To better serve our current and future students, the IEO team has developed new educational packages that will come in effect on August 1st of this year. The Advanced and the Basic Courses for Court Interpreters, our two most popular programs, will be offered in a variety of formats. Students will be able to choose among the following packages:

- Materials Only
- Materials Only + Interpretation Performance Assessment Test
- Materials Only + Interpretation Performance Assessment Test + the desired amount of glossaries and interpretation exercises evaluated by instructors

In addition to expanding the selection of training options, the new system will allow us to open our programs in more language-combinations adding to the existing assortment of 11 language combinations.

For more information, please visit the Programs page.

To comply with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Interpreter Certification Program requirements, certified interpreters are obligated to complete 16 continuing education units within the two-year compliance period. Now they can do it online! Please click here for a direct link to PA Court Interpreter requirements.

IEO students are also eligible for continuing education credits in the state of California.

Certified interpreters can choose relevant courses among seven Subject-Matter and three Skill Building Single Topic Units. Each single-Topic Unit is approved for 1.5 PA CEUs and for 3 CA CEUs.

All IEO courses are language-specific! Students will benefit from guidance of Language-Specific Instructors working in the following language pairs: English < > Albanian, Arabic, French, Hmong, German, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Instructions for English < > Korean and Haitian Creole interpreters will be available soon.

Our Advanced course provides comprehensive training and education to aspiring language professionals who are yet to earn their certification. This course supplies 15 CEUs In California and 12.6 in Pennsylvania.

For more information about IEO programs, please visit http://site.interpretereducationonline.com/programs/ or call us at 313-871-0080 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              313-871-0080      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Virtual tours are also available! Request an appointment at curriculum@InterpreterEducationOnline.com .

While the majority of participants were Spanish interpreters, there was a significant growth of language-specific options for other language combinations. Russian interpreters enjoyed Elena Bogdanovich’s pre-conference, day-long, skill building workshop. It was great to learn from a language professional of such caliber! Over ten Russian interpreters came to see our presentation on Courtroom Russian: from Legalese to Ruglish (presented by Jinny Bromberg and Irina Jesionowski). Many participants wished for longer language-specific sessions. “Thank you, I learned a lot from this class! Very, very beneficial. I sincerely hope that NAJIT will continue offering Russian-specific workshops”, wrote one participant in her evaluation form.

Another highlight of the conference for us, Interpreter Education Online representatives, was a chance to meet a few of our students in person. We are very excited for Rosa Bassett, a Spanish interpreter, who passed Florida written exam with flying colors. While taking our Basic Unit course, in addition to her talent for interpretation, she demonstrated a great work ethic and a strong resolve to learn and improve. She earned her success! We wish Rosa all the luck at the oral portion of the examination and in her career!

Maria Weir, a Spanish interpreter working in the Greater Philadelphia area, a board member of Delaware Valley Translators Association, and an IEO student, said, “It was a delight to attend Virginia Valencia’s note-taking and memory developing tricks as well as Agustin de la Mora’s Weightlifting for Court Interpreters. Both presenters were dynamic, entertaining and knowledgeable. They made my trip to the conference!”

Overall variety of presentations and workshops was amazing and it was so difficult to choose which session to attend! While debriefing the conference, Jinny chose Purvi Shah’s presentation, Vicarious Trauma, as the most memorable, and Irina, Melody Kramer’s on a lawyer’s thought process when working with interpreters.

The 31st NAJIT Conference was a great success thanks to our tireless Board and staff members, the Executive Director Robin Lanier and the Administrator Christina Filipovic.

We look forward to seeing everybody again next year in Long Beach, CA, where we are hoping to report on some empirical data regarding online interpreter training.

A recently published study provides us with some very interesting facts regarding issues in healthcare for people with limited English proficiency (LEP’s).

