The lack of American Sign Language interpreters at coronavirus briefings violates the First Amendment, the National Association of the Deaf says.
By Aimee Ortiz, The New York Times
Read moreAuthor: Alex
A large percentage of Minnesota COVID-19 patients don’t speak English
Outbreaks at meat packing plants, health disparities mean disease is hitting immigrants hard.
Read moreBilingual people may make different choices based on the language they’re thinking in. Here’s why.
By Galadriel Watson, special to the Washington Post.
Young adults don’t always make great decisions. I myself did stupid things, which comes as a shock to my kids and husband, who know me as pretty, well, boring. Was my personality more reckless back then? Or could it have been because I lived much of life in a second language: French?
Knowing another language broadens your opportunities: the people you can talk to, the items you can read, the films you can watch, the countries you can comfortably communicate in. But studies suggest that it can also have unintended consequences when it comes to decision-making.
Read moreGiannis Antetokounmpo Is Called Amazing. Now in Sign Language, Too.
New this season at the Milwaukee Bucks’ postgame news conferences: a sign language interpreter.
By Scott Cacciola, The New York Times.
Read moreYes, Oui, Si, and Hai: Interpreters ready for Tokyo Olympics
By STEPHEN WADE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — Alexandre Ponomarev is the chief interpreter for next year’s Tokyo’s Olympics. He speaks more than a half dozen languages: Russian, English, Spanish, French, German, Danish and Ukrainian. And he can get by in a handful of others.
But at times, even he needs an interpreter — for instance, when he’s working in Japan.
“I can’t speak all languages, unfortunately,” he said, answering in English in an interview with The Associated Press. “I wish I could.”
Read moreInterpreters are the lifeblood of Cannes Film Festival
By Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
CANNES, France — On one afternoon at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Massoumeh Lahidji could be seen on a rooftop terrace interpreting Farsi into English for the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, and an hour later sitting on a stage with Martin Scorsese translating the famously verbose filmmaker into French.
For most, interpreting the long rat-a-tat answers of Scorsese, which can at any moment bound into a past realm of film history, would be a herculean task. Lahidji calmly, seemingly effortlessly translated it all, like a magic act, without so much as a pen or paper.
Read moreSpeaking two languages may help the aging brain
By Ramin Skibba, The Washington Post
Even when you’re fluent in two languages, it can be a challenge to switch back and forth smoothly between them. It’s common to mangle a split verb in Spanish, use the wrong preposition in English or lose sight of the connection between the beginning and end of a long German sentence. So, does mastering a second language hone our multitasking skills or merely muddle us up? Read more
Sign Language experts on the nonverbal cues you’re missing in meetings
Much of ASL is in reading body language and facial expressions. Here, experts share the messages sent through nonverbal displays that are volumes louder than what’s actually being said. Read more
As courtrooms grow more diverse under ‘zero tolerance,’ difficulty finding interpreters leads to frustration
By Kristina Davis, The San Diego Union-Tribune
A status hearing for a Ghanaian man accused of crossing the border illegally was abruptly cut short when the phone connection between the courtroom and Ashanti Twi interpreter on the line went dead. The defendant, who does not speak English, would have to come back to court the next day to try again. Read more
The Cranky Tourist’s Russian Phrasebook
By Michele A. Berdy, The Moscow Times
Hey, football fans, welcome to Russia! By now you have discovered that the cities are modern metropolises with all the comforts of home, or at least plenty of malls, bars, pizza parlors, and sushi bars. That’s not to mention all those spectacular museums packed with masterpieces; or the stages where some of the best musicians, dancers, and actors in the world perform; or the beautiful countryside. Hey, we told you so! Read more