Welcome to the

SEMIA newsletter. If

you are like me, you

love language, culture

and medicine, and

you have found a way

to integrate this into

your work life: you are

a medical interpreter!

The world of medical

interpreting is dynamic,

ever-changing, and

challenging. SEMIA is

your one-stop shop for

resources whether you

are new to the profes-

sion or a seasoned vet-

eran. Visit our site at

www.semia.org. Join us

for SEMIA educational

events and confer-

ences. Get involved,

become a member and

assist us in growing so

that we can increase

the visibility and profes-

sionalism of medical

interpreting here in Ken-

tucky and beyond.

Lynn Fors, CHI™

SEMIA Chair

SEMIA South Eastern Medical Interpreters Association

Winter/Spring

2014/2015

LA SEMILLA Planting Seeds of Effective Communication

Inside this issue:

Welcome /History 1

SEMIA EVENTS 2

Conference 3

Interpreter Pitfalls 4

Interpreter Spotlight 5

Become a member! 6

We need your help! 7

WELCOME

History of SEMIA The South Eastern Med-

ical Interpreter Associa-

tion was formed in early

2006 in response to

the growing need for

qualified medical inter-

preters, specifically in

Kentucky, but also in

the southeastern Unit-

ed States as a whole.

The Southeast contin-

ues to see an increase

in its Limited English

Proficient population,

which will increase the

demand for trained in-

terpreters.

Several efforts had

been made by various

entities around the

state including medical

interpreter trainings, a

medical interpreter con-

ference and presenta-

tions designed to in-

crease the awareness

of the need for qualified

interpreters. In the

spring of 2006, these

entities met and began

to make a plan to pool

their energies and re-

sources. Out of this

sprung SEMIA. The

original Board of Direc-

tors included members

from Samaritan Hospi-

tal, North Central AHEC,

S a i n t J o s e p h

HealthCare, UK Chan-

dler Hospital, Blue-

grass Farmworker’s

Health Clinic, Hope

Center and Lexington

Fayette Urban County

Government. Today

our board members

consist of language

access managers and

supervisors from Ken-

tuckyOne Health and

UK Healthcare, as well

as employees of

LFUCG, the North Cen-

tral and UK Area

Health Education Cen-

ters, and contracted

medical interpreters.

Workshops in Louisville October 2014

SEMIA offered two 90

minutes workshops for medi-

cal interpreters in October in

at the University of Louis-

ville, Shelby campus. We

are happy to say that both

workshops were a success

and we had an excellent

turnout of participants who

earned continuing education

credits. The offerings were:

1.“The Other Interpreter Did

It”: Ethics, Standards and

Conflict Resolution

2.Interpreting in Mental

Health Encounters: The Ba-

sics

Both were taught by Liz Es-

sary, CHI,™ Supervisor of the

Language Services Depart-

ment at Indiana University

Health and owner of That In-

terpreter.

LA SEMILLA

Planting Seeds of Effective Communication

Bridging the Gap Trainings in Lexington 2014

SEMIA contracted with Catho-

lic Charities of Louisville to

bring two Bridging the Gap

Medical Interpreter classes to

Lexington. One of our asso-

ciation’s goals is to increase

the infrastructure in new an

emerging communities in

Kentucky. We have estab-

lished a SEMIA scholarship

program to offer full and par-

tial scholarships to bilingual

and multilingual individuals

whose language skills match

those from these new com-

munities. This year we gave

away a total of 8 scholarships

to help fill language gaps in

Albanian, Mandarin Chinese,

Japanese, Russian, Ukraini-

an, Lingala, Swahili and Ne-

pali.

A total of 50 medical interpret-

ers were trained this year. In

addition to Spanish and the

languages listed above at-

tendees spoke Khmer, Haitian

Creole, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi,

Page 2

Korean, French and Portu-

guese. Facilities were provid-

ed by the Lexington Fayette

Urban County Government

and training took place at the

Adult and Tenant Services in

Lexington, KY.

Aida Adams, Director of Lan-

guage Services at Catholic

Charities of Louisville and

licensed BTG trainer taught

both the April and October

classes.

For more information about

opportunities to take this

training in 2015, check out

this link:

SEMIA BTG

Is Arabic really a

single language?

By Michael Erdman

Read article here:

http://blog.oup.com/201

4/09/arabic-language-

dialects/

SEMIA EVENTS

LA SEMILLA

Page 3 LA SEMILLA

Medical Interpreter Conference June 2015

Interpreter Integration into the Medical Team

Come spend time with your fellow medical interpret-

ers while gaining valuable knowledge and improving

your interpreting skills. Earn continuing education

credits for your national certification. Find out why

the time has come to get certified! Check out our

website for updates on this important event:

www.semia.org

Pre-conference social: Friday, June 5, 2015

Location: TBD

Conference: Saturday, June 6, 2015

Location: University of Louisville KY, Shelby Campus

We are soliciting presentations/workshops related to the following topics:

The conference theme, which addresses the further professionalization of medical

interpreters

Workshops that focus on practical skills, training, and other related educational top-

ics in health care interpreting

Informational and interactive sessions focusing on interpreter ethics, the role of cul-

ture in medicine, or other areas related to language access in health care

If you are interested in presenting a 90-minute workshop for this conference, email us at

admin@semia.net and we will send you the Call for Proposals.

