National Crime Victims’ Rights Week: April 22-28, 2012

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week:

“Extending The Vision; Reaching Every Victim. Justice For Victims. Justice For All.”

During Election 2012, one of the top issues for debate involves National Crime Victims’ Rights for homeowners who become Victims of Crimes after they have purchased real estate property in the Village of Lombard, York Township, DuPage County, Illinois. Many Lombard homeowners become victims of theft, robbery, kidnapping, abuse, torture, harassment, damages and losses, smuggling from criminals who target Lombard residents after they have purchased real estate property in DuPage County, Illinois USA. National Crime Victims’ Rights for Compensation and Victims’ Assistance is a real issue for debate during Election 2012 in the USA.

The Crime Victims’ Rights Act was signed into law on October 30, 2004. Under the Constitution, inalienable victims’ rights include the following:
1. The right to attend criminal justice proceedings;
2. The right to apply for compensation;
3. The right to be heard and participate in the criminal justice proceedings;
4. The right to be informed of proceedings and events in the criminal justice process, of legal rights and remedies, and of available services;
5. The right to protection from intimidation and harassment;
6. The right to restitution from the offender;
7. The right to prompt return of personal property seized as evidence;
8. The right to a speedy trial;
9. The right to enforcement of these rights;
10. The right to appeal denial of constitutional victims’ rights.
11. The right to be treated like a human being.
12. The right to be included in civil proceedings.

Since September 2, 1993, Mr. Roberto Hung Juris Doctor and Surviving Family, Daughter Gardenia C. Hung-Wittler, Son-in-law Nathan Scott Wittler Patriquin are Lombard resident homeowners at 502 S. Westmore-Meyers Road and Washington Boulevard who have become Illinois Victims of Heinous Hate Crimes in District 5, near St. Pius X Catholic Church, the Deicke Home for the Retarded, Easter Seals of Lombard in DuPage County, Westmore Elementary School, the Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White Drivers Motor Vehicles Facility at Eastgate Shopping Center and the Islamic Foundation Center on Highridge Road in Villa Park, Illinois USA.

A Chicago Water-Taxi on Madison Street…

Right by the Ogilvie Transportation Center on Madison Street, you can hail a cab or take a CTA bus, even the Union Pacific Railroad…But, “Where is the Chicago Water Taxi?” Commuters looking for a Chicago River water-ride have to wait for the Water Taxi, starting at 6:45 a.m. by the Madison Street Bridge. A Chicago Water Taxi takes you down the steps into the Boarding Pier and the Ticket Booth where you can purchase a One-Way Water Ride for $3.00 to Michigan Avenue, LaSalle/Clark or all the way to Chinatown. If you have All Day, you can spend $7.00 for an All-Day Pass provided by the Chicago Water Taxi. The Schedule is posted on the wall…in small print. After you have purchased your Chicago Water-Taxi Pass, you have to wait for the water-ride pick-up to come along the Chicago River… Commuters may stand waiting in line or sit down a long-time waiting for a ride on a Chicago Water-Taxi. “Where is the Attendant?” “ Is Anybody There?”

His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama: Public Talk on Non-Violence

Essay Question selected by H.H. Dalai Lama: “How can an attitude of non-violence counteract the prevalence of violence in our families, in our communities and in international relations; and how can we as individuals cultivate and promote such an attitude?

On Thursday, April 26, 2012, H.H. XIV Dalai Lama will give a Public Talk on Non-Violence at Loyola University, Gentile Arena, Lake Shore Campus,Chicago, Illinois.

$1,000 prize for 3 essay contest winners.

For more information, call 847-492-0809 or email: tibetcenter@aol.com. Visit www.TIBETcenterchicago.org

Thank you for using Picture and Video Messaging by U.S. Cellular. See www.uscellular.com for info.

The Pearl of the Antilles: Cuba

Long before the arrival of the Spaniards to the Caribbean, the island of Cuba was populated by Native American Indian tribes, that is to say, “siboneyes“, who lived in the caves and lived from hunting and fishing; “taínos” who excelled in clay pottery and practiced agriculture; and “guanajatebeyes” who were nomads and populated the western coasts.

On October 27, 1492, Christopher Columbus sighted Cuba on his first voyage.  The next day, Columbus landed, christening the port with the Christian name of “San Salvador“, “Savior”, where he touched land and, naming “Juana“, the island which he thought to be a continent.  Between 1508 and 1509, Sebastián de Ocampo navigated around the island and in 1511, Don Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar initiated the conquest of the same land.  In 1512, the city of Baracoa, at the northern tip of Cuba was founded; in 1513, Bayamo on the southwestern side; and in 1514, Trinidad in the southern middle, Sancti Spiritus, Santa María del Puerto Príncipe, Santiago de Cuba, and La Habana were established as the first seven (7) cities in the New World for the Americas.

 

The indigenous population was divided out to the entrusted and appointed landholders, “encomendaderos“.  However, abusive work, hard labor, and disease from the Old World, dominated the Native American population which motivated the introduction of African black slave labor on the island of Cuba.

The Christian Catholic King of Spain, Don Fernando II, ruler of Aragón, became married to Doña Isabel of Castilla, with equity in the exercise of power.  In the 15th century, at the beginning of 1482, the King and Queen of Spain developed military campaigns for the Reconquest of the Moorish lands which escalated to the seize of Granada, in Andalusía, Spain, circa 1492.  During the same year, the Muslim Arabs surrendered in Granada and Seville to end eight (8) centuries of Islamic control which sealed the Christian conquest for the Spanish territories.  Simultaneously, the discovery and exploration of the New World in the Americas by Don Christopher Columbus, occurred during the same times, in 1492. 

 

Christopher Columbus was a Spanish-Italian sea explorer and navigator (who was probably a native of Genoa, born in 1451 and lived until 1506, in Valladolid, Spain).  At the time, Columbus believed that in order to arrive at the East of the world, there was a route by sea to the West.  With the protection of Don Juan Pérez, Prior of La Rabida, Christopher Columbus was granted the signature for Capitulations of the Holy Faith, according to which, Columbus received the title of Admiral, Viceroy, and Governor of the lands he discovered in the New World.

 

On the first voyage, Columbus sailed from Puerto de Palos on August 3rd, at the command of the Spanish galleons “carabelas“, la Pinta, la Niña y la Santa María, and arrived to the island of Guanahaní, “San Salvador“, on October 12, 1492.

