Conversations

Police interpreting and translating can be regarded as a sub-field of legal interpreting and translating. Although the ethical considerations in the police setting are largely in line with those in the broader field of legal interpreting and translating, careful attention is needed when working in this specialised field.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• Understanding police powers as a starting point
• Police interviews and police language
• Linguistic challenges
• Non-linguistic challenges

Who would this be useful for?

Interpreters and translators working in police settings.

After completing the webinar you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• Characteristics of police interviewing and its language; challenges in police interpreting settings

Skills to:

• How to deal with linguistic and non-linguistic challenges in police interpreting settings

Presented/Facilitated by: Dr Miranda Lai

Dr Miranda Lai is senior lecturer in Translating and Interpreting Studies at RMIT University. She has published widely in public service interpreting and its training. Her research interests include police interpreting, public service interpreting, and ethics for translators and interpreters. She is the co-author of Police Investigative Interviews and Interpreting: Context, Challenges, and Strategies and Ethics for Police Translators and Interpreters.

This webinar will introduce you to the musculoskeletal system. It will discuss anatomy and physiology of both the skeletal and muscular systems to provide basic knowledge that can be applied to skeletal/cartilage injuries and muscle/ligament/tendon injuries throughout the body. Common conditions and injuries will be introduced, along with relevant screening and treatment procedures. 

This webinar will cover:

• Healthcare practitioners involved in patient care
• Introduction to the musculoskeletal system – structure and function
• Anatomy and physiology of the skeletal and muscular systems 
• Common conditions 
• Pathology
• Investigations
• Treatment
• Common terminology

Who would this be useful for?

• Interpreters with an interest in health care interpretation who would like to increase their knowledge of the musculoskeletal system.

After completing this webinar, you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The musculoskeletal system including anatomy, physiology, common conditions and treatments.

Skills to:

• Understand and accurately interpret for patients with musculoskeletal conditions.

Presented by:

Amy Lawton (BSc., MSc., GCTE) Amy graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in physiology and neuroscience before attending Victoria University where she completed a Bachelor and Master of Health Sciences in Osteopathy. Since then, she has worked in private practice in Melbourne’s north-west and undertaken additional training in areas such as dry needling therapy, chronic pain and exercise rehabilitation. As an osteopath Amy values her role in primary health care with a focus on education to help patients fulfil their values and goals. In 2016 Amy returned to Victoria University to complete her Graduate Certificate in Education and join the academic team teaching in the Osteopathy and Biomedical Sciences courses.

This webinar will introduce you to pain, explaining what it is and what it isn’t and breaking down common misconceptions. The anatomy and physiology of pain will be discussed, along with chronic pain conditions. The biopsychosocial model of healthcare will be introduced to facilitate discussion of treatment and management of chronic pain.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• Physiology of pain
• Biopsychosocial model
• Pain management
• Healthcare practitioners involved in patient care
• Common treatments

Who would this be useful for?

• Interpreters with an interest in health care interpretation who would like to increase their knowledge of pain processes and chronic pain conditions.

After completing the webinar, you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The physiology of pain.
• The biopsychosocial model of healthcare.
• Common pain management strategies and treatments.

Skills to:

• Understand and accurately interpret for patients with pain conditions.

Presented by:

Amy Lawton (BSc., MSc., GCTE)

Amy graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in physiology and neuroscience before attending Victoria University where she completed a Bachelor and Master of Health Sciences in Osteopathy. Since then, she has worked in private practice in Melbourne’s north-west and undertaken additional training in areas such as dry needling therapy, chronic pain and exercise rehabilitation. As an osteopath Amy values her role in primary health care with a focus on education to help patients fulfil their values and goals. In 2016 Amy returned to Victoria University to complete her Graduate Certificate in Education and join the academic team teaching in the Osteopathy and Biomedical Sciences courses.

In this webinar, participants will gain insight into what to expect when interpreting in a broad range of speech pathology settings. Participants will be invited to consider why speech pathology might be considered a “special” interpreting context, how to prepare for assignments and the different challenges that can arise when working in speech pathology settings.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• What speech pathologists do
• Settings where interpreters work with speech pathologists
• How to prepare for interpreting assignments with speech pathologists
• Challenges for interpreters working in speech pathology settings

Who would this be useful for?

• Interpreters working with speech pathologists, or those preparing to work in health care settings more generally.

