An Example

Imagine an elderly woman being brought to a hospital, accompanied by her grandson. The family has only recently moved to the USA from Oaxaca Mexico, but the elderly woman’s first language is Triqui Bajo, an indigenous Oaxacan language. While her grandson understands his grandmother’s speech and can communicate with her, his native language is Spanish.

If an Triqui Bajo interpreter were not provided, the woman would have to speak to her grandson in Triqui Bajo about the pain in her stomach, the grandson relaying her words to the best of his ability in Spanish to the interpreter or hospital staff. Like the children’s version of the “telephone game,” there’s a high chance that some, if not much, information will be lost. As the grandson was not well versed in Triqui Bajo, he may be missing critical vocabulary, such as anything from “fracture” to “pneumonia,” “hernia,” and beyond.

What this Means

This lack of a matching language pair can inhibit the service that a client receives. In severe cases in a medical setting, this can be a matter of life and death. This case study highlights the importance of translators and especially interpreters who are fluent in minority languages. It’s critical to find people with knowledge of these languages. If due to the last minute nature, an in-person interpreter is not available, remote interpretation methods should kick in.

Imagine that they were able to get an interpreter for Triqui Bajo and English; this would allow for a direct flow of communication between the elderly woman and the hospital staff. Response time for treatment would subsequently be quicker, and the woman might therefore feel more comfortable and confident that she is receiving adequate care. While the grandson might need his own English/Spanish interpreter to understand fully the treatment decisions, that could easily be delegated to another interpreter and not require a stretched out “telephone game” where meaning can be lost.

Monterey Language Services provides translation and interpretation services for all languages and is very strong in providing Triqui Bajo interpretation Services. Every day, we send Triqui Bajo interpreters to cover medical interpretation assignments or IEP (Individualized Education Program) assignments. There have been some high profile Triqui Bajo legal interpretation cases served by Monterey Language Services as well.

We’d like to share an interesting video lecture we’ve found. Taking care of our bodies is an important part of living a happy, healthy life, but are there other keys to being our best future selves?
VIDEO – Robert Waldinger: What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness

Here are some of highlights of the video:

Since 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has tracked the lives of 724 men in an effort to learn what makes people happy. Their simple conclusion: social connection is really good for us, and good relationships lead to longer, healthier, and happier lives. Participants of the study who had more and better relationships with friends, family, and community were physically healthier, happier, and lived longer than participants who were more isolated, or had bad relationships.

At Monterey Language Services we are fortunate, because our work involves frequent interaction with communities; whether locally, nationally, or around the world, we are connected. The uniqueness of our profession as a translation and interpretation provider has brought us a great sense of fulfillment and happiness, and we hope we can convey that same feeling to people we work with. Our work is no longer limited to the mechanical and technical – it’s about human interaction, having something to contribute, and connecting with the world.

Monterey Language Services is committed to bridging the world’s languages by providing quality, professional and efficient translation & interpretation services in over 175 languages. Please feel free to request a quote from us.