By Matthew M. Gagnon ’09G

 

An older man arrives at the emergency room with chest pains and lightheadedness. He is Latino and speaks only Spanish, but the on-duty doctor’s main language is English. Without help, the patient can’t adequately express the specifics of his discomfort nor offer his medical history, which may be important for diagnosing the problem. How will doctor and patient communicate, especially when time is of the essence?

Language barriers impede communication across all aspects of health care, from clinics and psychiatric services to specialists and emergency rooms. It’s one of several industries positively affected by the outreach and training efforts of the Translation Center at UMass Amherst. The center also has an education mission, seeking to train tomorrow’s translators, and not just for medical settings.

As our world has become integrated by a global economic model, different language groups are in more frequent contact, and interdependency between cultures and social spheres has increased as well. Technology has changed the interface among human beings by defying physical distance. We can communicate with anyone, anywhere, instantly, through the click of a computer mouse. Understanding is another matter, especially across languages, but it’s just as vital to doing business in foreign markets as it is to operating emergency rooms that serve multiple ethnic communities. It’s why the Translation Center at UMass Amherst is more important than ever.

Founded in 1980 by two UMass Amherst professors, the Translation Center has evolved into one of the most sophisticated translation service centers in the world. The center provides translation and interpretation assistance, Internet translation, software localization, and business consulting.

As America’s immigrant communities grow, so does the need for cross-cultural understanding over an ever-widening spetrum of spoken indigenous languages. American society struggles with the idea of a linguistic plurality, but multilingualism is increasingly common around the globe. For instance, the European Union, which currently has 27 member states, recognizes 23 official languages and employs more than 4,000 translators and interpreters. In addition to these are 150 more regional and marginal languages being used in the member countries. In Massachusetts alone, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that nearly 20 percent of the population from the ages of five and up speaks a foreign language at home.

Finding the right word is just the beginning. Translation that takes context as well as text into account is key to unlocking physical, emotional, geographic, and philosophical places. Cultures—and languages—are always in flux, so the process of translation must be, too. To this end, the center has proudly invested its translation efforts in what it calls the “cultural turn” as the best way to reach an intended audience.

“The cultural turn in translation,” says Edwin Gentzler, director of the Translation Center, and associate professor in the Comparative Literature Department, “considers the local culture of the receiving audience, its traditions, its terminology, and its belief systems.” Say someone using British English is trying to communicate with an American audience about urban congestion. “If the document reads in terms such as ‘lifts’ and ‘lorries,’” says Gentzler, “it will not reach a New York audience.”

In health care, context often plays a vital role in diagnosis. A doctor needs to take a patient’s current cultural environment into consideration as well as his or her physical statistics.

“If the doctor notices blood sugar rising and hears about mood swings, he or she could prescribe pills, more exercise, and a low-fat diet,” says Gentzler. “However, if blood sugar changes and depression problems are cultural, caused, say, by isolation and lack of community connections in the case of a new immigrant, then that data may be more important than the linguistic data in providing better health care.” In such a case, a doctor might recommend a support group or visiting a community center as part of a treatment plan.

As part of a public university system, the Translation Center is obligated to educate people and businesses about choices that are in their economic interests. Massachusetts has seen an influx of immigrants in recent years, tens of thousands of people who bring with them their languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Chinese, French Creole, Russian, and Vietnamese. The need for quality translation services in the public sector, especially in health care, has grown accordingly. “Demographics show that in the future, the need in hospitals for qualified medical interpreters is going to increase two-, three-, fourfold, and we’re one of the few training programs,” says Gentzler.

Complementing its work in the community, the Translation Center provides educational and hands-on experience for undergraduates and graduates in the Comparative Literature Department. “Students have to learn how to work in a business environment,” says Görkem Cilam, assistant director of the center. From her paper-strewn desk she manages the majority of the center’s projects, which encompass more than 80 languages and dozens of translators.

Thus, when a deadline is given in one of Gentzler’s translation classes, it sticks. Students are encouraged to manage their time accordingly. By simulating in the classroom the fast pace of working for a demanding client, Gentzler hopes younger translators will become more efficient and be able to handle the demands that a translator for hire faces.
One example of translation for hire is working with corporations that are moving products into foreign language markets. Catherine Helgoe, senior project manager in the LEGO Educational Division, is currently working with center staff on translating its LEGO Mindstorms Education NXT materials. These sets of LEGO pieces with software and instructions to build robots will be integrated into K-12 classrooms and after-school programs. “The LEGO Mindstorms Education NXT materials are used by school districts, robotics competitions, museums, summer camps, and institutes throughout North America and Europe,” says Helgoe, “as well as in many countries such as Russia, Japan, China, and Australia.”

“Multinational corporations need to learn more about translation and the technologies of translation,” says Gentzler. Many clients have already gone through a translation vendor or hired a translator abroad, but the campaign has failed to reach its intended target. “Businesspeople often don’t understand the importance of translation until they get burned,” says Cilam. The center assesses a corporation’s needs based on its past results and offers professional guidance in translation as necessary.

In addition to teaching full-time students, Gentzler oversees the educational training component of the center, which includes general language and medical interpretation certificate programs. “We offer it in a classroom setting, via distance learning and satellite TV and recently online, so we’re reaching a lot of people who wouldn’t normally get the training,” says Gentzler.

Outreach is also part of Gentzler’s job description. He educates employees at businesses, schools, and hospitals on how to work with translators. “A lot of people think translation is as simple as giving something to a secretary to type up, but it’s much more complicated,” he says. “You have to research the subject matter, know about the audience, and match the appropriate translator with the appropriate job.”