TGIF: TAHIT Public Service Announcement May 13, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in TGIF.trackback
Tess Whitty tweeted this link to a very moving video showing the importance of interpreters last week. The Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators (TAHIT) produced this video to demonstrate how important healthcare interpreters are. It’s a TGIF video, but it most certainly isn’t categorized here under “Fun stuff” like most of my TGIF videos are. Still, it does a fantastic job showing to Americans who may not be sympathetic to the plight of immigrants just how important interpreters are by pulling at their heartstrings.
Musings from an overworked translator 
Excellent!! Thanks for sharing!
Medical interpreters really do play an important role. When my father was being treated for lung cancer, the hospital that was overseeing his care made the services of a Chinese (Cantonese even!) interpreter available, free of charge. My family could have interpreted for him, since he always went accompanied, but that wasn’t ideal. Not simply because the quality of interpretation depended on which family member did the accompanying, but because when the conversations get long, there is a natural tendency to cut the patient out of the conversation altogether.
Generally, I think it is in hospitals’ financial interest to invest in these types of patient services, but more importantly, they are responsible for the care of all the communities they serve.
Curious what language they are talking and what they’re saying even tho that’s not the point!