Speaker 1: We're a non-for-profit organization, we're based in London, Ontario, but our catchment area goes really, really far. And so I, this is our mission statement, just an FYI, just for you to have an idea of what a cross-language does. We provide interpretation services, we also do training and professional development of interpreters. We do testing, province-wide, we also do translation and intercultural communication training and consulting. Now, it is important, before we say anything else, to make a difference between translation and interpretation. A lot of people use those two words interchangeably, but they really are not. Translation is everything that refers to mixed words, so it would be documents, and your original would be a written document, and your output would be a written document as well. For interpretation, it's everything spoken, it's words. So that's the part that I'm going to be discussing with you today. These are some of our languages of service, our cross-languages, and these are some of our clients. So, this would be the question then. I need to communicate with my culturally and linguistically diverse clients. Are all interpreters the same? What do you think? Why?

Speaker 2: There could be different levels of things that the interpretation is needed for. From everyday things to medical needs. Exactly.

Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. Different levels. Absolutely. So, number one, I would like to say that professional interpreters, which is what we do, what our cross-languages specialize in, professional interpretation, interpreters who receive professional training are less likely to commit errors that are of consequences, serious consequences in the life of the individual that receives the interpretation. I am talking specifically about one study that was conducted in the United States where it looked at emergency rooms, different emergency rooms over the period of 30 months, and they had a look at clients who received interpretation done by what they referred to as ad hoc interpreters, that is family members, friends, or just somebody who happened to speak the language, and a professional interpreter. And the result of that study pointed to the fact that it is really the training of an interpreter that makes the difference. It's not the years of experience. Somebody could say, I've been an interpreter for 25 years, but have they received any professional training? And that's what makes the difference. And the indicator was 100 hours of training as minimum to make a big difference in the interpretation and potential consequences, potential mistakes. So when we talk about untrained or volunteers, we say, no thanks. And I do want to recognize people who, out of their heart, because they are bilingual, go and help. And when somebody is in need, go and interpret for them, because I think it's a valuable thing to give back to our community when we have that skill. But when it comes to serious things, when it comes to going to the hospital, when it comes to elements that will carry consequences for that individual, it would always be advisable to have a professional interpreter. Always. When we talk about a bilingual person, that bilingual person could say, yes, I speak that language, but are they really that fluent in that language? Are they, when they interpret, are they accurate? Are they really saying everything exactly the way that they said by the other individual? And are they taking sides? When we, when experience has shown across languages that when we deal with family members who are interpreting, they tend to take sides because they have a vested interest. If I am interpreting for my mom, I want, I have something important there for me. It's my mom. And people tend to change information, maybe filter information, and there's always the element of, well, what if I don't know that word or the term? Maybe I'll skip it. Maybe I'll just go around it. And a professional interpreter would not do that. Professional interpreters are definitely not walking dictionaries. There will be words always that they won't know. There will be terminology they're not familiar with. But they're trained. Their techniques will allow for them to indicate to you that they don't know. Can you please rephrase? Can you please explain that? Is it okay if I present it like this? We know that certain languages don't have a perfect equivalent for terms in English. And so the interpreter, in their training, would have understood how to present it to you so that you decide whether that's an appropriate way to express that in the other language or not. That's the difference interpreters make. So these are just some testimonials of some clients of ours. As I said, I do want to recognize people who do it out of their heart but do not have professional training. But the huge difference is when there's a professional interpreter. So when you have a professional interpreter, this is what you can expect. A professional will interpret as accurately as possible everything said in the encounter. And when I say everything, I mean everything. If there are, if there's a husband and a wife in that meeting or if there's a family and the mom or the dad goes, something like that, and the interpreter hears it, the interpreter will interpret that as well. Everything you can interpret. Absolutely everything. If there's a conversation between a nurse and a doctor, the interpreter will interpret that. There's no filtering at all. As for clarification, as I mentioned, if the interpreter doesn't understand, everything the interpreter hears and sees is confidential. There is not a single thing that will come out of that meeting, outside of that meeting, even with that same individual. So say, for example, I interpret for somebody in the morning and they go to the hospital. I interpret everything for them for two hours and I see them again in the afternoon at a different location. I won't discuss anything of what happened in the morning. They could be telling a completely different story. Completely different from what they said in the morning. I will interpret exactly as they say. Okay? And keep from getting involved in the situation. So the interpreter will try to not make eye contact with the individual, or with you for that matter, and will not take sides in any way. They will avoid any type of close contact with that person because, and particularly for non-English speakers, sometimes when we, as interpreters, see non-English speakers on location, we are the first person they see in a long time who understands them, who is able to communicate with them. So they see us and the first thing they want to do is side with us, almost hug us. And so the interpreter likely will try to let them know that while they're working, they're not there as their friend, they're there as a professional. Because you want that individual to be, that interpreter to be, completely impartial in that situation. So when should you call for an interpreter? We say, if the person doesn't understand any English, of course it's very clear, you need to call for an interpreter. The difficulty really comes when the person speaks a little bit of English, and thinks they understand, but really they're not understanding. And we hear that from our service providers, that they say, you know, we have this client and we explained everything to them, they said they understand English, and we're just going like this. And we're not really sure whether you're getting the information. So we need somebody, we need an interpreter. We at Acosta, we just provide face-to-face interpretation, that is the interpreter will go to a location, whatever that might be, and also over the phone interpretation. Now, there are some free services that we offer, and it is important for me to mention that to you, if you need to ever use an interpreter. We generally have a fee-for-service program, but we do have some programs that allow, across languages, to provide free services. One of them is a community interpreter access program. Right now, we have partnered with United Way, from both London and Middlesex and Sarnia Lambton, to provide free interpretation services. So all you need to do is call, say I need an interpreter for whatever language, and the interpreter will get sent there. We do have some interpreters in Sarnia, so it might be a local interpreter, but it could also be somebody from London going there. Or over the phone, if it's urgent, if it's an emergency, it could be over the phone as well. And we also have another program, and that's that red brochure that I put on your chairs. All the information is there. So the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and International Trade provides us with funding to provide free interpretation services to women and children who are in situations of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking. Now here in Kitchener-Ryderloo, there is one agency, it's the Kitchener-Ryderloo Multicultural Centre, that would provide the interpreter. It would be a local interpreter, but across languages, would provide it in our catchment area, London and the London region. So all the information is there, our information is there, and their information is there as well. So all you would need to do is call and say, this is a potential client of domestic violence, sexual violence, or human trafficking. It doesn't have to be confirmed. You may just have a feeling that that is the case. That's all we need to know. We won't ask any more questions from that point on. The interpretation service will be provided for free. Okay? And so, sometimes we get asked by service providers, how can I instill upon my client that I need an interpreter? Because they keep saying no. They keep saying no, I understand. Or they're nervous about confidentiality. And we have, over the years, learned that there are three main causes for refusal of a professional interpreter. The first one would be the anxiety about being identified as having a problem or an issue. The second one, confidentiality. And the third one, the clients believe that his or her English proficiency is sufficient to communicate adequately in English. So what we say is, please take the time to talk to your client and explain to them why it is okay to have a professional interpreter. Confidentiality should not be a concern. That interpreter will talk to the community, to anybody about what happened there. Sometimes we say, if that person is being apprehensive about having a local interpreter because they might be from the very same community, you know, they don't know me, what are they going to think about me? We say, well, why don't we call for an out-of-town interpreter? Somebody completely new. They will never see them again. They have never seen them before and they will never see them again. So that's a possibility. And also, if they're concerned about what will happen there, we say, well, why don't you tell your client that you need to make sure you understand, instead of putting it on them because you don't speak English. I need to make sure I understand everything. Put it on you as a sense of pride. Also, we can provide a specific interpreter if that's within the comfort zone of an individual to accept having an interpreter. We can provide a specific interpreter. Now, we do that carefully, I have to say. But we try to honor that request as much as possible. And so I would like to just ask you, do you have any questions? Yes.

