Sacagawea, Wyoming, and Rye

90% of blogging is showing up on the page, right? Well, let’s mark this weekend as a complete blog-failure and start the week with a nice round-up of news. But happily, translators and interpreters have been making headlines even while I couldn’t make it to my desk, so we’ve got a pile of things to think about.

For instance, France. We all like thinking about France, don’t we? HikerDude and Susan each pointed me at the fact that a Versailles court imposed a large fine on GE Medical Systems under the Toubon law. The company has three month to translate all past documents, and other multinationals are expected to scramble for translators. Happily, English into French is a fairly common combination. I’d hate to think of the impact of that sort of ruling on a rarer language!

The Daily India engages in some client education and discusses the multilingual environment in that great country. I love the first question they set: “Is the translator capable?” – that’s an important issue, because anyone can hang out their shingle as translators. And some of us are rather more professional and – well, capable – than others, as any project manager will tell you.

Hospital interpreting is making news in Wyoming, where a combination of trained community interpreters, such as Louisa Garcia, and a phone interpreting service offered by AT&T make it possible to communicate with patients for whom English is not a comfortable medium. I’m a bit miffed at the phrasing of the article, though. The reporter said that “The phone is an important tool for the hospital, but whenever possible, real people are brought in.” – Do they think the phone interpreters aren’t real? – but other than that small quibble, I’m delighted to see that at least in that Wyoming, a lack language skills won’t be a death sentence.

The phone interpreting solution has also made it to Kansas City, where the police tip line (a.k.a. TIPS) now accepts leads in all languages. Go, Kansas City!

In Rye, New York, one stop away from my most-visited-in-the-U.S. train station, there is an interesting need for interpreters who speak Romanian and Georgian (not the Southern Dialect characterized by a hospitable attitude and very sweet tea, the one from the Republic of Georgia). There are two sixth graders who’ll be needing help on a math test. I’m glad they’re not using the parents, and indeed, hiring interpreters is better than forcing the parents into the classroom. I wonder how this ad hit the papers, though. I didn’t see any district-hired Spanish interpreters helping out my daughter’s classmate last year... ...let’s just file it under things that make me go hmmm.

Last for today, a colleague of ours is honored as part of the Women’s History Month. Mentioning Sacagawea always makes me wonder about just how consensual her interpretation gig with Lewis and Clark was. The importance of her role is in no doubt, though, and women have been making do with whatever situations we are dealt since, well, since forever. Sacagawea, at least, gets honor and acclaim for it, and that’s a good thing in herstory.

Having alienated half of the human race with the last word in the previous sentence, I’ll sign off for today. Be good; consult your dictionaries; and stop by here for another entry tomorrow...

Edited to add: Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Someone sent me this link to a short but sweet video of how to fold a shirt. Later, Someone and I spent several minutes trying to do so. I think we need a translation!