Not Quite Magic: Recent Episodes
Elena Langdon
Not Quite Magic is a Seven Sisters podcast about interpreters. We interview interpreters (aka, translators who work with spoken or signed words) about what they do: their joys, their struggles, and how they do what often seems like magic. Elena Langdon, with added support from Liz Essary and Laura Holcomb, talks to professionals who are on the frontlines of this work every day - the sometimes hidden experts in a fascinating and essential line of work.
In the episode, Elena talks to Jaime Russell, a Spanish-English certified ATA translator and certified healthcare interpreter. The focus of the new season is AI and its role and place in interpreting. Before that topical discussion, we discussed the profession in South America, how Jaime got started and what changes she has made in her career. music in Season 2: Small Town Boy by | e s c p | https://www.escp.spacehttps://escp-music.bandcamp.com
Recorded on April 10, 2020.
Interviewee: Katharine Allen, co-founder of InterpretAmerica
Interviewer: Elena Langdon, Seven Sisters Interpreter Training & Consulting
Season One topic: Remote Interpreting
Graphics by Marcelle Carlson
Music by Clover Fortier
Topics discussed include:
- remote interpreting and what to call it
- Katharine's experience with remote interpreting
- how the COVID pandemic affected language access and remote interpreting
- visibility and wages in the profession
- love and gratitude in Katharine's work
- rapid-fire round
Join us live for our debrief of this episode on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, on our YouTube channel.
People and organizations mentioned in this episode:
- Barry Slaughter Olsen
- Ewandro Magalhães
- KUDO
- Renato Beninatto
- Nimdzi
- Zoom
- Vonessa Costa
- Cambridge Health Alliance
Here are some of the highlights of what we discussed:
- Bindiya's experience as an interpreter and her transition to remote interpreting
- Bindiya's passion for providing language access
- working as an interpreter of a language of lesser diffusion (LLD)
- working for Found in Translation, a non-profit that provides free training and job placement development for refugee women in Massachusetts
- motherhood and her "quarantine survival method" related to that
- why Bindiya sees herself as a hummingbird
- kidneys
Bindiya believes in language access and equity. She is a community-based educator, healthcare administrator, and an advocate with a focus on healthcare interpreting. She speaks Nepali and is actively involved with the Bhutanese refugee population in MA. She has a Masters in International Development and Social Change from Clark University. She is a freelance CCHI-certified Medical Interpreter and a Certified Court Interpreter in Nepali.
Bindiya has worked in refugee resettlement from 2007 to 2013 and has extensive experience in immigration law. Since 2013, she has worked at Caregiver Homes and provides operational support to Adult Foster Care programs along with online digital care coaching for Nepali speaking caregivers. At present she holds a position of Program Director, Interpreter Education at Found in Translation. She is responsible for interpreting program designs, implementation, mentoring new trainers and providing continuing education opportunities for trained interpreters. Also, she is a trainer for Nepali medical interpreter students in various platforms across the state of MA. In all her roles, she has been a passionate advocate for languages of lesser diffusion like Nepali and promotes language access for essential community services.
This episode was recorded on June 19, 2020.
For more information on Seven Sisters, check out our website
For more information on Found in Translation, go here
Music by Emmitt Fenn
Graphic by Marcelle Carlson
Melissa Mann is a certified translator, conference interpreter, voiceover artist, and language-services consultant who specializes in crafting messages across languages. She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a globetrotter who has lived and worked in the US, Mexico, and Brazil, a member of AIIC, APIC, and SINTRA, and certified by ATA and ABRATES. When not running or woodworking, she shares her insights on Big Booth Words, Take It From a Translator, and Goodreads. Her website is http://arbor-tr.com/.
Date of interview: April 10, 2020
Topics included in this interview include:
- How Melissa got started as an interpreter, including what sort of education and training she pursued
- How much she works remotely and how much in person, and where
- How and why Melissa started working as a remote interpreter
- The ideal types of meetings for remote conference interpreting
- Fatigue in remote interpreting
- What remote interpreters should NOT do
- How to explain to clients what needs to happen for a remote interpreting event to be successful
- Turn-taking in remote interpreting
- Conference interpreting market in the United States and Brazil
- Client education
- Boothmate dynamics
- Rapid-fire questions
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Training courses:
CCIC: http://www.cciconline.net/ CCIC
Daniele Fonseca (part of Coletivo Intérpretes): https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielefonsecainterpreteaiic
co>lab: https://colabinterpreting.com/
EPIC, a course hosted by Língua Franca: http://lftraducoes.com.br/
HIIT, offered by Versão Brasileira: http://www.versaobrasileira.com/
Melissa's favorite podcast:
The Allusionist: https://www.theallusionist.org/
Interview conducted by Elena Langdon - elena@7sisterslearn.com
Vonessa Costa is director of Multicultural Affairs and Patient Services at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), named “Best in Class for Delivering Culturally and Linguistically Competent Patient Care throughout the Organization” by the Institute for Diversity in Health Management (2010). Vonessa co-leads CHA’s video interpreting program honored with a 2014 Amerinet Healthcare Achievement Award for technological advances that have enhanced CHA’s ability to care for a diverse patient population. Prior to her current position, Vonessa was director of the Cross Cultural Communication Institute at CCCS, Inc., where she specialized in interpreter development and provider training in intercultural communication. Vonessa is a CoreCHI™ practitioner credentialed by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. She is secretary of the Forum on the Coordination of Interpreter Services and former secretary of the International Medical Interpreters Association. Vonessa is a graduate of the Americas Essential Hospitals Fellows Program, and a 2019 MassAHEC Tony Windsor Award recipient.
Music by Clover Fortier
Podcast graphic art by Marcelle Carlson
Interview conducted by Elena Langdon - info@7sisterslearn.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/elenalangdon
Interviewee: Ernest Niño Murcia - ENM_Interpreter (Twitter) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/enminterpreter/
Ernest Niño-Murcia is a freelance legal interpreter and translator based in Des Moines, Iowa. He received a B.A. in Anthro-Linguistics from Brown University. As a state and federally certified court interpreter, he has interpreted legal proceedings and prepared translations, transcriptions and expert witness reports/testimony for clients in the private and public sectors. He is a member of the Iowa Judicial Branch´s Language Access in the Courts Committee.
Outside of court, he has interpreted for public figures such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. He is currently working with Iowa PBS providing live interpretation for broadcasts of Governor Kim Reynolds’ daily press briefings on the COVID-19 crisis.
Additionally, Ernest is a Jeopardy! Champion (2012), whose greatest achievement on the show was beating an attorney to the buzzer to answer "co-defendant" in the "11 letter words" category.
Music by Clover Fortier
Podcast graphic art by Marcelle Carlson