 

Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba on October 27, 1492, five hundred and twenty (520) years ago, and the island christened “La Española“, Hispaniola, also known by the Amerindian name of “Quisqueya” or Haití, where he established the Spanish fort Nativity.  On December 5, 1492, Columbus discovered the island known today as the Dominican Republic and Haití.  Afterwards, he returned to Palos and was received with triumph in Barcelona, Spain.

 

Upon the return to Spain from the discovery of the New World in the Americas by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish Catholic monarchs arranged before Pope Alexander VI the concession of the ecclesiastical Alexandrian edicts which assigned to the Spain the new territories in the New World. Since Portugal had closed the route to the spices for Castilla, Spain, Christopher Columbus had a projected mission to reach the Orient, in the East, by way of the Western (Occident) which was accepted and sponsored by the Catholic King and Queen, reigning monarchs of Spain.

 

Columbus’ accounts of his voyages in the New World remain in the Archives of the Indies as the documented description of an ethnographer, ethnologist, and ethnolinguist in the Americas.  Christopher Columbus provided and recorded news and first impressions about the native indigenous inhabitants in the Caribbean and of the lands he discovered along the way.

 

The Republic of Cuba is an insular state of Central America.  Cuba represents the island known for the same name of the country, in addition to the island of Youth or Isla de Pinos, other smaller islands in its surroundings, and some 1,600 adjoining islets known as keys or “cayos”, such as Key West, also known as Cayo Hueso.

 

Cuba can be found in the middle of the Caribbean, between the Strait of Florida and the old Channel of the Bahamas to the North; the eastern section of Cuba faces the Windward Channel; the southern littoral looks upon the Caribbean Sea or the Antilles; west of the Yucatán Peninsula and northwest toward the Gulf of México–only 99 miles from the United States of America, close to the states of Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama in the south.

 

Geographically, the island of Cuba extends in the shape of an arc from the northwest to the southeast with a longitude of 1,255 kilometers, from the tip of Cabo San Antonio to the point of Maisí.  

 

The topography of Cuba is made of predominant plains or hills, with the exception of the mountain ranges of the Sierra Maestra to the southeast, which features the elevation called Pico Turquino, the highest point of view in Cuba, at 1,974 meters in altitude, and other smaller mountainous extensions, such as the Sierra del Escambray at the center of Cuba with the Pico San Juan at 1,056 meters in altitude, and the mountain chain known as “cordilleras de los Organos”, which hardly rise above 690 meters in contrast to the elevation for the Pan de Guajabón.

 

The Cuban seacoasts are flanked by a great number of islands and islets.  These maritime keys emerge up to considerable distances from the Cuban littoral in the Caribbean.

 

Cuba has more than 200 rivers, generally not long enough, but with impetuous currents.  Among the major Cuban rivers is El Cauto which floods the surroundings areas of Santiago de Cuba during tropical storms, hurricanes, and cyclones, that is to say “maritime twisters”, and is required to be controlled by a river dam, “la represa del Cauto”.  In addition, there are the rivers called Cuyaguateje, Sagua La Grande, Sagua La Chica, Aguabama, etc.

 

The Cuban climate is softened by tropical and maritime breezes.  

The Spanish colonial city of Santiago de Cuba was founded in 1514, nestled among a series of hills near the mountain range of the Sierra Maestra, in the heart of the eastern municipal district of Oriente.

 

The architectural design of the building constructions have been adapted typically over time to the mountainous topography and frequently, the lower back rooms of the houses are found at a lower level than the front upper rooms of the same houses in Cuba.       

 

Spain called Cuba “the Pearl of the Antilles”.      

 

Original Translation into English from Spanish Source:  2000 Nuevo Espasa Ilustrado.  Diccionario Enciclopédico.  Espasa Calpe, S.A. (1999), España

Consulting Media Arts Communications©2012 Gardenia Hung. 

All Rights Reserved.

A Lombard Resident Homeowner Victim of Heinous Hate Crimes

The Estate of Roberto Hung & Family was purchased in the name of the late Mr. Roberto Hung, Sr., who became a victim of crime after he purchased Lombard real estate property and became a registered Lombard homeowner for P.I.N. 06-09-315-038-0000, real estate property legally acquired and recorded in Du Page County, during September 2, 1993 through September 2, 1996 and paid in full at the Maple Park State Bank with cash retirement funds, IRA money markets, and 401K monies accrued in employment savings through profit-sharing invested at Felt-Pro, Inc. auto gasket company, also known today as Federal Mogul Corporation Sealing Systems, located at 7450 North McCormick Boulevard, in Skokie, Illinois 60076-8103. Felt-Pro, Inc.–managed and family-owned by Lewis C. Weinberg, the Lehman Brothers, Mr. Kessler, and others, along with son David Weinberg and daughter, Barbara Kessler.

 

In 1996, Mr. Roberto Hung turned 65 years of age and decided to continue working during the day at The Pampered Chef, located at One Swift Road in Addison, Illinois.   Then, Mr. Hung added part-time work hours at night and during the weekends at Dominick’s Food Stores in Oakbrook Terrace to supplement his retirement income.  Mr. Hung became a U.S. citizen in Chicago, of Cuban and Chinese descent.

Mr. Roberto Hung was abused and victimized while he worked for The Pampered Chef in Addison and Dominick’s Food Stores in Oakbrook Terrace in Illinois.  Mr. Hung became a victim of crime after he purchased Lombard Real Estate property at 502 S. Westmore-Meyers Road and Washington Boulevard, one block southeast from St. Pius X Catholic Church and School in the Village of Lombard, DuPage County, Illinois USA.

 

The late Mr. Roberto Hung Sr., was a retired Cuban-Chinese attorney, who worked as Municipal District Attorney in Santiago de Cuba, while he also served as judge for the Municipal District Court of Santiago de Cuba, in Oriente, Cuba. Mr. Roberto Hung was a graduate cum laude from the Law School at the University of La Habana in Cuba. In the State of Illinois, Du Page County, Mr. Roberto Hung became a Lombard resident homeowner, U.S. citizen, and also a paying member of the Illinois Sheriffs Association, who contributed to local, state, and presidential cash fundraisers, to include donations to the Lombard Fire Department and Police Department, and other national charities. On December 22, 1996, he had written a donation checks for the Lombard Fire Department and to his son Robert S. Hung, after paying his household bills, before he became injured at home, 502 S. Westmore Avenue in Lombard, Du Page County, Illinois.

