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Consumer Reports


Call center offers phone-based translation service

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | (KRT) The call center seems like any other - workers dwell in standard cubicles, their ears attached to telephone headsets - but the queries received are far from ordinary.

It's a mother in labor asking how to deliver her baby. Or an elderly man needing to transfer millions of dollars from one bank account to another. The next call could throw the operator into emergency mediation between gun-drawn police and a bad guy.

These are some of the multi-faceted responsibilities at Language Line Services, the world's largest over-the-phone interpretation firm, which was founded by a San Jose cop 23 years ago.

What started as a volunteer service to help bridge a language barrier between Vietnamese immigrants and police has turned into a Monterey, Calif.-based global firm with 2,000 operators who speak 150 languages.

And there's no shortage of clients across the increasingly multicultural nation - from Punjabi-speaking immigrants calling a utility company to establish service in Sunnyvale, Calif., to Mexican immigrants searching for their children's school-bus stops in Germantown, Md.

"Language Line Services interpreters speak for people who cannot speak for themselves," said company spokesman Dale Hansman.

Nearly 40 percent of California adults spoke a language other than English at home, according to census 2000. More than half of those spoke English "less than very well."

In Santa Clara County, where one in three residents was born outside the United States, more than 125,000 reported speaking limited English.

Language Line Services has become an indispensable voice for more than 10,000 clients such as hospitals, police departments and credit card companies that pay at least $1.50 a minute to communicate with their non-English-speaking customers.

The growing demand has corporations such as SBC, which employs its own multilingual operators, tapping Language Line Service for additional tongues, from Acholi to Yupik. (Acholi is spoken in Uganda and Sudan, and Yupik is used by Eskimos).

"If we don't reach out and serve them, then I think we're really missing an important business opportunity," said Jody Garcia, SBC vice president of diverse markets group.

Language Line Services works like this: A police officer in New York City makes a traffic stop and the driver doesn't speak English. The cop dials a toll-free number and activates a mobile speakerphone. The motorist says words and is connected to an operator fluent in the driver's language who translates the conversation.

Based on a hill near the Monterey airport, Language Line Service's call center is decorated with dozens of colorful international flags. Walking to the center of the place is like crossing multiple time zones.

On a recent morning, nearly a dozen operators chatted into their headset microphones in Arabic, Cantonese, Portuguese, Mandarin, French, Korean and Spanish, which makes up 70 percent of the calls.

What were they saying?

Arabic to English: "He went to Cairo, Egypt, and he had an eye examination."

Spanish to English: "I need to know why he's bothering you."

Cantonese to English: "I have $80,000 with me right now."

While the call center is a 24-hour operation, most of its employees work from home, around the world.

Interpreters, who are highly qualified (less than 9 percent of applicants get hired), say that one of their biggest challenges is to remain transparent between the two parties.

It's not always easy. Like when translating vulgarities into English or interpreting for a doctor who notifies a mother that her baby is dead.

The interpreters' code of ethics stresses confidentiality, accuracy and impartiality.

"With each call you potentially serve two masters," said Danyune Geertsen, Language Line Service's director of training and quality.

Interpreters also must stay current on idioms and cultural idiosyncrasies.

Or, as Spanish-English interpreter Rafael Rocha said, "My job is not just to repeat words, but the meaning that goes into them."

Often interpreters provide a comforting link between strangers who must exchange vital information, such as reporting a lost credit card.

"If you've ever been in a place where you didn't speak the language," said director of interpreter services Diane Mouradian. "You know how vulnerable you feel."

Interpreter Yolanda Almader recalled the satisfaction of helping a Spanish-speaking husband care for the baby his wife had just given birth to in the backseat of their car in California's Central Valley. "It was really great because I was able to help bring another person to life," she said.

Jeff Munks, the former San Jose police officer who started the service with a business partner, Mike McFerrin, said he's not surprised at what became of the enterprise, which they sold to AT&T in 1989. It is now owned by a company called ABRY Partners in Boston.

"I still am awed and humbled," said Munks, 53, "by the tremendous work that those people who possess the ability to communicate effectively in more than one language do on behalf of the service."

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© 2005, San Jose Mercury News Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services