SEMIA Members receive a discount of 20% for this event.

www.semia.org

Page 3

Many of us working in the field

of interpreting think we have a

handle on the basics, or at least

we hope we do. But we need

the occasional reminder that

making assumptions is not best

the best practice and does not

serve our patients.

One assumption that is fairly

widely held is that women pre-

fer a female interpreter for

women’s health visits. We have

been so sure of this that we

often automatically try to sched-

ule a female interpreter, without

even asking the patient for her

own preference.

An interpreter working in Lexing-

ton explained a situation that

came up recently and sheds

some light on cultural believes

that influence gender prefer-

ence for interpreters.

A patient expressed frustration

when her male Swahili inter-

preter was replaced by a fe-

male, and requested that the

male interpreter attend the

future OB/GYN appointments.

The patient did not want her

gynecological issues be known

by a woman of their community.

The interpreter explained that in

some cultures in Sub-Saharan

Africa, women are valued based

on their fecundity, and especial-

ly the ability to have male ba-

bies. So a woman, who is not

fecund or less fecund, may be

subject to poor treatment and

humiliation, mostly from her

mother and sisters in law. The

interpreter explained that men

usually do not get involved, but

the husband is subject to pres-

sure from his family. This may

even be the catalyst for marry-

ing a second wife. Culturally,

women are expected to make

babies. An average African

household is composed of 8 to

14 people. So when a newly

married couple has one or two

children, and then several years

go by without another baby, an

alert is launched. The wife

would feel pressured and

stressed - a new pregnancy is a

big relief and cause of triumph

and pride. The degree to which

a woman or family is subject to

these strong cultural beliefs

varies greatly. There are many

influencing factors, including

social and economic considera-

tions and education.

Given these cultural themes, an

African woman going to a gyne-

cologist with anxiety related to

fertility issues and other gyne-

cological concerns, may feel

that it is an extremely sensitive

matter that she can share more

easily with foreign staff or male

interpreter. The Swahili inter-

preter in the above case felt

that the fact that males are not

usually the ones pressuring or

mistreating a woman dealing

with reproductive issues, as

other women in their culture

could, would be a factor in pref-

erence for male interpreters.

For a professional medical in-

terpreter, of course, this would

never be an issue. Just as

many patients prefer same-sex

staff for reproductive health

issues, completely outside of

each medical professional’s

abilities and training, a patient’s

cultural background may inform

a request for a male or female

interpreter.

Sarah Hesler, CMI

SEMIA secretary

UK Healthcare

1. The National Board of Certification for Medical

Interpreters Exams are available in Spanish,

Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Viet-

namese. www.certifiedmedicalinterpreters.org/

2. Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpret-

ers Exams are Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin.

www/cchicertifciation.org/

In order to be an integral part of the medical

team it is vital that we get required training

and that we comport ourselves ethically.

The next step is national certification. There

are currently two paths to follow:

Interpreter Pitfalls—Making Assumptions

National Certification for Medical Interpreters

“A patient

expressed

frustration when

her male Swahili

interpreter was

replaced by a

female.”

Page 4 LA SEMILLA

Cheng Chew is grateful for all the United States has provided for her and her family. Born in Fu-jian province in southern China, her parents fled communism in 1949 by moving to Malay-sia. There they had to start all over again, living upstairs from a hardware store as all seven fami-ly members lived in one room. Her parents slept in the only bed and the five children slept on the floor in the corri-dor. "My parents would often trip over us in the dark," she says.

Fast forward to 2014 and when Cheng isn't traveling (she's been to 58 countries so far), she can be found in medical offices, hos-pitals, and clinics interpreting in her native language: Mandarin Chinese. Her background as a surgical nurse has served her well in that she has extensive knowledge of disease processes and medical terminology. "In the surgical field, you have to have broad medical knowledge because patients have a range of medical problems," she states.

Cheng retired from Saint Joseph Hospital in 1999 after 20 years. In 2006 she began inter-preting and in 2013 she applied for the SEMIA Scholarship Pro-gram to take Bridging the Gap. Because of her extensive medical background and the high demand for Mandarin interpret-ers, she was given one of the two scholarships given for the spring class. Her biggest surprise re-garding the training was that there was so much to learn in order to become a qualified in-terpreter, not just knowing how to speak two languages as a lot of people believe. The different types of interpreting, how to

handle difficult situations, being familiar with the different cul-tures, knowing the policies of the various institutions, positioning of the interpreter, and first per-son interpreting are all examples of the skills of the trained and qualified medical interpret-er. She also did not realize how diverse Lexington is. The Bridg-ing the Gap sessions offered in Lexington have gone from being filled with only Spanish speakers to classes that are comprised of a mixture of students represent-ing a range of languages such as Albanian, Cambodian, Nepali and Swahili.

