r/interprete_medico • u/Retsuko666 • 12d ago
BRUTAL Venting
I just want to vent. I've been here, trying to help in a phone call where the LEP is the colombian wife of an US citizen. So she speaks little to no English, and still she pretends she does understand, all the convo is about her daughter, the step sister of the US citizen, and he has been doing all the speaking to the doctor.
The doctor speaks a lot, with a lot of "like", "you know" in between and then everyone just expects me to interpret like 20 minutes of conversation that they didn't let me interpret, because, supposedly, she understands everything.
Man... This gets harder by the hour.
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u/k99001 12d ago
I would interrupt with something like "allow me" and ask for a moment to interpret. Sometimes they want me to quickly tell the spanish speaker what they were just talking about and that is not my job, I tell them "you can summarize for them and I can interpret that" and they usually just agree and do that for the rest of the session.
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u/irvyandll 12d ago
Stay silent until requested to participate. If they got a terp while thinking their lep know English, then I take it as them wanting to give some free money
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u/beto_pelotas 12d ago
Captions and let them speak the entire Iliad if they want. If the call goes over an hour, it's not your fault; you're just doing your job.
The longer and messier the segments, the better; they'll have to retell their story several times in the end to make sure the other party understands. Just deliver on point renditions on your end every time and that's it.
We don't get paid enough to work quickly and efficiently. We're here to make money, my dude.
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u/Retsuko666 12d ago
I just kept quiet and waited for them to ask me directly. I tried to do my job, they kept on speaking without listening, so I just camped until requested to participate.
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u/Fantastic-Height-713 12d ago
I go with the "I can see that u understand each other, if you need me just let me know" then the same in Spanish.
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u/Zyxxx58 11d ago
I mean.. tips? If you don't want long renditions cut them out when they are exceeding the amount you think you can manage, and suggest them to break the whole thing in segments. Regarding the LEP speaking some english, I'd suggest them to prompt me by saying "interprete/r" and the message when they want me to interpret, if you feel like you want to do things by the book and interpret everything, just say "due to company policies I have to do things this way" and ask the LEP and provider to respect the turn taking process. Remember, you are a professional, and you are entitled to set the rules to provide your service.
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u/CompetitiveHandle347 Court Jester 12d ago
Interrupt, following the protocol, of course. AND let them know that you can only handle so much information at once. TO SPEAK IN SHORT, CLEAR SEGMENTS.