By Winnie Heh, Senior Vice President of Global Operations, Language Line Services

The other day the Manager of Language Services for a regional health center client in Canada called Language Line Services with this request:

"I just discovered that our senior homes are using untrained volunteers to interpret in cognitive deficit evaluations for dementia and Alzheimer's disease," she said.

"I want to change this, but they do not believe telephone interpreting is going to work in this application. I want this to work. Can you give me some pointers on the do's and don'ts?"

I said "Of course!"

So, I arranged a conference call for this manager along with three of Language Line Services' subject matter experts, our:

• Interpreter Training Manager,
• Interpreter Quality Assurance Manager, and
• Senior Customer Experience Manager.

One would be hard pressed to find the collective interpreting brain power of Loly, Melida and Lulu anywhere. This is just one way we help our clients succeed.

During the subsequent conference call we learned that the client had conducted two test calls on their own in mid-July.

On those calls, the health center's in-house interpreters acted as limited English proficient patients and Language Line Services' own team members - Kwan M. (Cantonese) and Victor P. (Spanish) - interpreted for the physicians.

To learn the outcome of these calls, and what our experts recommended to this healthcare Manager of Language Services, read the rest of Ms. Heh's article here >>

Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States.

They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country.

They place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination.

Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines.

When newly minted medical school graduate Priscilla Chan married Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last month, she joined the 37% of all recent Asian-American brides who wed a non-Asian groom.

These milestones of economic success and social assimilation have come to a group that is still majority immigrant.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Asian-American adults were born abroad.

Of these, about half say they speak English very well and half say they don't.

Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States.

The educational credentials of these recent arrivals are striking. and almost surely makes the recent Asian arrivals the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history.

Read the rest of this Pew Research Report "The Rise of Asian Americans" here >> And while you're on that page, be sure to look to the upper right for these additional "Report Materials":

• Complete Report (PDF)
• Topline Questionnaire(PDF)
• Highlights from the Survey
• Explore Asian-American Population Data
• Asian American Event (Video)
• Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths

Real Stories by Real Interpreters

Who of us can say we have impacted the lives of tens of thousands of people? Actually, Language Line Services' over-the-phone interpreters can.

"On This Call I Made a Difference" is a salute to our telephone, onsite and over-video interpreters around the world for the important work they do, each day, for so many.

We publish a new interpreter story here on our company website every other week.

Today our 22nd story is written by Elke L., Spanish interpreter (pictured).

Like so many calls our interpreters take, this one deals with a delicate subject and Elke tells how, on this call, she made a difference:

"I was interpreting for an insurance company's female 'claims' representative. The limited English proficient person was a mother whose son had attempted to commit suicide by driving his car over a cliff.

"When the mother reported the incident she was close to tears but tried to keep herself together as much as she could. It was so inspiring. As a mother of a 16-year-old, I could relate to her.

"Both the insurance company's representative and I showed empathy, understanding, love and compassion for this woman.

"The conversation went extremely well, though it was so obvious the three of us were fighting to control our tone, and our tears. At the end of the conversation I found myself praying that the Lord would comfort that mother and would use other people so that this horrible circumstance could bring life and redemption into that young man's life.

Amazingly, the car could not reach the edge of the cliff because a stone 'got in the way'. Obviously there is a purpose to this man's life.

There was a kind of 'bonding' among the three of us women during the course of this conversation. It was there in the tone of our voices that we had made a difference in this mother's life.

Would you like to join us as an interpreter?

Visit our Careers center to learn more about this growing profession.

We also invite you to read all twenty-two of our interpreter stories. Just visit our "On This Call I Made a Difference" web page here.

If you follow us on Twitter and Facebook, you will be the first to know when a new interpreter story has been posted. Thank you!

Attention interpreters, translators, educators and language access experts, three important conferences are taking place just a couple months from now.

Please consider the advantages to you and your organization of attending, presenting and sponsoring these events.

• 6th Annual TAHIT Symposium on Language
  September 7 & 8, 2012 - San Antonio, TX
  The Texas Assn. of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators' Symposium on Language Access
  http://www.tahit.us/2012_symposium
  Register here http://goo.gl/RwFP4
  For more information info@tahit.us
• Arizona Translators & Interpreters Association Annual Conference
  September 14, 2012 - Phoenix, Arizona
  For more information:
  (480) 331-9284
  Email: info@ATIinc.org
  
• Texas Alliance for Patient Services (TAPS) 2012 Conference
  September 27 & 28, 2012 - Dallas, Texas
  "It's ALWAYS About the Patient Understanding HCAHPS and the Role of the Patient Advocate"
  For more information:
  Conference Brochure Here
  Register Here http://goo.gl/lhGGS

If your organization is having an event between now and the end of 2012, and you would like our nearly 8,000 readers to know about it, send an email to pr@languageline.com with all the details. Thank you!

Hello everyone! Just a reminder that it's now even easier for you to apply for a position at Language Line Services.

Just log-in to your Facebook account and then type "Language Line Services Interpreter Careers" into the Facebook "Search" box.

Once there, click on the "Work For Us" button at the right of the page. New job openings are added every week, so visit often!

You can also visit Language Line Services' "Careers" page on our website here.

If you have near-native proficiency in both English and another language and are looking for employment with a company that will provide you with the training and coaching into this exciting profession, we have an opportunity for you.

Per Winnie Heh, Senior VP of Global Operations of Language Line Services: "Interpreting is a profession that requires language skills, a wide knowledge base, mental agility and most importantly the compassion for those whom they assist.

"We are proud to have opened the door for thousands of interpreters into the language access industry through our comprehensive and rigorous training program."

Take a look at our listings now and good luck to you!

PS: You can also visit our Careers section here www.languageline.com/careers >>

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