The biggest change Cheng made in her interpreting after taking Bridging the Gap came around the role of patient advocate. She says "before the training, I used to advocate quite a lot for the patient due to my nursing expe-rience. After the training, I learned I have to separate them. I try not to cross the line unless it's absolutely necessary."

Cheng's favorite part of inter-preting is seeing how apprecia-tive the patients are. They try to say thank you in many ways, including bringing gifts and mon-ey, but she knows from her years as a nurse that she cannot ac-cept such things. It's a very re-warding profession, says Cheng, one in which she gets to facili-tate a two-way conversation. So often when an interpreter isn't present the patient gets left out.

Some of the more difficult inter-preter jobs involve family disa-greements. The patient says something, the family disagrees, and before you know it the fami-

ly is arguing and the patient doesn't have a voice. "I have to ask them to slow down. I tell them I'll interpret for the patient first and then I'll interpret their opinions to the doctor."

Mandarin Chinese patient volume is increasing due to the Afforda-ble Care Act. Many people now have health insurance for the first time in their lives and are coming into the health care arena.

Cheng is getting ready to take another one of her trips, this time to Australia and New Zea-land. She has announced her retirement from interpreting. We wish her luck and hope she'll still do a little bit of interpreting after her much deserved vacation.

Lynn Fors, CHI™

SEMIA Chair

Supervisor

Language and Cultural Services;

KentuckyOne Health

Central/Eastern Markets

Interpreter Spotlight:

Cheng Chew

Mandarin Chinese

Cheng Chew

"Before the training, I

used to advocate quite

a lot for the patient

due to my nursing

experience. After the

training, I learned I

have to separate

them. I try not to

cross the line unless

it's absolutely

necessary."

LA SEMILLA

SEMIA MEMBERSHIP

Become a member of SEMIA!

Why?

*You can advertise your credentials

on our Interpreter Registry.

*You will receive a 20% discount on SEMIA events: conferences and

other continuing education opportunities.

*You will continue to receive this biannual newsletter.

Apply for membership here:

http://www.semia.org/

Membership Rates are $40 per year, $25 student rate.

Page 6 LA SEMILLA

Sending out weekly or biweekly

bulletin

Updating Facebook page

Assistance with website, especially

interpreter registry

Any applicable grant writing/VISTA

volunteer application

Putting together future newsletters

Contributing to newsletters

Planning CEUs

Interpreter Pow Wows, espe-

cially in Lexington and Louis-

ville

R e c r u i t i n g m e m b e r s -

membership committee

Fundraising through Good

Giving, et cetera

Community outreach

Here is a list of opportunities to get involved with

SEMIA. If you have time to spare and talents to

share please contact us at admin@semia.net.

We need your help!

Page 7 LA SEMILLA

sion has been evolving, many still

consider interpretation a new

field. With a developing profes-

sion, programs are started and

improved in order to further the

profession and re-enforce stand-

ards. There are schools within

the United States that have pro-

One of the frequently asked

questions interpreters have

received is "Did you have to go

to school to become an inter-

preter?" For some of us, the

answer will be yes while others

will respond no. Despite the

number of decades the profes-

grams dedicated to interpreta-

tion and/or translation from

certificates of completion to

PhD acquisition. Listed below

are some of the universities

that offer such programs:

Myrna Ray, Staff interpreter,

UK/Chandler Hospital

Did you have to go to school to become an interpreter?

University City/State

Specialty Degree

Gallaudet Washington, D.C ASL Masters of Arts in Interpretation

Kent State University Kent, OH Masters of Arts and PhD in Translation Studies

Monterey Institute Monterey, CA

Masters of Arts in Translation, Translation and Interpretation, and Conference Interpretation

SUNY Binghamton Binghamton, NY

Graduate certificate in Translation Research and Instruction, Bacca-laureate of Arts in Translation, PhD in Translation Studies

University of Texas, Dallas

Richardson, TX

Master of Arts an PhD in Humanities with a focus on Translation Studies

American University Washington, D.C

French, Russian, Spanish

Graduate certificates in Translation

Boston University Boston, MA

Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese

Professional certificates

Florida International Universi-ty

Miami, FL Spanish Certificate in Translation Studies

Georgia State University Atlanta, GA

French, German, Spanish

Certificate in Translation

NYU New York, NY

Multiple languages

Professional certificates in Translation and Interpretation

NYU New York, NY Spanish Master in Translation

Eastern Tennessee State University

Johnson City, TN

Health Care Transla-tion and Interpreting

Online Graduate Certificate

University of Illinois Urbana, IL Spanish Master in Translation and Interpreting

University of Texas Brownsville, TX Spanish Master’s in Spanish Translation and Interpreting

Eastern Kentucky University* Richmond, KY Deaf Studies Bachelor of Science

University of Louisville** Louisville, KY Spanish Graduate Certificate in Translation

Contact Us

Email: admin@semia.net

www.semia.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/South-Eastern-Medical-Interpreters-Association-SEMIA

*Is in the process of creating a spoken and visual language Master’s degree. Contact: abbey.poffenberger@eku.edu

**has begun to offer undergraduate medical interpreting courses (2015). Contact: lluisbaixauliolmos@louisville.edu

Page 8 LA SEMILLA