alegre, which means ’Happy Book’ or ‘Cheerful Book.’ It is a happy place, stuffed with dolls, legos, and one of those toy kitchens with plastic food.

First and foremost, though, it’s a library that’s stuffed with stories.

“It truly, genuinely, is a unique collection of books,” said Imogen Mark, a volunteer at Libro Alegr.

Mark is British but has lived in Chile for years. She explained that people donate books, mostly from Scandinavian countries. The books then get translated into Spanish. Finally those translations are printed out and pasted into the books, right over the original Danish or Swedish or English text.

“So they’re recycled books, but they’re books that really don’t exist anywhere else in Chile” she said.

The library is actually in two places now: Most of the books are in the main building, in what you might call the touristy part of Valparaiso, not far from the harbor. There’s also a collection of books high up in the hills above the city, in a poor neighborhood called Montedónico.

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