After completing this webinar, you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The work performed by speech pathologists
• The settings where interpreters work with speech pathologists

Skills to:

• Prepare for interpreting assignments with speech pathologists
• Navigate some of the challenges for interpreters working with speech pathologists

Presented by:

Elizabeth Ambrose

Elizabeth Ambrose is a NAATI certified translator and Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. After completing a Bachelor of Arts/Law at Melbourne University, she went on to obtain a Graduate Diploma in Translation (Concordia University). Elizabeth worked at the Australian Embassy in Paris before taking up a position as Translator/Interpretation Coordinator at the International Criminal Court, where she worked for over ten years. She has recently obtained her Master’s in Speech Pathology and is passionate about speech pathology service delivery in multilingual contexts. She is currently working at Curtin University on research investigating bilingual language processing in stroke survivors, and continues to work as a freelance translator.

45 years after the establishment of NAATI, and 35 years after the establishment of AUSIT, there is still ongoing debate over the role of the interpreter. But this is also part of a debate internationally, particularly related to community interpreting. This webinar looks at these debates and the crucial arguments over impartiality and stance of the interpreter in different contexts, as most issues of role will turn on the principle of impartiality. The webinar will propose that while there are contexts which make different demands on interpreters, from highly adversarial contexts to contexts demanding cooperation and negotiation between interpreters and other parties, impartiality does not disappear and remains essential for ethical interpreting.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• Diverse contexts which make different demands on interpreters
• Interpreting in highly adversarial contexts
• Interpreting in non-adversarial contexts
• Contexts where cooperation and negotiation between interpreters and other parties is essential
• Relating different ethical contexts to codes of ethics

Who would this be useful for?

• Practising interpreters who may not have had formal training in ethics and interpreting skills
• Experienced interpreters wishing to extend their ethical understanding of diverse settings

After completing the webinar, you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• How the role of the interpreter is affected by practice in different contexts

Skills to:

• Analyse diverse situations to avoid unethical conduct and poor interpreting
• Assume the proper role in both adversarial and non-adversarial situations
• Understand how to cooperate and negotiate situations where the purpose of the interpreting assignment so demands

Presented by:

Dr Uldis Ozolins, Western Sydney University & Fatih Karakas, All Graduates Head of Training

Dr Uldis Ozolins is a teacher, writer and researcher on Interpreting & Translation, and one of the leaders of the rewriting of the AUSIT Code of Ethics in 2012

Fatih Karakas has a Master’s in Translation and Interpreting and has taught at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of New South Wales. Fatih is also the co-author of “Introduction to Healthcare for Turkish-speaking Interpreters and Translators.

Type 2 Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes are a growing concern for many people and interpreters are very likely to be asked to interpret for people with these conditions. People with Type 2 diabetes may have ‘compromised immunity’ and may have poor blood supply to different areas of the body, which may result in a number of possible complications including strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, leg ulcers and nerve damage.

This presentation will look at how diabetes may develop, what diagnostic studies may be done, and what instructions for managing the condition.

This webinar will cover:

• Cells and the need for sugar and oxygen
• Gestational diabetes, risk factors and possible consequences for mother and offspring
• Sugar, insulin and insulin resistance and high insulin levels
• Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), management, diagnostic studies and possible complications

Who would this be useful for?

• This presentation should be useful for anyone working as a translator or interpreter in the health setting.
• Important for both spoken and signed language interpreters.
• Interpreters with languages which have a limited stock of medical terms or signs.

After completing this webinar, you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The mechanisms involved in getting sugar into the cells and how insulin resistance usually develops
• The link between gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia
• The link between gestational diabetes and the increased risk of a woman’s offspring also developing diabetes
• Diagnostic studies and instructions for monitoring and managing diabetes
• Why smoking is not a good idea when someone has diabetes
• The main complications of diabetes

Skills to:

• Understand the whys and wherefore of health professionals’ questions
• Unpack terms and concepts in your language other than English even when there are no equivalent or signs for these terms or concepts
• Reflect on possible cross-cultural barriers which impact on people’s ability or willingness to take on what the health professionals are conveying to them.

Presented by:

Professor Ineke Crezee

Ineke has been involved in teaching translation and interpreting since 1991 and has written several textbooks on the area. She has won multiple awards for her teaching, including Vice-Chancellor’s teaching awards in 2001 and 2012 and a student union award in 2011. Ineke is New Zealand’s first Professor of Translation and Interpreting. She has been working as both a health and legal interpreter and translator both in the Netherlands and in New Zealand. Her book, "Introduction to Healthcare for Interpreters and Translators" was released in 2013, which has been adapted into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic. A Russian iteration is forthcoming and a Turkish-language iteration is in progress.

