Q: How did you start in the language industry? How did you become the Director of CCHI?

A: I started my language career in Volgograd, Russia, where I taught English and English/Russian interpretation and translation courses as a senior instructor at Volgograd State University. And as many of my colleagues there, I supplemented my teaching income with conference interpreting and translation.

When I moved to the U.S., my first job from 2000 until October 2013 was coordinating interpreting and translation services at a refugee-resettlement agency in Ohio (the International Institute of Akron, Inc).  I consider those years to be formative for me as a U.S. language professional. During that time I became a licensed trainer, developed and taught several courses for interpreters in healthcare and legal settings, interacted with purchases of interpreting services, and refugee communities. I realized that if I want to truly ensure quality of interpreting services for patients who need them, I need to engage not only at the local level, but also at the national. And in 2007, I was selected to participate in a national effort to explore possibility of certification for medical interpreters – the National Coalition for Certification of Healthcare Interpreters. Out of that effort, CCHI was born in 2009. I am proud to be one of CCHI’s founding Commissioners, and when the organization grew in complexity and scope and a first full-time staff was needed, I was excited and honored to be selected. Since October 2013, I’ve been doing my best to maintain and develop our national certification program.

Q: What do you like the most about your role with the organization?

A: It’s truly hard to say, since I love so many aspects of my job. The very variety of tasks that need to be done is appealing: from engaging with interpreters at different stages of their certification process to monitoring the test delivery aspects to continuously developing new exam content to working with the Commissioners to… – the list is endless. Most importantly, though, I like the opportunity to “do things right” (to the best of my abilities). I tremendously value our internal organizational culture of establishing and implementing equitable and fair processes, transparency, and humble attitude to serve.

Q: Which do you think is easier, healthcare or court interpreting?

A: Both are difficult, although in different ways. Both settings can be linguistically challenging. For example, in court, an attorney’s closing statement or expert witness testimony can be pretty complex, while in health care, interpreting daily rounds at a teaching hospital can get extremely challenging. And, of course, both court cases and medical appointments can be emotionally intense and traumatizing. One may say that the bandwidth of language variety is broader in court settings where you can hear street slang and classical metaphors during the same trial. However, you can experience the same variety if you are interpreting in behavioral and mental health settings. I think the question is more of a personal preference rather than the ease/difficulty of a specific setting.

Q: What is the best way to get ready for the certification exam? Any special tips?

A: I have three main tips:

• Study all information that we provide on our website, and I seriously mean it – click on every link, read every document.
• For the written CoreCHI™ exam, really know the healthcare interpreter code of ethics and standards of practice. Internalize them, be able to explain them to anyone in English and in your other language of service. When you attempt discussing some ethical principle in your language of service, you may discover that you haven’t quite understood that principle in English yet.
• For the oral exam, for about a month, spend at least 30 minutes a day recording yourself interpreting anything and then transcribing your recording and comparing the original to your transcription. This way, you will force yourself to monitor your output and avoid omissions that are the number one type of error for failing candidates.