Tag: public service interpreting
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999 Interpreting: Interview with an Emergency Call Handler
This month, I’ve had the privilege to sit down and interview an emergency call handler for the UK’s 999 ambulance service. This is some of the highest-stakes interpreting there is, with added distractions, time pressure and stress all adding to what is already a difficult task. I interviewed B, who has worked as an emergency…
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PSI Struggles- Working with Young Children
When working as a PSI interpreter, especially in healthcare or social services, there will be assignments when young children are present- I often hear them running amok in the background of interpreted telephone calls. They usually cause minimal issues or distractions, but when a child is the focus of an appointment, in pediatrics, for example,…
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Maintaining professional boundaries as a PSI interpreter
In lectures and interpreters’ Codes of Conduct, one principle that is repeated ad nauseam is the deceptively simple order to “maintain professional boundaries and refrain from personally engaging with the client”. What nobody mentions is that this seemingly redundantly obvious concept is one of the hardest to uphold in public service environments, even despite the…
Georgia Meakins 