Coordinating events, appointments, and just regular life is hard enough already, right? Finding out that you’ll be needing to find the perfect interpreter(s) for your event to be fully accessible to everyone involved can add a layer of stress. Well, let’s take some of that pressure right back off by discussing 5 requests you can make when booking an interpreter to find the perfect one(s) to fit everyone’s needs! These 5 requests are:
- Gender Expression
- Experience in Specific Topics
- Familial Background
- Cultural Competency
- Region
Gender Expression
The first request we’ll cover is gender expression. Are you coordinating an event about women’s health or hosting a panel to discuss a new form of contraception? Or maybe you just have a patient with an appointment for an OBGYN checkup. Do you feel like a female identifying individual would best be suited to match the knowledge needed for these types of occurrences, or even add to the comfort levels of the client the interpreter is there to service? You can request that!
Experience in Specific Topics
Next up is experience in specific topics. Let’s say for example you’re in charge of a seminar where astrophysicists from around the world will be giving lectures about Pulsars. What the heck is a Pulsar?! You don’t need to know, but it might help if your interpreter has an idea. Let the agency find you one that has interpreted for NASA for 20 years. The person that has a collection of space books next to their framed degree with that random minor in astronomy they chose after going to space camp their whole lives. You can request that!
Familial Background
Our magic number 3 is familial background. You may have a family of clients immigrating to the US from Bangladesh and be looking for a Bengali Interpreter. There may be 5 or 6 options from the agency to fit this need, but only one or two of these are persons that are Bangladeshis themselves, or hail from families of Bangladeshi immigrants. This can change the dynamic between the clients with the interpreter in many ways. Wanting someone who truly understands what it’s like for this family on a personal level may better “fit the bill”. You can request that!
Cultural Competency
The following request we have is cultural competency. Our example for this will be needing an American Sign Language Interpreter for a Deaf client who will be attending an Asian wedding, complete with a special time-honored tea ceremony. These customs are something learned and experienced in life for full understanding of the rules and procedures. It would be ideal to find an ASL Interpreter with cultural understanding of these important traditions or that has personal experience with this type of ceremony growing up in their own Asian family. You can request that!
Region
Last, we’ll discover the world of being able to request interpreters based on region. One fun thing about language is that it grows and evolves the most wherever it’s located. But we also know that many languages are spread out across the world in places that aren’t always near one another. Let’s say you have a French client(s) straight out of Paris. Just asking for any French interpreter may mean you are assigned someone from a French speaking area of Canada. The language is fundamentally the same, but things like regional slang and accent can affect the message from being the smoothest. While many agencies will automatically take this into account when sourcing their interpreting partners, these details can sometimes be missed in back and forth communication. Guess what?! You can request that!
When you’re ready to book your next interpreter, head over to make that request with us here.