Speaker 3: I have a couple of questions if you do not mind. Yes, no problem. First one is, what is the qualification of the interpreters? Yes. And the second one is, who put this together?

Speaker 1: Who put that together? Yes. The qualifications of our interpreters, our cross-language interpreters, they have all been tested through LSAT, which is a test that was recognized by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, and they all undergo 125 hours of training.

Speaker 3: Do they have any academic training as well? They do.

Speaker 1: A lot of them are professionals from... Do they go to a translation school as well? Not all. Some of them have. We do have, because we deal with so many languages, we have interpreters who are professionals in their home countries, so they were physicians or nurses or lawyers, we have diplomats that came to Canada, learned English, or they already spoke English. And so they're the perfect, the ideal candidate to develop their terminology in English, and then ideal for healthcare assignments, for example. We do have in our roster some interpreters who have professional training as interpreters. We do. Who have gone to university. From where? From Canada? Some from Canada, some from other countries that have later on moved to Canada. So it depends. We do assess, we do send the interpreter based on the requirements of that session. So if there's a healthcare request or a legal request, or if it's somebody who has... We have, of course, interpreters that work in different sectors, and so it would be, if somebody works in the domestic violence sector, they would be a prime candidate to go to that kind of assignment. So we try to match it with their request. Now as far as who put that together, that was put together by one of our partners. Under that umbrella of the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, we work with different organizations across the province, and I believe that was put together by one of our sister organizations based in Toronto.

Speaker 3: Do you mind telling me what is Portuguese? Is it really Portuguese?

Speaker 1: Yes, it's Portuguese from the Azores.

Speaker 3: And what is the difference between that and Portuguese?

