![]() ![]() If you have a hard time keeping your voice down so no one except your client can hear you, then you need to practice, practice, practice. Our “cloak of invisibility” in the simultaneous mode is our volume. Staying off the record is advisable on many levels, and recusing yourself from a case in which you are not familiar with the terminology, or with a particular speaker’s accent and possibly regional variations in language use, is always an honorable and highly ethical alternative. ![]() Or the issue could be a matter of regional variations in language use. For example, if you have a car mechanic as a cooperating witness giving details about the parts of a car that got stripped down in a chop-shop as part of a stolen cars scheme, and you have to keep looking up words in a dictionary or electronic glossary, that is going to shift everyone’s attention to you rather than the witness. One of those issues could be simply a lack of familiarity with the particular subject matter. So, asking one time for a clarification or repetition can certainly be justified and reasonable, but more than once? Perhaps you should be asking yourself if there is some other issue that needs to be addressed. What I mean by that is the requests interpreters often direct to the judge: “Your Honor, may the interpreter ask for a repetition?” “Your Honor, could you please instruct counsel to slow down?” “Your Honor, the interpreter needs to inquire about the meaning of a word the witness is using.” Those little and seemingly innocuous interruptions go on the record as the voice of the INTERPRETER, so the more you interrupt to ask for clarification or repetitions, the more visible you are, both on the record and in the eyes of everyone present in court.įurthermore, judges in particular and attorneys in general are never happy about disruptions during proceedings, whether in court or out of court. Staying off the record is a good rule-of-thumb to start. The best compliment an interpreter can get is, “I didn’t even realize you were interpreting.” But if they don’t, I do a small victory dance inside: “I am invisible!” And I mean everyone: the court security officer, the courtroom deputy clerk, the court reporter, the defense attorneys and the prosecutors. While we are in court waiting for the judge to come out, attorneys will come up to say hello to everyone who is already there. In Puerto Rico, where I have been working for the past 24 years or so, people are very friendly. No one should be paying attention to you at all. An interpreter, however, should be invisible by choice. Of course, the women who cut sugar cane were invisible for many other cultural and sociological reasons, and were not invisible by choice. Something similar happens with interpreters, or should happen, if you’re really good. They were there, but no one saw them because they blended into the general landscape. My master’s thesis was on the “invisible” women who cut sugar cane for a living in Puerto Rico during the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Frequently Asked Questions (Membership).Judiciary Interpreting and Legal Translation Bibliography & Database. ![]()
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