After Mr. Roberto Hung paid for the Lombard real estate property, he was abused as a resident homeowner, taxpayer, and U.S. citizen. On December 22, 1996, Mr. Hung was injured at home in Lombard after 9:00 PM, before Christmas Day. Mr. Roberto Hung survived the traumatic brain injury when his eldest daughter Gardenia C. Hung provided first responder’s emergency assistance and called 911 in the Village of Lombard. After Mr. Hung recovered from a stroke in 1997, he was throttled and murdered by the respiratory therapist Ben Aguilar at Vencor Northlake Hospital, on June 18, 1998, in Northlake, Cook County, Illinois.

Coincidentally, Felt-Pro, Inc., the automotive gasket sealing magnet, known for a wide-range of worker benefits was also sold in 1998, in the amount of $720 million dollars to Federal Mogul Corporation based in Michigan and nation-wide. Ten years later, Mr. Lewis C. Weinberg died, on Thursday, October 30, 2008, at his Chicago home in Illinois, at the age of 93 years old.  Since Felt-Pro, Inc. was sold in 1997, Mr. Roberto Hung became abused, injured, and eventually murdered, while holding Lombard real estate property, residency, and homeownership in the County of Du Page.

For the record, the estimated market value of the subject property was $272, 850.00 in 2008, plus the value of family, personal, professional business assets of the Hung Family in Lombard, Du Page County, Illinois. The Lombard Brick Bungalow, built in 1927, was damaged extensively by public use and unauthorized access entries by the Lombard Police Department, the Fire Department, the Village of Lombard, and other intruders during the course of municipal services and operations which caused detrimental disaster, roofing water damages , plumbing flooding and demolition losses. On Wednesday, November 5, 2008, the Lombard Fire Department, instigated by Keith Steiskal, and others, demolished the Lombard Historic Brick Bungalow at 502 S Westmore-Meyers Road in Du Page. Now the Hung Family is petitioning for cash compensation, restitution, and financial remuneration by the Village of Lombard and others who have publicly used the private property owned by the Hung Family in the Estate of Mr. Roberto Hung Supplemental Care Trust.

FOR THE RECORD, MR. ROBERTO HUNG, NEVER RECEIVED THE SENIOR CITIZENS HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION, EVEN THOUGH HE PAID IN FULL FOR THE PURCHASE OF THE LOMBARD HISTORIC BRICK BUNGALOW BUILT IN 1927. On September 2nd, 1993, Mr. Roberto Hung purchased the Lombard Historic Brick Bungalow from Debra Y. Sekrecki, with an initial down payment of $2,000, as earnest money paid by personal check, added to the total cash payment of $88,000 at a fixed interest rate not to exceed 8.00% per year, amortized over a period of fifteen (15) years. At the time, Debra Y. Sekrecki had two (2) children, a boy and a girl, lived with Stella, the tenant upstairs, and father Adam Sekrecki. On July 11, 1993, Mr. Roberto Hung signed a Standard Residential Sales Contract from the Du Page Association of Realtors in agreement to purchase the Lombard real estate property at 502 S. Westmore Avenue in Lombard, Illinois 60148-3028, owned by seller Debra Y. Sekrecki. The original closing date was scheduled on September 11, 1993. However, Roberto Hung was called by telephone to appear sooner on September 2nd, 1993, at 3:30 p.m., at the law office of Alan Dakoff, Telephone: 708-966-0488, located at 9291 North Maryland, in Niles, Illinois 60714, U.S.A. Century 21, Action Real Estate provided a Buyer Service Pledge presented by Steve Block, Telephone: 630-627-5500, and Dino, the real estate agent with Roberto Hung, signed in agreement. Afterwards, Roberto Hung received a copy of Rider 412, Buyer’s Inspection which he signed as buyer with Debra Sekrecki, as seller.

In 1993, Century 21, Action Real Estate described in a listing the Highlights of the Lombard Historic Brick Bungalow at the corner of Westmore Avenue and Washington Blvd., owned by Debra Y. Sekrecki with tenant Stella. At the time, the Du Page County Real Estate Taxes were only $2,744 for the brick house. After Roberto Hung purchased the same Lombard Brick House, the Lombard property taxes doubled for more than $4,000, without providing the Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption as a tax credit. This Lombard Brick Home is located near Westmore Elementary School and St. Pius X Church School, Jackson Middle School, and Willowbrook High School. George Hornbeck’s Parcel No. 06-09-315038 is a subdivision, spacious 4-bedroom brick home with a second floor in-law or potential income arrangement. There are nine (9) rooms available with hardwood floors. Full finished basement. Front and rear enclosed porches for added living space. Fully fenced yard with a gas grill. There is a 2-car garage. Public transportation is available. This Lombard home is close to school and shopping, near the Eastgate Center and State of Illinois facilities for the Secretary of State Vehicle Licenses Center and the Illinois Employment and Training Center (I.E.T.C.). Action Real Estate for Century 21 was serving Du Page and Cook counties at the Lombard Pines Shopping Center, 1125-J South Main Street, Lombard, Illinois 60148, in care of realtor Dino. The real estate closing documents for purchase were prepared by Attorney Dean G. Galanopoulos and Robert G. Galgan, Jr. Atty. No.1948, at 340 West Butterfield Road, Elmhurst, Illinois 60126.

The First State Bank of Maple Park mailed a letter on November 10, 1995 to Mr. Roberto Hung, which notified the Lombard homeowner that the bank was transferring the servicing of the Loan Mortgage to the Dime Savings Bank of New York, FSB, P.O. Box 985, Newark, New Jersey 07101-0985. Customer Service Park, 231 East Avenue, Suite 200, Tel. 1-800-222-0912. Robert Hung was informed that the mortgage rates would increase as a balloon mortgage for the Dime Savings Bank of New York. Since Robert Hung did not want to incur additional mortgage interest rates, He Decided To Pay in Full Cash for the remainder balance of the Lombard Real Estate Property for P.I.N. 06-09-315-038, Lot 2 in George P. Hornbeck’s Resubdivision of Part of the West one-half of the South West one-fourth of Section 9, Township 39 North, Range 11, East of the Third Meridian, According to the Plat thereof recorded on February 19, 1980 as Document No. R80-10413, in Du Page County, Illinois.

