By Ann Work
The Times Record News
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In a hospital emergency room, a doctor urgently needs to communicate with his patient, who doesn’t speak English.
At a police station, an English- and Spanish-speaking police officer needs to communicate with a victim of domestic violence, who speaks Vietnamese.
Near the Texas border, a public health department worker must explain details about the H1N1 virus to community members who speak scores of languages in addition to English.
For years, state workers have grappled with situations like these in trying to serve a Texas population that speaks more than 170 languages.
In a decision Tuesday, the state named Language Line Services — the world’s largest over-the-phone interpretation company — as the official go-to language solutions vendor for Texas government agencies through November 2014.
The Monterey, Calif.-based company will assist state workers when they need translation assistance in social service departments, among public safety workers, in the courts, with 911 emergency services, with a range of local services such as Medicare and Medicade and with document translation.
A state worker needs only to place a call to get instant assistance.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 33.7 percent of Texas residents speak a language other than English.
In Dallas, requests for Nepali increased 3,655 percent between 2006 and 2009. In Austin, requests for Swahili skyrocketed more than 8,000 percent during the same period.
In the past decade, Texas state and local agencies requested support in 122 languages, with Vietnamese, Mandarin and Arabic topping the list.
Spanish is second to English as the most commonly spoken language in Texas, but the linguistic diversity in the state continues to grow, according to Louis Provenzano, Language Line president and CEO.
“We see more than 100 languages in Texas,” he said. “We always think it’s all about Spanish, but the state has seen many immigrants after (Hurricane) Katrina. It’s a pretty comprehensive list.”
Provenzano said his company helps visiting nurses who need to communicate with patients, and social services workers who must communicate about employee benefits or help community members fill out employment documents.
By providing translation services over the phone, they can guarantee anonymity to a victim who must explain details of domestic violence.
“Let’s say the police are asking for a driver’s license or passport. If they can’t figure the language out, they come to us, and we triage that call,” Provenzano said.
Often, accurate communication delivered instantly is a matter of life or death, Provenzano said.
Provenzano often tells the story of an all-too-common miscommunication in New York, where Spanish-speaking patients are often given medications with English instructions to take their pills once per day. However, “once” is the Spanish spelling of 11, and many Spanish-speakers, who were unfamiliar with their medications and never received proper explanations in their native tongue, interpreted “once” to mean they must take their medications 11 times per day.
“It unfortunately and tragically has happened over and over again,” Provenzano said of the deaths that have resulted from such miscommunication.
Now, with the decision to officially choose Language Line Services to meet interpretation needs in Texas, the state has consolidated its language-translation programs and expanded its availability to more agencies.
In Wichita Falls, Police Information Officer Harold McClure said Tuesday he is familiar with the company’s services but had never used them personally during his 13 years with the Wichita Falls Police Department.
Typical language barrier issues in Wichita Falls center around Spanish-speakers, he said.
The police department handles any translation problems that come up by calling on several of its officers who are fluent in Spanish. “We’ll request a Spanish-speaking officer and dispatch him to his location to help,” McClure said.
Wichita County Family Law Associate Judge Diane Dockery said she has rarely needed translation help in a language other than Spanish. A telephone-based translation service would be difficult for her to use in a rural courtroom, she said, since few have conferencing telephone equipment.
In one case years ago, she needed a Vietnamese translator and found one with the help of Sheppard Air Force Base.
In courtrooms, even an interpreter must be sworn in as a witness, and he must perform his service so the judge, several witnesses and various parties can all track the proceedings. A telephone service would be difficult to use in such situations, she said.
“It sounds invaluable for some departments, like law enforcement,” Dockery said of the Language Line services. “It could be limiting for purposes like a full courtroom hearing.”
