Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña
I am a graduate in translation and interpreting who wants to develop his skills in public service interpreting.
Location Spain
Activity
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
Thank you very much again, I hope you guys create more courses like this!
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
In my university degree we covered very little about humanitarian interpreting. I am very glad that a friend of mine sent me this course, because I have learnt a lot about what it is, what are the many challenges that one can face, and most importantly, the theoretic training about the different experiences and traumas that refugees may have suffered and how...
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Very true, help and support are crucial, and one should not be ashamed to ask.
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I agree with you, voluntary work and shadowing can be very helpful to improve!
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1. Maybe different kinds of migrants status can lead to different procedures. In that case, knowledge of those procedures, theory and vocabulary, is key. Also, migration has various causes, so to stay informed about current war conflicts, and the economic an social situation of the person´s country can be very useful.
2. I haven't started my professional... -
Moreover, interpreters are (or should be) professionals, people that know their field of knowledge and know their job, just as a doctor. Is a doctor´s impartiality compromised when they see a patient that is their neighbor or friend? Is a professional interpreter´s impartiality truly going to be compromised by this? I truly don´t know, but I would like to read...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
Sincerely, I really don't know. I have not worked as an interpreter and I can't say at what point could it affect professionalism. However, I have to say that I don´t like the fact that most of my colleagues said that befriending and even personal contact should be avoided. We have seen in the article that sometimes it is impossible no to empathize with the...
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Thank you for this material! I have found this article and the Pasalo project very interesting and enriching.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I have not encountered such situations, but I think that agencies should provide the interpreters with psychological services. Having to interpret traumatic events, being asked to help in personal problems and not knowing how to deal with a client who relays on them as their only contact with the country can have psychological and emotional impact on the...
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I think you are totally right. We cannot simply reject to empathize with those people, but to learn how to help them without going out of our role.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I believe that it is not the interpreters' job to judge whether the information they are translating is true or false, that's the job of the officers, judges, etc. The job of the interpreter is to allow and ease communications between parties. That said, if it is the case of an officer that misunderstands a piece of information due to cultural/lingüistic...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I think a good way to ensure good practice is the appliance of supervision tools, so that agencies and officers can identify this kind of issues. Also, making sure asylum seekers know their rights, so that they are aware that this kind of practices are illegal, and can contact officers to make complaints about the interpreter.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
Being in the waiting room sitting side by side can lead to the client, as seen in the film, to start personal conversations, ask for advice or other types of interaction that can compromise the role of the interpreter. I think the interpreter did the right thin here, because she didn't cut the chat (all in all, conversation is human and in spite of being an...
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I don´t think practices like this should be considered criminal offense, as long as they don't cause serious consequences. As other learners have pointed out, disciplinary sanctions in some cases could be useful, but the most important thing would be a previous training, a good code of ethics and communication with other colleagues in order to solve doubts,...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
The similarities between the two code of ethics are the focus on general concepts such as confidentiality, conflict of interest or respect. Both codes wish to transmit the idea that the interpreter should treat the others with respect, give faithful translations, accept only those jobs for which their are trained and in which there are no conflict of interests...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
In my country (Spain), there is not an unified code of conduct for interpreters, there are certain organizations that have one as a way of suggesting good practices, but there is no code or law that regulates the standards.
I strongly recommend the creation of a general code of ethics because it is the best way to ensure good practices in this field,...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
1. An interpreter should always seek to be as accurate as possible, but as stated in the article, accuracy does not necessarily mean literal. In medical contexts, scientific terms are fixed concepts with fixed terminologies, but the ways of expressing pain and emotion differ from one language to another. In this case, accuracy does not mean to translate word...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I don´t work as an interpreter, therefore i cannot anything from my personal experience. However, I have learnt a lot reading my fellow learners' comments. Thank you so much for your advises and experiences.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I knew that sometimes there are court proceedings that are made via video-conference, but I couldn't imagine that the person requesting bail stayed in the detention center. I also didn't know that hiring an interpreter was the detainee´s responsibility, as a human being they have the right to go through this process in equal conditions as someone who knows the...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I think an introductory conversation should be settled in order to ensure that the asylum seeker and the interpreter understand each other fully. If after this conversation, or during the session, the interpreter notices that they don´t understand fully the asylum seeker or vice versa, a new interpreter should be contacted in order to avoid possible...
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Hi @EiraStuart, have you ever had to deal with an interpreting situation in which you haven´t been warned which was the country of origin of the person? (apart from their language)
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@EnriqueSanchezAlacid I have hear that sentence about 'translating cultures' too, and I think it fits perfectly in the context above.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
In relation to the first question, of course. Cultural background is key to properly understand the intentions an the meaning of the message of the client. It allows the interpreter to identify linguistic or manners misunderstandings. It is difficult though because there is not an unique cultural experience withing a single country, but instead each one has...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
First of all, the interpreter encountered two cultural challenges: noticing that everyone took their shoes off and the offering of beverages by the mother-in-law. I think these are not minor issues, as the interpreter has to know about these cultural manners. I have read a comment stating that there is a hygienic protocol not to do so, but this could make the...