On September 2nd, 1996, Mr. Roberto Hung completed full cash payment of the Lombard Brick Home at First State Bank of Maple, located at 1100 County Line Road, Maple Park, Illinois 60151, in care of Joy S. Reynolds, Tel. (815) 827-4000, Fax. (815) 827-3207, Toll Free No. 1-800-449-2700, while Bruce Madden was president of the First State Bank, and witnessed by his daughter, Gardenia C. Hung, and the bank manager. Mr. Roberto Hung and his eldest daughter, married to Nathan S. Wittler, improved the Lombard Brick house by adding oak cabinets, an exterior halogen flood night light, (2) automatic garage door openers, changed all door locks, added gardening landscaping, apple trees orchard, and perennial flowers, and exotic plant species.

On December 22, 1996, Mr. Hung was injured at home in Lombard after 9:00 PM, before Christmas Day. After recovering from a stroke in 1997, Roberto Hung was throttled and murdered by the respiratory therapist Ben Aguilar at Vencor Northlake Hospital, on June 18, 1998.

We are remembering how Mr. Roberto Hung was murdered at Vencor Northlake Hospital by Respiratory Therapist Ben Aguilar in Cook County, Illinois, while he was a critical care patient under the medical care of Dr. Grodzin, M.D. from Elmhurst Memorial Hospital and previous medical care of Dr. Tom Cornwell M.D., and Nurse Nancy Minch, R.N., with CNA Carol and Jennifer… from Home Care Physicians in Winfield, Illinois USA.

Consulting Media Arts Communications©2012 Gardenia Hung.  All Rights Reserved.

Interpreting and Translation as Communications Processes

“Interpreting and Translation as Communication Processes for the 21^st Century”                                                          

Communications, Languages & Culture, Inc. 

ABSTRACT 

This proposal will present “Interpreting and Translation as Communication(s) Processes for the 21^st Century” in order to associate the status of interpreting and translation to existing communication processes and establish the future of the interpreting and translation profession within the field of communication(s) using the Transactional Model of Communication (Barnlund, 1970) as a frame of reference.  Interpreting and translation are both expressions of communication processes in a different way, shape, and form.  Consequently, interpreting and translation are to be included, considered, and taught as related disciplines to the field of communication(s) for the future of the profession. The transactional communication model perceives human communication as a simultaneous, interdependent process, in which the speaker servers as the listener and the listener as a speaker, in tandem.  It is also symbiotic, that is to say, mutually beneficial to the source and the receiver, since each one exists in relation to the other.  The source of communication, as well as the receiver of the message, are continuously exchanging information in a cyclical pattern. In the same way, the interpreter and the translator, both have dual communicative functions, outputting and inputting messages, be these spoken or written.  Interpreting requires verbal interaction between an interpreter and a speaker in an oral mode—unless it is an interpretation of sight reading of a written document.  Translation invites non-verbal interaction between a translator and a reader in written form.  Given that communication(s) involve speaking, listening, reading, and writing, then interpreting and translation are means of communication(s) and should be associated as communicative processes within the same field; thus granting interpreting and translation the status deserved for the future of the profession as partners in the field of communication(s).

 

INTRODUCTION 

This proposal will present “Interpreting and Translation as Communication Processes for the 21^st Century” in order to associate the status of interpreting and translation to existing communication processes and establish the future of the interpreting and translation profession within the field of communication using the Transactional Model of Communication (Barnlund, 1970) as a frame of reference.  Interpreting and translation are both expressions of communication processes in a different way, shape, and form. Consequently, interpreting and translation are to be included, considered, and taught as related disciplines to the field of communication for the future of the profession. 

I want to propose the integration of interpreting and translation in the field of communication because these two disciplines are expressions of human communication processes.  Based upon years of experience as a communicator, who is also an interpreter and translator, I perceive the relationship that interpreting and translation have in communication(s) through speaking, listening, writing, and reading, here and now,  in our everyday world.   

I have been a community college professor teaching Medical Spanish communication(s) to healthcare professionals, as well as Conversational Spanish, English (093): Preparation for College Writing III, English 101, 102, 103, and 105, in DuPage County, Illinois, USA.  I have worked with nurses, therapists, paramedics, physicians, assistants, social workers, volunteers, and administrative personnel at local hospitals and medical training centers in the area who wanted to use Spanish for Communication(s) in a health care setting as interpreters and translators to facilitate communication in Spanish and English for the patients and visitors at their medical facility.  In addition, I have also taught college students taking English courses who enrolled in the Independent Learning Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Moreover, as a graduate college student, I have been a volunteer at the Emergency Room of the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, Illinois for a study on the delivery of healthcare and medical communication(s) to elderly patients who spoke English and Spanish.  This medical communication(s) study was sponsored by the American Gerontological Association in the United States. Furthermore, I have been a professional interpreter and translator since 1981 while I worked for the Illinois Industrial Commission in Chicago, Illinois during hearing arbitrations due to employment-related injuries suffered by Spanish-speaking workers.  Since then, I have interpreted for other government levels in the United States and miscellaneous business organizations. An interpreter and a translator, both have dual communicative functions, outputting and inputting messages, simultaneously and intertwined, be these spoken or written, to exchange and negotiate meaning with a third party. Interpreting and translation processes are examples of transactional communication(s).

For this presentation and proposal, I have applied the Transactional Model of Communication, (Barnlund, 1970), to include interpreting and translation in the field of communication(s) because it is a dynamic theory which requires interdependent and simultaneous exchange between the participants, be they interpreters, speakers, translators, readers, and writers, to negotiate meaning from one language to another.  In the Essentials of Human Communication (2002), DeVito describes the Transactional process of communication to be a more satisfying view of the exchange in which a person serves simultaneously as speaker and listener.  At the same time that a message is sent, one is also receiving messages from one’s own communication(s) and from the reactions of the other person.  The transactional point of view perceives each person as both speaker and listener, as simultaneously communicating and receiving messages (Watzlawick, Beavin & Jackson, 1967), (Barnlund, 1970), (Wilmont, 1995).  In addition, the transactional view sees the elements of communication as interdependent (never independent).   Each one exists in relation to the others. Interpreting requires verbal interaction between an interpreter, a speaker, and a third party,  in an oral mode—unless it is an interpretation of sight reading of a written document.  Translation invites non-verbal interaction between a translator, a writer, and a reader in written text form.    All the elements of  human communication processes are present in interpreting and translation.   Therefore, interpreting and translation ought to be included in the teaching of communication(s) as integrated disciplines, part of the whole field of communication(s), in order to make these two professions more pervasive and available to the general population as introductions to the fields; that is to say, we may include and offer communication courses in the Communication(s) Department of a learning institution, such as Introduction to Interpreting, Translation 101, which demystify interpreting and translation as totally separate, specialized disciplines, only taught in certain language programs, at certain designated institutions.  The integration of Interpreting and Translation in the Communication(s) curriculum and the Humanities division of higher learning bodies may be an interdisciplinary effort.  By doing so, students have more open options and the flexibility to use communication(s) beyond the scope of what has been defined and to include foreign language skills through interpreting and translation in a global forum, the local community, in the media, the business world, healthcare, the courtroom, at work, at home, etc.                                                                                                      