Speaker 1: The difference is that the dialect is a little bit different. And we have learned that non-English speakers from the Azores speak with a specific accent that at times can be difficult to understand by other Portuguese that are not from around there. So we try to match it. We try to match it as much as possible. It was put there because sometimes we get that request. It has to be somebody. It has to be an interpreter from the Azores, so that there is no dialectal difference. That's why it's there. Yes? Does any of your interpreters work for over 25 hours? Probably. What does the training consist of? The training encompasses many, many things. So we look at theory of our interpretation. We also have skill development activities. So interpreters come to us with a certain level of language. And from there, we need to make sure they develop their techniques for consecutive interpretation, simultaneous interpretation, sight translation. So we work a lot with that. And we also work very closely with our service providers because we give them an orientation to all the different services, not all, but most of the services they're going to be working for. So for example, we go to women's health. We go to London Health Sciences Centre to the Women's Health Clinic. And so they can get an orientation of that specific situation. So they talk to their doctors. They talk to the nurses. They get a tour of the place. They get familiar with all the different procedures there. And just like that, we look at CAS. We look at the legal area, domestic violence, many, many different areas. And we also have practice with experienced interpreters because I am the training coordinator, and I speak a couple of languages, but I certainly don't speak all the languages that I train for. So what we do is we bring experienced interpreters, say for Swahili, if we're training Swahili, to practice with our new interpreter because they are the ones who can give them feedback on their language. I can talk to them about their role. I can talk to them about, you know, whether they're presenting, whether they're sitting, all of that, but I wouldn't be able to give them feedback on their language. So that experienced interpreter does that for us.

Speaker 2: Yes? So I just have a question about the study. You talked about a reluctance on the part of the individual to engage with an interpreter in the process. In the context of migrant farmworkers who are pretty marginalized and precariously here and suffer from extreme isolation and social exclusion, the model of interpretation you described looks objective as the goal. It looks very impersonal, actually, and it might be interpreted by a precarious worker here as a dehumanizing process. The notion of avoiding eye contact with a migrant worker who experiences life in Canada as a consistent train of avoided eyes, this might be problematic with this one population. So how important do you feel that this objective stands? I mean, in terms of not taking a side, agreed, in terms of effective interpretation, but does that require this distance and this lack of connection with the individual?

Speaker 1: What I meant by that is not a complete lack of connection, and what we want to achieve with the interpreter there is that you and your client are able to communicate with one another. What happens when I look at somebody in the eye is that because they understand me, if I am their interpreter, they will build rapport with me. They will want me to provide support to them. So the interpreter, not to say they're rude in any way, but they try to avoid that so that the rapport gets built between the two of you, you and your client. They look to you for support. They look to you for information. The interpreter wouldn't be able to provide that. It's that connection, right? Because we're potentially from the same culture, we speak the same language. I look at them, they'll want me to provide that support, and I'm not there to provide it. So the interpreter has to find a way to stand aside a little bit so that the communication is direct between the other two. That's why.

Speaker 4: Yes? Okay, so let me understand this. There is no regulatory body here in Canada that actually accredits translators slash interpreters? There isn't?

Speaker 1: Well, there is. It depends on what level of interpretation and translation you are looking at. There is the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario, and they certify translators, and they certify certain types of interpreters. For community interpretation, right now, there have been some big movements in that area. For years, there hasn't been. And now the OCCI has assigned this minimum standard that interpreters need to meet. And so now there is a college program for interpreters, and there are all these other interpretation programs that have existed for many years are being grandfathered into that whole new accreditation model. But it's new. It just started.

Speaker 4: And to add to your point, I just feel I used to work as an interpreter back in Perth, Western Australia. I got accreditation, and I've worked with many people, marginalized situations, populations, a lot. I think, personally, empathy is one of the most important. That you cannot be 100% impartial. During the conversation, sides are taken, no matter what. I think as human, we do feel that.

Speaker 1: I fully agree with you. Sometimes I hear from interpreters, they say to me, so I need to become a machine. No, no, no, no, no. We don't want machines interpreting. We want people. And you come with a certain... Values. Exactly. You come with all of that. I cannot impose them on the session. That's the important piece. But absolutely, I agree with you. We need people as interpreters.

Speaker 5: I just wanted to follow up on your comment in the earlier comment. And my experience with the Quest Clinic and volunteering there as an interpreter, translator, and sending my advanced students to do that work. One of the comments that came back was that the migrant workers appreciated the humanness of that individual. Yes, they weren't perfect. None of us are perfect. But the medical situation they were under, the tension they were under because they don't want to be discovered at the clinic by their employer. They don't have their... The tension and anxiety is up here. The fact that they found somebody who cared enough to make that eye contact, that human contact, and actually verbalize what they needed to verbalize, I think is very key in our situation. These people are on the borderlands. Their liminal existence. The humanization is integral. The sociality of it. And I think it's an added pressure on the interpreter.