INTERPRETORS

100k to employ one? Full time? That doesnt seem quite right.

What sort of interpreters do you mean – the ones used in law courts or the ones employed for simultaneous translation at the jolly get-togethers of international politicians?

Who pays the salaries of the simultaneous translators?

Ultimately taxpayers somewhere, I guess. The UN bill must be phenomenal and I doubt if the G8 (or however many it is now) comes cheap.

100k to the English taxpayers, some may think this is a bargain. Am afraid I think it a lot of money, but hey ho!

What interpreters do you mean?

Expats in Switzerland certainly moan very loudly about some officials not speaking fluent English, and interpreters not being available for free ;)

And they just can't believe the local plumber, carpenter, garage, dentist, GP, hairdresser, policeman- do not all speak fluent English either- as well as 3 national languages ;)

... lol, which is why they expect mugs like me (professional linguists) to provide my services again and again ... for free (cheeky!)

It fascinates me granjura that when going abroad some people blithely assume that everyone will speak or understand English- DS says this is even prevalent in Kurdistan! He found that if an interpreter wasn't immediately conjured up some Americans would threaten to leave immediately....

I'm hazarding a guess that the OP is referring to immigrants and non-English-speakers in the UK for whom an interpreter is necessary in certain circumstances.

Not all countries provide such a service for free, as has been said!

I am a sworn-in interpreter. They had to swear me in when I translated for beaten up American soldier. It was very hard work - quite exhausting. The case went on all day.
Your brain has to find the exact right word in seconds, and as for the simultaneous interpreting in the EU parliament then they must need a lot of them and why shouldn't they be paid well?
Usually it is people who can't speak a word of any other language who think that just by living in a country it all becomes so easy! Why not do it for free? I was always being asked by the Tourist Bureau to translate or correct texts mostly over the phone until I asked for couple of free theatre tickets to compensate me for my time and that was the last I heard from them.

Is that £100K per year for one person or for all of them?

Why do English people abroad need interpreters? We all know that if an Englishman speaks very slowly and very loudly he can be understood by anyone

I imagine using family members might be open to difficulties. When working in antenatal clinics it was common for ladies from India or Pakistan to not speak any English. It was hardly appropriate for their son or daughter to translate and I never saw a husband with them. In fact many would only see a female doctor with persuasion.

We use interpreters in the tribunals. We need evidence from the claimant themselves and relatives can not be relied on to correctly interpret what their relative says.
The interpreters are very poorly paid and vary in quality.

I believe the government recently decided that the transalation services offered in courts etc would work much better if, instead of the usual ad hoc system of employing interpreters they put it out to tender for a large company to be responsible for providing translators for the legal system country wide.

The rates the company with the contract offered the translators was so poor many refused to take on any legal work,The result was total shambles as court cases had to be postponed because promised translators failed to make an appearance, or arrived late or spoke the wrong language. It also cost far more than the usual system by which each court knew who the local translators were, how good they were and could often get them to come to police stations and courts at very short notice and paid them less than they had to pay the Contractor holder but more than the translator got paid by the company themselves..

Do you have a source or link to tell us more about this Nonu?

Which interpreters do you mean nonu?

Did you mean non English or non English speaking people and will this 100K only be paid by English taxpayers?

I have noticed that any literature put through the door from our local council has a section on the back, where, if requested, it can be translated into a number of languages. I haven't had anything for a while, but it was particularly noticeable when we had a Lib/Dem council in this area. If we have to make serious cuts then I think this sort of unnecessary benevolence should be among those cuts.

It always puzzled me as to the languages that were offered, for example, top of the list Albanian. Firstly they are not in the EU yet, so how many Albanians can be here? Translations into French, German, Japanese, the Scandinavian languages aren't offered, we have a number of those nationalities in my area. I suspect the reason being is that they would not be dependent on these sort of services.

As well as wasting public money I don't think it's too much to ask non English speaking foreign nationals to get someone in their community to translate for them. I believe the English community in Spain are expected to bring a Spanish speaking friend to hospital appointments now when they don't speak the language as translation services are not offered in Spain.

Terribull Most of the ladies who deal with the insurance for medical claims made in Spain speak English and will gladly translate for emergency treatment they will go out of their way to help you understand most Medical Staff have English as a second language,its the long term x-pats who don't bother to learn the language who you find are the problem they "expect" everything in English as being their right.

glammanana - I'm sure you are right, expecting everything to be in English when living in Spain isn't good, such an attractive language as well, it would be a shame to live there and not to take some lessons, broken Spanish would be better than nothing. My neighbours live half the year in France and have enough French to get by day to day, a basic requirement for anyone who intends to live in a foreign country I'd say.

So right TerriBull I had basic Spanish before we moved over there which was helpful but after 18mths was quite fluent depending on which area in Spain the person was from with whom I was conversing,a truely delightful language I used it on an every day basis as my neighbours where all Spanish and when I came back to UK it took me a couple of months to stop thinking in the language.

I live in Spain!! I am 82yrs old and almost deaf,although trying to learn Spanish for several years I still can't hold a conservation in the language.Whenever I visit the doctor or any of the local authority offices I have to have an interpreter,at my own expence,I don't mind as I choose to live here.In Spain people have to put into the system before they can draw from it and that includes the Spanish!!!!Perhaps the uk government should take a few lessons from the Spanish.??

Simultaneous interpreters - in such places as the Euro-parliament - are very highly skilled linguists. A first class degree in languages is not a sufficient qualification. An interpreter's course has to be taken at post graduate level.