In accordance with Assembly Bill (AB) 635 (Atkins, Chapter 600, Statutes of 2016) which was passed with little objection, and Senate Bill (SB) 165 (Atkins, Chapter 365, Statutes of 2019) which passed unanimously:

On August 31, 2021, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced that Medi-Cal beneficiaries will be receiving increased interpreter support in several regions in California, including Contra Costa County. The aim of this was to ensure that all patients, no matter what language they speak, are able to receive the care that they deserve without having to worry about communication.

The project is called Medical Interpretation Pilot Project. Through the legislatively mandated project, medical interpreters in the following languages are needed or will be called upon. This is to cover Medi-Cal assignments in the area either on-site or remotely, either via phone or video conferencing.

Arabic
Armenian
Cambodian
Cantonese
Dari
Farsi
Hindi
Hmong
Japanese
Korean
Laotian
Mam
Mandarin
Mien
Mixteco
Pashto
Punjabi
Russian
Spanish
Tagalog
Thai
Vietnamese

Monterey Language Services is proud to be part of the MIPP team, providing interpretation services in Richmond/Antioch area.

Some countries, like Canada, have two or more official languages. This usually means that everything is required by federal law to be provided in both languages; in Canada, these are English and French. The United States as a country doesn’t have such a law, but there are other federal regulations regarding language access that have been implemented throughout time. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” which encompasses discrimination based on English proficiency. In 2000, Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13166, entitled “Improving Access to Services for Persons With Limited English Proficiency,” to specifically address the issue of language access for limited English proficiency (LEP) individuals in America.

Some language access decisions and regulations are left to the states to determine as well. This allows states to customize their requirements based on the actual people who live in that state. For example, a study conducted by the National Health Law Program found that in California, there are 257 legal provisions related to language access in health care alone. In Wyoming, there are only four. There are many LEP communities and a wide range of different languages that are spoken in California compared to Wyoming, which is one reason why California has so many more regulations regarding language access.

Language access has incredibly important legal implications for many types of service providers. Each one needs to be sure that they are following the law and providing support for all necessary languages. Language service providers (LSPs) like Monterey Language Services make it possible to provide services in any necessary language. LSPs usually have a great understanding of the legal requirements and can even provide consultations on how to provide linguistic support that follows the law.

Even if there are no laws specifically governing language access for your product or service, you would want to make it as accessible as possible to clients and consumers. After all, the more people who can understand your offering, the more people who are likely to use or buy it!

At Monterey Language Services we are passionate about expanding language access; we believe that everyone has the right to communicate with people and understand information in the way that is best for them, and that often means it will not be done only in English. We work hard to provide services in languages that are as common as Spanish to ones that are rare like Triqui, so that everyone no matter who they are can both listen and be heard.

Through accurate and clear translation of corporate communication materials, customers and employees can gain a better understanding of the corporate message and guidelines and can thus better contribute to the greater success of the corporation.

Global companies working with Monterey Language Services are growing stronger because they have chosen a translation and interpretation company that gives individualized attention to each translation project entrusted to them.

Our company stands firmly by what we believe in and provides the following to our global corporate customers.

Specialty: Translation and interpretation that require high level of expertise

Domains: Medical, legal, technical, and business subjects

Approach: Clear, accurate, and complete translation and interpretation

Value: Professional, efficient, and high quality services

Languages provided: Over 175 languages (including Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Malay, German, French, Indonesian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi Norwegian, Polish, Russian and more)

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us for a quote.

Our interpreters are professionally qualified. They have studied translation and interpretation at the graduate or undergraduate level, or are professionally certified, or have received training in medical, legal and technical subject areas. They are experienced medical interpreters, legal interpreters and technical interpreters. Furthermore, they pursue continuing on-the-job training and education.

Our interpreters are not only local, able to come to our headquarters or to our client sites to perform services, but also distant, working remotely through a range of technology options such as video remote.

Our interpreters work consecutively, but also at conference, offering simultaneous interpretation.

Monterey Language Services has been providing language support to hospitals for years. A short list includes Spanish, ASL, Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin and Cantonese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Punjabi, Gujarati, and indigenous languages such as Triqui, Mixteco, Zapotec. Even when a rare language is needed, we can vet and bring interpreters to our customers in a matter of hours.

We stand by ready 24-7, either work with a regular schedule of interpreting appointments, or provide last minute on-demand interpretation, for example for a hospital’s emergency needs.

It is our goal at Monterey Language Services to provide a full line of interpretation services. And it is to that end that we maintain our huge pool of professional interpreters to serve you whenever or wherever you need them.

Monterey Language Services strives to provide the highest quality of translation and interpretation services. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

It may involve a dozen sound engineers to make preparations ahead of time.  First, several booths must be set up for the interpreters. Each will represent one language and contain interpreters all working at the same time. The location of the booths should allow all interpreters to see the speaker and the activities on stage while the booths should blend in with the conference setting.

Before the conference starts, the interpretation system has to be connected and tested to ensure each booth’s interpretation can be clearly heard from the headsets that will be provided to the audience.

When the audience gets there, each member is provided a headset connected to a radio-like device that receives the channels of interpretation in different languages (English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, etc.). Using all of this high-tech equipment makes you feel like you’re in the U.N.