The study presented in April at the American Heart Association’s 10th Scientific Forum on “Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke” in Washington, D.C. seems to show that the survival rate in heart attack victims with limited English proficiency is lower than in those who are fluent in English. Some of the findings of the study are that

• only 50 % of LEP’s compared to 73% of those fluent in English received help from a bystander,
• the time for dispatchers with limited English proficiency to recognize the need for CPR was 33 seconds longer,
• the interval from when a call was made to initializing CPR is 82 seconds longer for LEP callers.

These delays in CPR are considered to be the cause for a survival rate of only 4% in LEP’s compared to 14% in fluent English speakers. The results of this study are horrifying but not necessarily surprising to the interpreting community. Once again they demonstrate the urgent need to invest in language access.

As the Hispanic population in Northampton County, PA is growing, so is the need for more qualified Spanish interpreters in court. Currently there is only one full-time Spanish legal interpreter in the county. The rising demand for interpreters in counties such as Northampton combined with a lack of training causes standards in the profession to be lowered. This situation results in unqualified interpreters being present in legal proceedings sometimes even resulting in additional expenses for the state with cases overturned on appeal due to inadequate interpretation.

In 2007 Pennsylvania took a step in the right direction and introduced new standards and a state certification exam for court interpreters which may also establish a statewide and uniform training standard. However, a lack of systematic training and a quality ridden approach so far have created the fear that new standards and requirements for legal interpreters will cause many qualified interpreters to stay away from court.

This is why new requirements must go hand in hand with quality education and training. The necessary knowledge and skills can be obtained by taking online courses such as the one offered here by Bromberg & Associates. We have created an innovative and comprehensive course which provides interpreters with the understanding of the legal system, various categories of crimes and stages of criminal procedure, types of motions, IP law and much more. Not to mention that the course is also language-specific.

To learn more about our state-of-the-art interpreter training, please get in touch here!
]]> http://site.interpretereducationonline.com/2009/07/16/new-standards-in-pennsylvania%e2%80%99s-courts-can-be-met/feed/ 0 http://site.interpretereducationonline.com/2009/07/08/demand-for-court-interpreters-rising/ http://site.interpretereducationonline.com/2009/07/08/demand-for-court-interpreters-rising/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:19:21 +0000 Interpreter Education Online http://site.interpretereducationonline.com/?p=14 As interpreters we frequently experience an increasing demand for our services. As diversity increases, so does the need for interpretation. The U.S. Census Bureau in Arizona reports that 30 percent of the state’s population speaks a language other than English at home. More and more consumers realize that having a family member, a friend or some other untrained person fill in the shoes of a professional interpreter often leads to less than satisfactory results.

However, opportunities for working interpreters to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills are very limited. There are a limited number of courses in the nation with a great majority of training offered onsite. Therefore, a few online training opportunities currently available offer an attractive alternative. In comparison to college programs they provide a flexible schedule allowing you to get a quality education at your convenience.

Bromberg & Associates’ recently launched training program for legal interpreters provides just that and much more. We are online and cater to a broader audience by offering language-specific training. At this time we offer language-specific training for interpreters of Russian, Arabic, Bosnian, Polish, Croatian, Hmong, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese languages.

To learn more about our state-of-the-art interpreter training, please get in touch here!

Bromberg & Associates recently launched its language-specific online training programs for legal interpreters – www.InterpreterEducationOnline.com .

Initially, the programs will be available for Russian, Arabic, Bosnian, Polish, Croatian, Hmong, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese interpreters.  The list of languages available for training will be continuously expanded.  The course offers open enrollment, i.e. students can sign up anytime and start within two weeks after the registration.

InterpreterEducationOnline.com courses offer three main options to fit individual needs.

• The first program is a basic three-unit course developed for aspiring bilinguals entering the field of legal interpretation.
• The second is an eight-unit comprehensive training course for legal interpreters.
• The third option features single-topic units dedicated to various areas of legal interpretation, such as Vehicular Accident, Firearms, Physical Evidence and more.  These units can be completed in a short amount of time and are offered at highly affordable rates.

Stay tuned here for updates and additional course offering announcements!