ProZ.com Translation Forums

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Other

MollyRose — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:00:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: MollyRose
Post title: Other

In our large school district, there are translator-interpreters assigned to many of the schools, with about 15 languages represented. Some of them are at one school and others are assigned to several schools, depending on the language populations. When a school needs a legal, complicated, or long translation or an interpretation for a meeting outside of these assignments, they can send a request to the English Learner office and a specialist will do the job.

The main purpose for this service is for the parents, not the students. Communications from the schools or district office to parents, handbooks, flyers, forms, legal info, callouts and emails, etc. The meetings covered are usually for special ed, parent-teacher conferences, behavior problems, etc., and also to interpret for meetings for groups of parents.

To fill in any gaps (mostly over-the-phone interpretation), they also have a contract with a translation agency.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | double-edged sword

Zea_Mays — Thu, 22 May 2025 09:13:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: double-edged sword

[quote]Marjolein Snippe wrote:

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

(I wonder what the role of translators would be?) [/quote]

Schools here don't usually employ translators or interpreters.
In schools with many children from immigrant families, I could imagine both would be useful for communication with parents. [/quote]

It's been a time ago when I read about some studies around this topic. Providing interpretation services turned out to be a double-edged sword - it eases communication at the top level, but in the long term it tends to keep adults from learning the local language.
In my region, it would also be impossible to have interpreters and translators for all the new languages - there are people from Albania, India, Pakistan, Romania, China, Ukraine, various North African countries, the Philippines, Kurds and many more. Neither does English help, as not all speak it.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Parent-teacher meetings

Lingua 5B — Thu, 22 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Lingua 5B
Post title: Parent-teacher meetings

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

Schools here rather focus on empowering the kids through language promotion - makes also more sense.
A 'problem' is in some cases kids not speaking the language used at the school (German, Italian or - rather rarely - Ladin), but interpreters wouldn't help.
(I wonder what the role of translators would be?) [/quote]

Yes, for parents. For instance, in parent-teacher meetings. Sometimes there are hearing kids with deaf parents, then technically the kid could interpret between parents and the teacher (as they are often sign language-spoken language bilinguial) but there is a bias, and hence family members are not allowed to interpret in official meetings. That’s one example requiring a sign language interpreter.

To answer the question - no, the schools in my area definitely do not employ interpreters. I assume they may hire them on an as-needed basis.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Communication with parents

Marjolein Snippe — Thu, 22 May 2025 08:53:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Marjolein Snippe
Post title: Communication with parents

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

(I wonder what the role of translators would be?) [/quote]

Schools here don't usually employ translators or interpreters.
In schools with many children from immigrant families, I could imagine both would be useful for communication with parents. I used to help a lady from the DRC learn Dutch and in the process told her that no, her 12-year-old would not be able to select his secondary school all by himself, she and/or her husband would have to help him. I am fairly sure they received letters about this from the school, but these would have been in Dutch. As they would have been addressed to the parents, I don't think the boy would have been able to explain clearly to his parents what was expected from them.

The same thing probably applies to any other letter or email addressed to the parents.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | no

Zea_Mays — Thu, 22 May 2025 07:45:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: no

Schools here rather focus on empowering the kids through language promotion - makes also more sense.
A 'problem' is in some cases kids not speaking the language used at the school (German, Italian or - rather rarely - Ladin), but interpreters wouldn't help.
(I wonder what the role of translators would be?)

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Surmise

Philip Lees — Thu, 22 May 2025 05:05:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Philip Lees
Post title: Surmise

I don't know this for certain, but I believe that the schools in my area are staffed with teachers.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Other

Maria Laura Curzi — Wed, 21 May 2025 21:58:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Maria Laura Curzi
Post title: Other

I think we might have more emigrants than immigrants here due to the permanent economic crisis.

The frequent immigrants come from other LATAM countries, so they already speak Spanish and need no interpretation to understand it. Much of them even use lunfardo words or local slang.

We have a recent migration wave from Ukraine and Russia, so public schools added Russian to the ELSI program (ELSI means Spanish as a Second Language for Inclusion) > [url removed] that has information in several languages, including Argentine Sign Language.

Then, personally, the few times that I spoke with families coming from Russia used English.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Yes they are staffed.

Abdi Muhumed — Wed, 21 May 2025 21:09:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Abdi Muhumed
Post title: Yes they are staffed.

In Kenya, the ministry of education has trained over 10,000 teachers every year. Out of this three quarter of them learn interpretation of sign language where they pursued different levels in University... Postgraduate, undergraduate and masters.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters? | Other

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Wed, 21 May 2025 20:33:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: Other

In Portugal, some schools have full-time sign language interpreters, and in schools where many students are children of immigrants, there is such a wide variety of nationalities (Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Romania, Russia, Angola, India, Ukraine, Guinea-Bissau, Peru, Guinea Conakry, Vietnam, etc.) that it is impossible to have interpreters for every nationality, but the Ministry of Education has given the green light to 319 schools to go ahead with hiring cultural mediators to support foreign students.

Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?

ProZ.com Staff — Wed, 21 May 2025 20:10:05 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?
Poster: ProZ.com Staff

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are schools in your area staffed with translators/interpreters?".

View the poll results »