Including interpreting and translation in the curriculum for communication(s) would popularize these two disciplines and make interpreting and translation more acceptable choices and less ominous subjects of study to the general public specializing in communication(s) at learning institutions.  Communication(s) students would then perceive interpreting and translation as part of their curriculum and also as viable job options and skills to acquire in the 21^st century, along with language skills, in addition to their mother tongue.  By offering interpreting and translation as part of the communication(s) curriculum program, learning institutions improve the students’ opportunities and job marketability in the field of communication(s) for the new millennium.  Why not integrate interpreting and translation as communication processes for the 21^st century?   

Given that communication involves speaking, listening, reading, and writing, then interpreting and translation are means of communication and should be associated as communicative processes within the same field; thus, granting interpreting and translation the status it deserves for the future of the profession as partners in the field of communication(s).

 

What is communication? 

Communication is interaction among people to convey a message.  The communication process involves verbal and non-verbal dynamics to promote understanding and cooperation.  It is speaking, listening, reading, and writing.  Communication is also imaging through graphics and visuals in the media. (Hung, ICTFL 2000)   Human communication is the process by which people exchange information, (Hung, ICTFL 2001), through languages and otherwise.  Foreign languages promote understanding through interpersonal communication on a one-to-one basis, people-to-people, verbally and non-verbally, using interpreting and translation as forms of communication, from one language to another.   Languages are implemented through interpreting and translation in the fields of technology, research, and development throughout diverse professional disciplines.  Thus, languages become communication tools in the 21^st century by means of interpreting and translation.  

 

How are interpreting and translation related to communication? 

 

Interpreting and translation are communication processes which involve speaking, listening, reading, and writing to express and negotiate messages between participants in the communication exchange.

 Given that these are modes of communication in our global and local community, (Hung, ICTFL 2001), interpreting and translation of languages are to be perceived as communication processes for the 21^st century.   Whether we are at work, in the courtroom, during doctor-patient interviews, at the immigration  office, conferences, business meetings, etc., we need to speak, listen, read, and write in any language to communicate.  For instance, other applications of language interpreting and translation uses can be seen in satellite and global positioning systems, world-wide assistance telecommunication(s) centers; geo conferencing, videoconferencing, videophones, teleconferencing; internet delivery of instruction on-line; email tutorials; intranet web-based education; audio computer-based tests for ESL listening skills, remote learning, multimedia, etc. Interpreting through spoken communication is used simultaneously or consecutively, on a regular basis in the business world, consulate offices, legal settings, in the medical field, technically, for liaison and group escorts, telephone transactions, conferences, etc.  Translation is also a written mode, a process of communication and a language tool on-line, on the internet and the world wide web, through machines, electronically, commercially, legally, medically, and otherwise.      Ian Mason has defined spoken dialogue interpreting in Triadic Exchanges as a generic term covering diverse fields of interpreting which have in common the basic feature of face-to-face interaction between three parties: the interpreter and (at least) two others, a source-speaker, a receiver-listener.  The communication exchange and/or transaction consists of spontaneous dialogue interaction, involving turn-taking conversation, in two languages, a source and a target. It is usually goal-directed in the sense that there is some outcome or message to be negotiated.  The interpreter is perceived as one of the parties to this three-way exchange, in which each participant’s moves can affect each participant and thus the outcome of the event.  The interpreter is a “critical link” in spoken triadic communication. Translation as a communication process also involves a three-way transaction for meaning between the writer, the reader, and the translator in a written format–it is a semantics exchange.  According to Random House Webster’s Dictionary, a translation is a rendering of the same ideas in a different language from the original text.  A translator communicates the writer’s message to the reader from one language to another through written text.  In the same way that a computer compiler decodes and encodes data from a high level language to a machine language, a human translator decodes and encodes the assigned meaning of symbols from a source language to a target language. 

 

From where is the Transactional Model of Communication derived? 

Dean C. Barnlund discussed a Transactional Model of Communication in 1970 while working with J. Akin, A. Goldberg, G. Myers, and J. Stewart on their research using Computer Compilers as seen in Language Behavior: A book of readings in communication, (pp.43-61), published by The Hague: Mouton. For our purposes, a Computer Compiler is a software that translates a program written from a high-level language into another language, usually a machine-based language, by means of a “compiler”, that is a “translator”.  Compilers in computer-based formats convert a program, data, code, etc., from one form to another, that is to say, a Fortran program into assembly-based machine language, according to Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. 

 

In the 21^st century interpreters and translators might as well be human “compilers” and/or information processors from one language to another.  Interpreters and translators facilitate communication(s) from one language to another on behalf of others.  These communicators convert a message from the source to the receiver, from one language to another, in a triadic exchange of information.  Although some people address interpreters as translators interchangeably, we know that interpreters work primarily in a spoken/aural format and translators function primarily in a written/visual mode.  Just as a computer compiler translates a software program written from a high-level language into another, interpreters and translators process an exchange of semantics information simultaneously from the source speaker/writer to the receiver/reader, from one language to another, in a verbal or written format.  Interpreters and translators negotiate the meaning and content of a message formulated by the source and/or the receiver in sync with the transactional model of communication(s) based upon computer compilers (Barnlund, 1970).  

In addition to the application of the transactional theory to communication(s), Ling Liu, Calton Pu, and Robert Meersman have also researched and developed a computer-based Transactional Activity Model for Organizing Open-Ended Cooperative Flow Activities.  This computational application is based upon a number of extended transaction models which have been proposed to support information-intensive applications, such as CAD, computer-aided drafting, CAM, distributed operating systems, and software development It is a mathematical algorithm which integrates two mergeable activities to ensure a merged history from two correct histories.  It establishes the existent dependencies between two activities.  These activities are structured programs that exchange information with other activities, databases, files, and users.  The system covers a family of dynamic activity restructuring operations, as well as other important features of the Transactional Activity Model (TAM). 