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Although I don´t work yet as an interpreter (therefore I don´t have support and supervision) I find it specially important, as it helps the interpreter manage the emotions that arise in a therapeutic context, easing the practice of interpreting during the appointment and also relieving the possible psychological aftermath afterwards.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I think the interpreter has done a good job emulating the patient´s face and tone of pain as it helps to transmit the intensity of the feeling. Maybe, although signs of pain are almost universal, them being expressed in a neutral way by the interpreter, can convey a false image that the pain is less serious.
Apart from that, taking into account that the...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
In Spanish "estar de bajona" or "tener un bajón" (to feel down), means that you are having a moment or day in which you feel tired, lazy, sad and don´t have energy to do anything.
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
I don´t have further ideas on this topics, you guys (teachers and learners) have covered pretty much everything, congratulations!
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I have never been invited to give my opinion on such a matter. On the contrary, guessing someone´s origin from their language seems to be a very difficult task: the language of your country of origin can be different from your mother tongue if your parents are from another country, for example. And there are a lot of languages that don´t belong to a single...
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It could occur that this person is more fluent in Scots than in English, so it could be more difficult for them to express themselves and understand the conversation in a truly natural way. Also, if the person is not fluent in English, and therefore talks in Scots, it could be very difficult for the interpreter to understand the dialect. The issue is that the...
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I could understand certain words due to its similarity with English, but unfortunately not enough to understand whole sentences...
Anyway, my translation for the first verse would be: "Los niños se acurrucan en la noche".
"Acurrucarse" means to 'curl up', so I think it transmits very well the sense of 'getting warm and comfortable'. It also means to come...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
Maybe after some time and experience, one can interpret in a more mechanic way, in the sense that he/she is accustomed to the job, knows their code of conduct and does not have to deal with the insecurity of the first meetings. But of course it is always creative, apart form scientific concepts, there are not fixed translations for phrases, and also depending...
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During my studies at the university, we interpreted a talk of a woman who shared her experiences as a victim of sex-trafficking. Even it being a video, it was still very difficult, emotional and linguistically, to interpret. One could not always find the right words to translate and express what the woman was sharing, as it was difficult to find the specific...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
The first challenge that comes to my mind is the variety of fields of knowledge that interpreters must know (law, health issues, economic background, social services, etc.) in order to be able to understand and translate the conversations or documents. There are also different proceedings in every context, with different types of relationships between the two...
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@JamieSpurway I wasn´t aware of that, it´s such a shame. There should be some kind of way to host this people, whether or not they are 'refugees' they still need that help. I have always wonder how this practices are not demanded as a violation of the human right to enter any country or to change their residence.
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- I was aware that there was a difference between 'being a refugee' and being granted the status of refugee, but I din´t know exactly which criteria was required for being so, nor I knew the distinction between the 'past-related' and 'future-related' approach.
- I think the distinction is useful in order to differentiate the general understanding of the... -
Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
As far as I am concerned, a refugee is a person who is escaping from a situation of war, natural disaster, poverty or discrimination/persecution for political/religious reasons and seeks asylum or even protection in a foreign country.
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I think family members should be used only if a professional interpreter is not available when there is a life-threatening situation, an immediate need (such as an appointment that cannot be delayed) or a lack of economic support to afford an interpreter, i.e. an extreme necessity situation. Otherwise, whenever a professional interpreter can attend, it is...
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- One of the risks is that there is an emotional relation between them and, sometimes, interpreting a speech where this family member is talking about a traumatic event can be very difficult. Apart from that it can be the case that the one who interprets is a minor, and they lack the emotional and skillful knowledge to approach this situations. In more serious...
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In Spain there are some universities that offer the degree in translation and interpretation but it does not exist an official Diploma required to work as a translator/interpreter. Most of the times bilingual people with no specific training are the ones who do the job, because in general there are few requirements in order to apply for this position, and...
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Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
- I think 'humanitarian interpreting' deals with people suffering from social or economic problems and its goal is to ensure they have access to their basic human rights and are able to live with dignity in places which are not their countries of origin.
- I think so, because the objectives pursued in this context need a professional with (inter)cultural,... -
Javier Díaz-Pintado Peña made a comment
Hello!
I am a graduate in translation and interpreting for English and German combined with my mother tongue: Spanish. I have spent one year in Germany due to an Erasmus+ programme and recently did my TFG (dissertation) about public service interpreting in Spain. I wish to become a public service interpreter in the future, that is why I joined this course and...
