Who Are the New Interpreters?
By Mark McCaffrey

• According to the Judicial Council 160 candidates took the written exam for certification in Spanish in 2000-2001. Of these 51 (32%) passed.
• In the same period, 77 attempted the oral exam in Spanish. Of these, 9 (12%) passed.
• In 2000-2001, 42 candidates attempted the written exam in languages other than Spanish. Here, 15 (36%) passed.
• Finally, only 5 (14%) of those who took the other-than-Spanish oral exam passed it.
  

What does this tell us? For starters, it suggests that the interpreting profession here in California is not attracting great numbers of qualified people. By the same token, we have all probably noticed that those who are winning certification lately are often younger, college-educated people. It is probably safe to say that the face of the profession is changing, and perhaps we can also say that the new one is a more professional face.

Consider the meager number of other-than-Spanish candidates to come on board as certified interpreters in 2000-2001. Certainly population figures would seem to call for the opposite to be happening. Is there in fact any effort at outreach, or does this paltry turnout merely give the county a rationale for using non-certified interpreters? In addition to the excellent program at Santa Fe Springs, one wonders what the annual "crop yield" of interpreters is at the Long Beach and Cal State LA university programs? Shouldn't these be perennial sources of qualified people?