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If I told you that England is in the midst of a translation crisis, you'd probably assume it had something to do with the Olympics. Not so much.
The British court system recently awarded a contract to one company, Applied Language Solutions, for all the legally mandated interpreting work that goes on in court. The problem is that ALS has proved to be repeatedly inadequate. It sends interpreters who are not up to the job...or they don't show up at all, halting the proceedings and costing the government thousands of pounds.
In one much-covered case, a Punjabi interpreter showed up and, as the day wore on, began leaving out key words or phrases and getting things wrong. One of the barristers spoke enough Punjabi to notice the problem, The man admitted he was subbing for his wife, an accredited interpreter who was "too busy" that day.
Today on the show, the challenges of translating the past, present and future.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