CONCLUSION

 

This proposal has presented “Interpreting and Translation as Communication(s) Processes for the 21^st Century” in order to associate the status of interpreting and translation to existing communication processes and establish the future of the interpreting and translation profession within the field of communication(s) using the Transactional Model of Communication (Barnlund, 1970) as a frame of reference.  As you know, interpreting and translation are both expressions of communication(s) processes in a different way, shape, and form.  Consequently, interpreting and translation are to be included, considered, and taught as related disciplines to the field of communication(s) for the future of the profession. As we have discussed earlier, the transactional model of communication perceives human communication as a simultaneous, interdependent process, in which the speaker serves as a listener and the listener as a speaker, in tandem.  It is also symbiotic, that is to say, mutually beneficial to the source and the receiver since each one exists in relation to the other. The source of the communication, as well as the receiver of the message, both are continuously exchanging information in a cyclical pattern.   In the same way, the interpreter and the translator, both have dual communicative functions, outputting and inputting messages, be these spoken or written.  Interpreting requires verbal interaction between an interpreter and a speaker in an oral mode—unless it is an interpretation of sight reading of a written document.  Translation invites non-verbal interaction between a translator and a reader in written form.  Given that communication(s) involve speaking, listening, reading, and writing, then interpreting and translation are means of communication(s) and should be associated as communicative processes within the same field; thus granting interpreting and translation the status deserved for the future of the profession as partners in the field of communication(s). Although I have taught at the community college level for many years, I am not aware of any learning institutions that currently include Interpreting and Translation in the Communication(s) curriculum program.  That is one of the reasons why I decided to present this proposal at this FIT 2002 conference focusing on Translation: New Ideas for a New Century in Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA.  As far as I am aware, Interpreting and Translation are not widely taught nor included in the curriculum programs at institutions of higher learning.  As far as I know, there are designated institutions world-wide that teach Interpreting and Translation.  However, these two disciplines are not readily available now as courses of study to the general public or communication(s) enthusiasts at institutions of higher learning.  Perhaps my proposal to regard Interpreting and Translation as Communication Processes in the 21^st Century will note and highlight the need to include and integrate Interpreting and Translation in the field of Communication(s) at academic institutions for the benefit of future communicators in the new millennium. 

 

REFERENCES AND SOURCES 

Barnlund, Dean C.  (1970) A Transactional model of communication.  In J. Akin, A. Goldberg, G. Myers, and                J. Stewart (Compilers), Language behavior: A book of readings in communication, (pp.43-61).                The Hague: Mouton, The Netherlands. Baron, Sara, M.A., M.S.  http://www.lilb.umb.edu~sara  (2001) COMSTU 200, Introduction to Communication(s),                University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA                DeVito, Joseph A.  (2002) Essentials of Human Communication.  Fourth Edition.  Hunter College.  The City of                New York.  Boston: Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson Education Company, USA. Diccionario de Informática Inglés-Español.  Glosario de Términos Informáticos.  Sexta Edición.  (1985)                ParaInfo Madrid.  Olivetti Centro de Formación Personal. Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  Conversational Spanish for Business.  (1997-2000) Business Professional Institute.                College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA. Program Managers Kim Ramey and Donna Marchant.                Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  Spanish for Healthcare Professionals.  Bilingual Resources by Small Group   Collaboration.  Winter 2000.  College of DuPage, Continuing Education for Healthcare Professionals.                Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA.  Prepared and edited medical interpreting and translation information for                healthcare professionals in DuPage County, Illinois from 1997 through 2000. Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  Spanish for Healthcare Professionals & Service Learning.  Winter 1999.  Prepared for               Kathy Hennessy, Service Learning Coordinator, College of DuPage, and  Continuing Education for                Healthcare Professionals, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA. Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  Spanish Tutoring.  (1999-2000) Continuing Education Program.                College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA.                 Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  “Communicate: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing in Foreign Languages”.                Presentation at the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Conference 2000, Friday,                October 20, 2000, Carlyle Room at the Wyndham Hotel, Itasca, Illinois, USA.   

 

REFERENCES AND SOURCES 

Hung, Gardenia C., M.A.  “How Are Languages Used as Communication Tools in the 21^st Century?”.                Presentation at the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Conference 2001, Saturday,                October 20, 2001, Barrington Room at the Wyndham Hotel, Itasca, Illinois, USA. International Book Distributors, ibd ltd., Freek Lankhof, P.O. Box 467, Kinderhook, NY 12106 USA Internet Website, http://www.americantranslators.org/divisions/FLD/fldfaqs.htm                 FAQs about Interpreting, Gardenia C. Hung, M.A., (1999) French Language Division, Frequently Asked                Questions about Interpreting, American Translators Association, USA. Kelling, George W.  (1975) Language: Mirror, Tool, and Weapon.  Chicago: Nelson-Hall.  Levinson, Paul.  (2001) Digital McLuhan.  A Guide to the Information Millennium.  London and New York:               Routledge, Taylor & Francis. Liu, Ling and C. Pu.  A transactional activity model for organizing open-ended cooperative activities.              Technical Report TR96-11.  Department of Computer Science, University of Alberta, Canada                http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/43023.html Logan, Robert K.  (2000) THE SIXTH LANGUAGE.  Learning a Living in the Internet Age.  Toronto:  Stoddart                                                                                                                                                                                    Mason, Ian, Editor.  (2001) Triadic Exchanges.  Studies in Dialogue Interpreting.  United Kingdom:          St. Jerome Publishing.  Edited by Ian Mason, Heriot-Watt University, Edingburgh Centre for                           Translation and Interpreting Studies in Scotland, United Kingdom.Mason, Ian.  (1997)

                                                                                                                                                                            The Translator as Communicator.  Routledge. Mikkelson, Holly.  (1994) A Training Program for Spanish/English Medical Interpreting.                Spreckles, California: ACEBO. Nuevo Espasa Ilustrado 2000.  Diccionario enciclopédico.  Espasa Calpe, S.A. España. Petit Larousse Illustré.  (1987) Larousse: Paris, France. Public Speaking Module One.  Public Speaking as a Communication Process.  Notes from the Instructor.                On-Line Learning.  Web-based instruction for Communications Models and Theories. Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1998) New York, USA. 

Consulting Media Arts Communications©2012 Gardenia Hung. 

