where to begin

‘A big challenge’ for MAMI instructors
Oct 20, 2007 @ 11:48 PM

By CHINKI SINHA
Observer-Dispatch

As Terry Chabot and Liliana Vidovic prepare to teach a class of future interpreters, they often wonder where to begin.

The class is a mixed group. A few are professional; others have limited education.
There also is a huge cultural barrier.

“It is a big challenge to keep the brilliant students on board while not overwhelming the new ones,” said Chabot, a registered nurse who teaches medical terminology with MAMI.

Both instructors begin by recognizing the various backgrounds. Sometimes they put a little flag of a student’s country on his or her desk.

Vidovic, a Bosnian refugee who teaches ethics of professional interpreting, said she shares a lot of her experiences with the students, just so they can identify.

“I use a lot of examples,” she said. “You have to be fluent in both cultures.”

Not long ago, she was interpreting for a woman who was wrongly put in a mental health facility at a local hospital because the untrained interpreter did not understand the cultural context.

In a regular session with her doctor, she had said if she did not get more help around the house, she was going to kill someone. She wasn’t serious, Vidovic said.

“The translator interpreted word to word, not by meaning,” she recalled.

The woman had been at the hospital for a few hours when Vidovic came to her rescue.

Chabot, who has been with MAMI since 2005, has encountered similar situations.

“People from other cultures use traditional remedies,” Chabot said.

Interpreters need to know those remedies in order to help the doctor serve them better.

Also, as a professional interpreter, one has to maintain confidentiality and step back from interfering to let the patients make their own decisions, she said.