02
November
2015
|
15:44 PM
America/Chicago

Found in Translation: UHD Course Addresses Language Barriers

UHD students, alumni, and professionals attended a court interpreting seminar to receive training on ethics, legal proceedings and interpreting techniques tested in the Certified Court Interpreter Examination administered by the Texas Judicial Branch Certification Commission.

This continuing education course is taught by Master Licensed Court Interpreter Graciela Zozaya, with more than 30 years of experience in the fields of translation and interpreting.

Such training courses are key to preparing future interpreters.

José Jaimes, who completed an introductory court interpreter course at UHD in 2014, passed the examination with a Master License designation.

"Without the court interpreting course, I probably would not have been able to go through the process of obtaining my license," Jaimes said. "The information and personal connections that came from the course gave me a good foundation regarding the profession and, most importantly, I obtained the confidence and motivation to do the required studying and practice, which was substantial for me since prior to this I was in a completely different industry."

Now in its second year and with 57 graduates, UHD's court interpreting program is expanding. A training on medical interpreting has been scheduled for Jan. 22, 23, 29 and 30 and Feb. 6, 2016.

Court seminar students have diverse linguistic backgrounds, with participants who are fluent in Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Russian, Italian, Turkish and French. The next court interpreting course will run May 13, 14, 20, 21 and 27, 2016.

Questions about these courses should be directed to the program coordinator, Rey Romero, Ph.D., at romerore@uhd.edu.