Posted on: April 24, 2018 by admin
Like many other countries, Australia is one of the countries that have seen a great change in the language diversity, with many expats & migrants across the country. This means it’s now more important than ever to ensure that people living in the country can understand each other, specifically in critical situations that dictates no chances of mistakes due to misunderstanding because of the linguistic differences, such as medical & legal situations, where the intervention of a professional interpreter is mandatory.
This is becoming an important topic regulated by the Australian government, where the government provides access to interpreting solutions in some sensitive situations to avoid any understanding. The Justice of Western Australia and Chair of the Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity (JCCD) provided a detailed document on how to select interpreters, with expertise and skills being the most important criteria. This document also serves as a guideline for the best practices when dealing with people who are not proficient enough in English, in situations that require clear guidelines from a legal perspective, as in the court system, where any shortage of interpreters can allow a trial to be deferred until an interpreter is made available, as all proceedings in courts are to be in English, so the proposed regulation will avoid the non-proficient speakers being disadvantages.
The proposed document includes the usage of 4 different language tiers for contracting interpreting services by state courts, with tier 1 including 15 languages, including the AUSLAN language, the sign language used by the Australian deaf community. Tier 2 includes 43 languages, tier 3 includes 15 languages and 28 indigenous languages and the last tier includes 8 indigenous languages.
Along with these new governmental implementations, the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) in Australia is also currently changing the certification process of interpreters who wish to start a professional interpreting career. A major proposed change includes the certification pathway for specialists in the legal and medical fields, where cross linguistic and cross-cultural understanding is the greatest. This change is not really welcomed by the interpreting community.
If you are looking for a certified interpreter in Australia, contact Speak Your Language today.
