ethics

people, man, adult

When an Interpreter’s Ethics are Tested

Lately I have had a couple of difficult cases that tested my ethical professionalism. Case number one. Mr. Gabriel Dominguez (obviously I changed the names or else I would be in trouble for confidentiality issues) had a serious injury on the job which required surgery and extensive therapy. A nurse case manager worked closely and […]

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Liar, Liar. What’s an interpreter to do?

Every once in a while, I find myself interpreting for someone I’m quite sure is packing a pretty good lie. There are the common lies among undocumented workers: the purchased ID, fake names, and Social Security number. When the patient is asked his name, he pauses to remember what it is. When asked for the

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An argument for professional interpreters – False Cognates

It is very common for me to be told “I don’t think that this claimant needs an interpreter. I believe he knows enough English to get by.” I also often hear, “Oh, we don’t need an interpreter because we have someone who knows quite a bit of Spanish.” Of course, as often is the case,

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Managing Stress through Exercise

A while back, I read an article critical of interpreters working in pairs at court. They viewed it as a waste and misuse of tax money to have two interpreters sitting together getting paid to take turns. It was obvious to me that the monolingual writer of the article had absolutely no idea how hard

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Seven Stress-Relieving Benefits Of Journaling

Entrepreneurs like myself tend to be very stressed. There are several reasons why I went into business for myself. First, I took advantage of the opportunity when I perceived it. Second, I love working as an interpreter. Third, I have lost patience working in an incompetent environment. Now I make my own decisions and live

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frustrated black man talking to female psychologist or friend

How do empathetic beings stay unbiased?

I’ll never forget the day I was sitting down with my fiancée and her bridesmaids watching a tragic movie. At the end of the movie, during a heart-wrenching scene, I began to feel the emotion welling up inside. I was about to cry, so instead I burst out in laughter. Needless to say, none of

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ask blackboard chalk board chalkboard

Reasons why you should not hire a qualified professional interpreter.

My contemporaries shamelessly self-promote and provide their own delusional reasons as to why only qualified professional interpreters (themselves) should be hired. How ridiculous is that! They use words such as ethics, standards or worse yet, liability to strong-arm potential clients to use them instead of saving tons of money using Google translate or the extraordinary

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Bad News! The nurse case manager.

Just like doctors, nurses have a code of ethics. They are advocates for the patient. Their goal is to help the patient recover. Case managers work for the insurance company. They are somewhat like mediators for the insurance company. They coordinate all the services the patient will need, a vital service for recovery. They help

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Confirming Calls

Some of our clients will send us an e-mail with the name of the claimant and his contact info and saying “please take care of it.” I know what that means. It means that our company needs to contact the patient and get whatever information that is lacking in order to bill the case. It

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A thumb is not a toe! II

The telephonic interpretation described in the previous blog was a big mess! Some very basic Spanish was interpreted incorrectly. A thumb is not a toe! Let me clarify.  I strongly believe that telephonic interpreting is very important. In fact, under certain circumstances, it might be the only way to provide a badly needed interpreter.  No

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