All Rights Reserved.

East Meets West

The best thing about Lombard is The Eastgate Shopping Center, a community neighborhood located along Westmore-Meyers Road, between Wilson Avenue and Jackson, in the Village of Lombard, DuPage County, Illinois. The Eastgate Center is only five blocks from Route 38, on Roosevelt Road and Westmore-Meyers Road in Illinois. Eastgate is notable for the Drivers Services Facility, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, and the Illinois Employment and Training Center. The Eastgate community has a multi-ethnic and diverse population near Trinity Lutheran Church and School, the Islamic Foundation Center, Saint Pius X Catholic Church and School, and the Lombard Community Church on Madison Street in DuPage County, Illinois. Schroeder’s Ace Hardware and the 7-Eleven convenience stores open regular hours, accesible to the public with free parking. There is also the Chinese Restaurant for Mr. Wonton  featuring authentic Cantonese cuisine, Oriental decor for dining inside, online ordering, and fast delivery.  Eastgate Center combines the best of town and country life in the western suburbs for residential and commercial businesses, educational facilities, banking, laundromat, restaurants, etc. Nearby, Madison Meadow Park hosts many community events, family reunions, picnics, celebrations, athletic and recreational sports during the year, as well as music concerts, fireworks during the July 4th festivities, arts and crafts exhibits, Lombard Food Festival, and many other sports, games, and tournaments, close to the Eastgate Center in Lombard, DuPage County, Illinois. Lombard is a great place for the Lilac Festival at Lilacia Park…

How Are Languages Used As Communications Tools in the 21st Century?

As we move through the new millennium, we need to focus on how languages are used as communication tools in the 21^st century to promote understanding, listening, cooperation, trade, military security, and peace in the world to become more effective and efficient communicators. 

Technology, research, and developments in communications for the 21^st century will regulate how languages will be used as tools in diverse professional fields and disciplines.  In addition, the application of languages as communication tools in the 21^st century is subject to the existing influence of political and socio-economic developments in the world.

According to Philip Howard in his Foreword for The World of Words.  An Illustrated History of Western Languages, new revised edition, I quote, “we can only guess that hundreds of thousands of languages have been spoken since the beginning of the world, from the fact that 2,769 languages are spoken around the world today (the figure depends a bit on what one counts as a language)”.   

Human communication is defined as the process by which people exchange information.  Languages are forms of communication in our everyday world.  We use languages to communicate on a daily basis at home, work, with friends, at leisure.  Languages are an indispensable way to function, interact, and exchange information, especially as our world becomes closer.  Thus, languages become communication tools in the 21^st century as work issues, military protection, and concerns in the world evolve from local to global to become “glocal” in the international arena. 

Given the multilingual population in our planet Earth, there is a need to communicate and listen in more than one language in the U.S.A. and around the world.  The process of active listening is an essential and important factor in communication because it allows us to perceive selectively what the information exchange entails, without overlooking details and steps to follow directions. 

The need to communicate effectively and efficiently in the 21^st century requires a mandatory acquisition of another language, in addition to English, which fulfills an educational requirement in the our country and overseas.  Thus, in the same way that “Education is a tool for success”, languages are used as tools in the 21^st century because these facilitate the process of communication around the world.

Tools are means by which we ease our interaction in a work environment and around us.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines a tool as anything regarded as necessary to implement one’s occupation or profession.  Since languages in the 21^st century are used to perform one’s job, as the work force travels and relocates around the world, in response to employment and military deployment, labor supply and demand, then languages become communication tools in the 21^st century. 

International companies in the United States and around the world require personnel to travel on demand where employee skills are needed.  Consequently, employment relocation and logistics are common factors for global work in the 21^st century.  An awareness and knowledge of languages is an underlying pre-requisite to international employment, deployment, and travel.  So, if one knows two or more languages in the world, chances are that one will travel for work or leisure and become more effective and efficient as a communicator and an employee…

We need to discuss how languages are used as communication tools in the 21^st century to promote understanding, cooperation, trade, and peace in the world. 

Technology, Research and Development: 

                      Videophone,  Videoconferencing, Global Positioning

                      Systems World-Wide Assistance with Satellites,

                      Student Centered Distance Learning for Remote Rural Areas, 

                      Internet Delivery of Instruction On-line, Email Tutorials,

                      Intranet Web-Based Educational Environments
                     Audio Computer-Based Test for ESL Listening Skills

Understanding:   Interpersonal, one-to-one basis, people-to-people;

Interpreting—Consular, Commercial, Legal, Medical, Technical, On-line; Translation—Electronic, Commercial, Legal, Medical, Technical

Listening:               The process of active listening is an essential and important factor in communication because it allows us to perceive selectively what the information exchange entails, without overlooking details and steps to follow directions.        

 Cause and Effect:  The application of languages as communication tools in the 21^stcentury is  subject to the influence of political and socio-economic developments in the world.  

We need to foster the use and application of languages in education to facilitate communication in a global and local sense, around the world  and in our own communities to become effective and efficient communicators. 

The application of languages as communication tools in the 21^st century is subject to the influence of political and socio-economic developments in the world.

©2012 Communications, Languages & Culture, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Certified Legal Interpreting and Translation in Illinois, USA

I started language interpreting for Action Translation with the Illinois Industrial Commission in Chicago at the James R. Thompson Illinois Government Center when Joseph Raudonis used to live in Palos Heights, Illinois—I found a job wanted ad in the newspaper and telephoned Action Translation for assignments translating legal documents for Spanish into English.

Then,   I met Carmen Kenny, a legal interpreter at the Arbitration Center in Chicago, who was looking for a freelance interpreter and translator who could share legal interpreting assignments in the Chicagoland area, travel on-site to judicial hearings, arbitrations, depositions, and translate legal documents upon assignment for Carmen Kenny & Associates based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

A colleague referred me to Arroyave Academy of Languages managed by Guillermo Arroyave himself in Highland Park and Arlington Heights, who was looking for a communications cross-cultural consultant who could teach foreign languages, interpret, and translate from English into Spanish, French, and/or Portuguese, available for travelling around the Chicagoland area—throughout the counties of Cook, Lake, Will, DuPage, Kane, Grundy, LaSalle, etc.

I had been working for Berlitz Schools of Languages in Chicago, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, and Schaumburg as a language cross-cultural consultant. 

By professional referral and networking, I was contacted by Inlingua Schools in Chicago to work as a professional cross-cultural consultant, language interpreter and translator on-site, in the Chicagoland area.