The Royal Commission into Family Violence published six recommendations relating to interpreting services. The final report concluded that interpreting services were inadequate and highlighted the need for training in relation to understanding the nature and dynamics of family violence.

Disclosures and discussions of domestic violence may occur in a range of service settings – not only in expected ones such as police, family court or women’s services. It is important that all interpreters, regardless of their usual field of practice, are appropriately prepared in order to meet the needs of professionals, CALD clients and their own practice when working in these settings.

This webinar will provide an introduction to this specialist field of work as well as a series of useful resources for independent study.

This webinar will cover:

• Why the need of DV education for interpreters?
• What is domestic violence?
• Terminology
• What do interpreters say about working in DV settings?
• Services responding to domestic violence
• How do codes of ethics relate to this field of work?
• Helpful resources

Who would this be useful for?

• Professional interpreters
• Service providers who work with interpreters in domestic violence settings. 

After completing the webinars you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The nature of domestic violence how it intersects with vulnerable population such as Cultural and Linguistically Diverse women.
• The role of the interpreter in these settings.

Skills to:

• Prepare for working in different service settings responding to domestic violence.
• Apply relevant codes of ethics in this specialised field of work.

Presented/Facilitated by:

Olga Garcia-Caro

Olga Garcia-Caro lectures in the Master of Translating and Interpreting program at RMIT University's School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Olga conducted research in the field of Interpreting in Domestic Violence service settings which aimed at exploring experiences of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse women victims of domestic violence, service providers and interpreters. Olga is interested in the development of specialised training for interpreters practising in this area of work.

When we interpret, we often immerse ourselves in the client’s emotional world in order to convey what is meant by them. It may not occur to us this empathic engagement may create unexpected consequences. Many professions such us counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers listen to graphic descriptions of horrific events as part of their job. Research shows that, over time, these professionals may experience similar symptoms as their trauma clients, and further feel changes within themselves, and about the way they see the world. If this may happen to these professionals, there is no reason to assume that interpreters would be immune, given we work in the exact same setting as them. This webinar aims to increase our awareness of Vicarious Trauma and promote self-care.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• What is Vicarious Trauma
• Why do interpreters need to be aware of Vicarious Trauma
• Signs of Vicarious Trauma
• Self-Care

Who would this be useful for? 

• Interpreters and translators

After completing the webinar you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• What Vicarious Trauma is and how to look for its signs

Skills to:

• Effective self-care strategies

Presented/Facilitated by:

Dr Miranda Lai

Dr Miranda Lai is senior lecturer in Translating and Interpreting Studies at RMIT University. She has published widely in public service interpreting and its training. Her research interests include police interpreting, public service interpreting, and ethics for translators and interpreters. She is the co-author of Police Investigative Interviews and Interpreting: Context, Challenges, and Strategies and Ethics for Police Translators and Interpreters.

The webinar looks at the AUSIT Code of Ethics to point out its most important principles and guides to ethical behaviour, while also looking at the areas which it sees as not part of interpreter or translator roles.

This 90-minute webinar will cover:

• The main principles of the Code of Ethics, particularly Accuracy, impartiality and Clarity of Role Boundaries
• Areas which the Code of Ethics specifically excludes, including ‘helping’, advocacy and cultural mediation
• The importance of professional judgement when making ethical judgements
• Diverse views contained in other codes of ethics and controversies over role

Who would this be useful for? 

Interpreters and translators of all backgrounds, but particularly those new to the profession or who work in some of the smaller, newer emerging languages and who have not undergone formal ethics education.

After completing the webinar you will gain:

Knowledge of:

• The AUSIT Code of Ethics and its main features
• Controversies over different points of views of interpreter and translator role 

Skills to:

• Apply professional judgement to ethical situations

Presented by:

Dr Uldis Ozolins, Western Sydney University & Fatih Karakas, All Graduates Head of Training

Dr Uldis Ozolins is a teacher, writer and researcher on Interpreting & Translation, and one of the leaders of the rewriting of the AUSIT Code of Ethics in 2012

Fatih Karakas has a Master’s in Translation and Interpreting and has taught at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of New South Wales. Fatih is also the co-author of “Introduction to Healthcare for Turkish-speaking Interpreters and Translators.