The interpreters should arrive early and get as much information beforehand as possible.  Simultaneous interpretation is a very difficult and energy-consuming task. Therefore, there are usually two to three interpreters in each booth. They are like a relay race team, taking turns to interpret, 20 minutes each turn. While one interpreter is interpreting, the others must also listen to the speaker so that the next interpreter knows when it is his or her turn to interpret. The three interpreters also depend on each other for help. For example, they may need their partners to write down big numbers or look up the terms in the glossary. Teamwork is crucial to the success of the interpretation.

At the end of the communication relay race, every audience member has understood the conference. The team feels mission accomplished. Monterey Language Services is getting ready for one such conference as we speak. We look forward to helping the panel communicate to the audience.

Since its creation, Twitter has been a worldwide phenomenon that has connected everyday people with their favorite celebrities, friends, and everyone in between.  Although the service has been provided worldwide, the company has been trying to translate the business tools into 33 languages in order to reach an even broader audience.

These languages include: Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

At the Twitter Translation Center, translators can sign on using their Twitter account and help translate various blocks of text for the company. The upside for the translator is experience in the field, as well as their name possibly on the “Top Ten Translators” for those who have been translating the most.

The @MRYLanguages Twitter account isn’t in this top ten just yet, but it does connect directly with Director of Translation Mei-Ling Chen where she will gladly answer questions posed about the company, translation services, or any other related topic in the industry.

Another sport that constantly uses interpreters is Major League Baseball. Currently, the majority of the league is Latino based. Often, to avoid misinterpretation, players will hire interpreters whenever they have press conferences to announce anything important, such as a player signing or a player retiring. Another strong presence in the MLB is from Japan.  These players always have interpreters when they first come to the league, for they are still assimilating to the American culture while trying to adjust to playing at the highest professional level of baseball.

A third sport that relies on interpreters heavily is basketball. Next to soccer, the NBA is the most global sport. Many of players have been drafted overseas to come to America so that they can have a chance at playing against the best talent in the world. Also, some players leave America to try to find a job playing basketball in other countries. For both situations, interpreters are needed to break down the language gap for these athletes so they can focus on their job as professional basketball players.

In this era of social media and instant communication, translation has stepped up to meet the needs for the Facebook generation. Most people have some friends on Facebook who speaks more than one language; personally I see posts in Spanish, Italian, French, and Croatian.

Recently, I have noticed a new feature underneath these posts in languages other than English that says “See Translation.” This is a button to click that will automatically translate the above text to English, or whatever default language you may have. I tried this out with a post in Spanish and the results were subpar. Instead of translating the text as a complete sentence, this feature translated every word individually, which can change the understanding of the post.

If I knew someone was translating my Facebook posts from English into a language of their choice, I think it could be unfortunate for them to take the post out of context because of poor translation. This could cause for a strain on a relationship with someone who is a Facebook friend, but may speak a different language.

The benefits are for those trying to learn and practice their vocabulary with a new language. It can be beneficial to follow a celebrity who posts in Spanish with proper vocabulary and translate their posts into English. Another way it can be positive is that these words that were once unknown can at least be given a general idea of what the post is about. Pau Gasol is one person who writes his posts in English followed by the same post in Spanish in order to avoid confusion.

By Sam Pereira

Why is it important that a translation service is located in Monterey Bay? Well, some of the finest language institutes are located in Monterey. The Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and the Defense Language Institute (DLI) are specialized institutions. The DLI also does research in the Language field and provides linguistic and cultural instruction for the Department of Defense. MIIS provides 15 different fields of study within the umbrella of Language studies. Some of these include Social Change, Terrorism Studies, Environment, Business Studies, and Translation.

Along with these schools, California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has many students graduating with a degree in Japanese or Spanish. CSUMB also provides classes in American Sign Language (ASL) and introduces students to the deaf culture. Many of the students who graduate with these majors have also studied abroad and have been immersed in the culture with which they study. The same kind of culture can be found at MIIS and the DLI.

Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) also provides language classes that include ASL, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. This concentration of high quality language instruction in the area calls for the inclusion of a high quality translation service.  ~ By Sam Pereira

Monterey Language Services is happy to call this place “home”.

Marina, Calif. – October 17, 2011 – Monterey Language Services (http://www.montereylanguages.com) today announced that it has served 50 new clients in the last 15 months, as the interpretation and translation company continues rapid growth in a sluggish economy.

Through its contracts, Monterey Language Services, located in the Marina Technology Cluster, Marina’s business incubator, has provided interpretation services to many people in the county who have limited English proficiency.

“Just through our contract with Natividad Medical Center alone, we have served hundreds of patients whose first languages are Spanish, Chinese, Korean or other indigenous languages such as Mixteco, Triqui, Zapoteco, and Chatino,” said CEO Mei-Ling Chen.  “We have also been able to assist persons who communicate through American Sign Language.”

Monterey Language Services’ ability to provide interpretation for over 175 languages and dialects is the key to their rapid growth, according to Chen.  In one day, the company handled 19 languages through several contracts.  The largest number of different languages translated on a single project was 18.  The company has access to 2,000 translators world wide and has contracted with nearly 100 so far.

Chen, a graduate of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, attributes the company’s success to the high quality of their translation and interpretation services.  In a bad economy, says Chen, what is needed is to be resourceful, dynamic, flexible and efficient.  Chen is pro-active in reaching out to researchers, community leaders, and people in indigenous towns around the world to get to know interpreters speaking different kinds of languages.

The clients of Monterey Language Services include embassies who help citizens conduct business in the area, law offices who hold depositions, and corporations such as Hewlett-Packard who want to find the best language interpretation support for their most important foreign customers.

“And they found us here right in Monterey,” said Chen, “the language capital of the world.”