In addition, I was a member of the American Translators Association and Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters Association.In 1990, I found a newspaper job ad from Diplomatic Languages Service, Inc. , based in Virginia, looking for language interpreters and translators in Chicago, Illinois.

During the 1990’s I interpreted and translated for several Translation Agencies:  Burg Translation, Palencia Language Services,  Interlate Systems, Inc., Linguistic Systems, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, Access Translation managed by Rosa Ridderbusch in Lake Zurich, AIM Translations in Bloomingdale, Illinois. 

Professional Certified Translator, Interpreter for Communications, Languages & Culture, Inc., Consulting Media Arts Communications

©Copyright 2012 Communications, Languages & Culture, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

A Community Interpreter

In September 1977, when I was a freshman at Northeastern Illinois University, in Chicago, Illinois, I used to work as a student aide at the Financial Aid Office, for the Veterans Administration Scholarship department and the UNI Scholarship department, when I was not in class, and I also helped the front desk accepting student financial aid forms and advising students about registration procedures. Since Northeastern Illinois is an urban university, the majority of the student population were urban minorities who commuted to school and work to get a college education in Chicago.

Many of the students were Spanish-speaking people who had just arrived from Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean or Spain and needed to enroll in college courses to learn English and get a college degree or validate their college transcripts from their former countries in the United States.

Since these students spoke Spanish only at the beginning at UNI, whenever they went to the Financial Aid Office, they required an explanation in Spanish of all the financial aid requirements to apply for the Pell Basic Grant, the Illinois State Scholarship and/or student loans. When I was not completing Veterans’ Scholarship forms, totaling veterans’ points for scholarship after military service, typing award letters and post cards for the veterans, filing, and/or managing awards letters or denials for other scholarship funds, I would be asked to work at the front desk informing students and answering the telephone in English and Spanish.
If a Spanish-speaking student was interviewed by a financial aid counselor who only spoke English, sometimes I would be called to interpret from English into Spanish. In so doing, I enjoyed the rapport and the language interaction with my fellow students and fulfilled my responsibility to the community by helping Spanish speakers become mainstreamed into the English-speaking community at Northeastern Illinois University and in Chicago, as I had been during my high school years where I only spoke English and French, in a Catholic parochial school, Madonna High School on the Northwest side of Chicago.

After completing my core curriculum for my Bachelor’s Degree, I decided to focus on double majors in Education to teach languages like English, French, and Spanish, Writing, and minor in Linguistics and Athletics. Having had four years of English and French in high school, I was accelerated into more advanced courses in these two disciplines, so I completed my major requirements early enough that I could regain my usage of the Spanish language through specialized coursework for bilingual Spanish speakers. As I became more proficient in my colloquial use of the Spanish language for bilingual speakers in the Chicago area of the Midwest, I interacted between English and French easily, thus I became multilingual. I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University after five years of study with a B.A. in Secondary Education, Type (09) Illinois State Teaching Certificate, English, French, Spanish, and minors in Linguistics, Writing, and Athletics.

It was through one of my friends, Maureen, that I started doing translation work and language instruction at Translingual International. I also taught at Berlitz Language Schools in Downtown Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Later on, I began to interpret at the Illinois Industrial Commission through Accurate Translations for workers’ compensation arbitration hearings for Spanish-speaking employees who had been injured by work-related accidents.

The last two years of college, I was referred and recommended by my French teacher and her physician friend, for a summer job working for an European travel insurance company, GESA Assistance, S.A., based in Barcelona, Spain, with branches in the U.S., Belgium, France, United Kindgom, Germany, Italy, Portugal, some Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Japan, Australia, Mexico, the Caribbean, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Africa. I was hired part-time as a travel insurance representative to assist European travelers with medical-related and other insurance claims, while traveling in the Americas and around the world.

All GESA personnel spoke English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Catalan, Portuguese, Japanese. Most of these travel medical insurance claims were handled through telephone interpreting, facsimile, and designated agents and physicians in the corresponding countries. Assistance was provided on a 24-hour basis and full medical claims reports were written in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and any other required language to be passed on via facsimile or by telephone relay to the insurer’s country of origin. Many times I was required to provide emergency medical assistance on world-time, that is to say, observing European time, 8-10 hours ahead of U.S. time, contacting Doctors-on-Call or Physicians Without Borders to effect repatriations, emergency hospitalizations, and/or contact attorneys for legal interventions.  During these emergency situations, I developed a quick way to contact medical personnel and/or legal assistance through a zip code grid identifying the area where the insured called by zeroing in on the address zip code to quickly locate assistance on call, at the last minute. This approach was later on used to organize the U.S. GESA Assistance response to the emergency calls from the insured travelers around the world.

Although this part-time job was not well remunerated, I enjoyed working with foreign nationals who traveled world-wide, interpreting and translating for their claims over the telephone, and using multilingual and cultural skills in an international U.S. and European company. I felt I was a community interpreter as I became an essential link between the insured traveler and the GESA Assistance network around the world.

In the past, I have also worked with a federal agency in Virginia, as a community interpreter assigned to federal investigative work under strict confidentiality. In addition, I have done extensive legal interpreting for workmen’s compensation at the Industrial Commission in Chicago; as well as in the Illinois judicial system in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, and LaSalle counties. While doing graduate work for communications at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, I was a also a volunteer community interpreter at the Emergency Room for elderly Spanish and English-speaking patients for a study sponsored by the Gerontological Society of America.

Having worked for the U.S. Department of Labor as a medical claims examiner, and as an insurance customer agent for travelers, also provided excellent background for medical interpreting experience to teach Medical Spanish at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.

So, I have become an incidental community interpreter, in addition to being an educator in Illinois, as I fine-tuned my language skills in English, Spanish, French, and later studied basic Portuguese and Japanese in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

As a community interpreter I feel that I am able to help people using languages to communicate better and assimilate in the community where they live for the benefit of all involved, you, me, and the community. Thus languages are not only used to express our thoughts, ideas, and emotions, but also become working tools for communicating the needs of the community within cultural contexts in the 21st century.

“Frequently Asked Questions about Interpreting” by G.C. Hung, M.A., B.A.,  http://www.americantranslators.org/divisions/FLD/fldfaqs.htm
TIP Lab Seminar for Interpretation and Translation by Holly Mikkelson, Ph.D.

©2012 Communications, Languages & Culture, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.