Overcoming Language Barriers: Qualified Interpreters, the Key to Health Equity

 Get ready to tune in to another exciting episode of Healthy Disruptions – the podcast about health and health inequity across diverse communities in Southern California. With its recent recognition as one of the top 15 podcasts in Riverside by Feedspot, you know you're in for a treat. So, don't miss out - visit Feedspot for more information. 

This episode will go over the health disparities and the implications of language barriers on health. Disclaimer: We understand that the Southern Inland Empire is diverse and there are many languages spoken. However, in this episode, we will primarily be discussing the barriers that exist for the Spanish-speaking community. Utilization of professional interpreters to facilitate communication between health care providers is essential to provide the best possible quality of care to non-native speaking patients. Unfortunately, these services are not always readily available to patients and interpretation is then done more often by untrained individuals, such as relatives or friends. This can lead to miscommunication and poor quality of care. It is essential to not just have clinical visits translated but also written material so that patients can feel empowered to ask questions and advocate for their health. So, join Stephanie Sandoval, Health Educator and Selina Hernandez, Community Relations Specialist at the UCR School of Medicine Center for Healthy Communities, as they explore the importance of professional translation services in healthcare. We will hear from Moises Martinez- Cortez, a translator for HDR and private translation consultant. Moises brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in languages as he not only speaks Spanish, but he also speaks Portuguese, Italian, and French.

Transcript

Stephanie: Hello everyone and welcome to Healthy Disruptions, the podcast that explores health disparities. 

Stephanie: I'm Stephanie Sandoval, your host for today, and joining me is Selina Hernandez. 

In today's episode, we'll go over health disparities and the implications of language barriers on health. I come from a background of family members where Spanish is their first language, and I have seen them struggle to receive care due to lack of Spanish-speaking providers or information. Despite some progress, we need to work much harder to eliminate the disparity and ensure that Spanish-speaking communities receive the same level of care as everyone else. Disclaimer, we understand that the Southern Inland Empire is diverse and there are many languages spoken. However, in this episode, we will primarily be discussing the barriers that exist for the Spanish-speaking community. 

Selina: Yeah, I've also had a similar experience with my own family. I was always a translator growing up, but now that I'm an adult, it's become much harder for me to go with my parents to their doctor's appointments. While I want to help, I'm not always available. This has been an issue because my mom has interpreted things incorrectly from her provider. 

Stephanie: You know, I can see how that would be an issue for many Spanish-speaking communities. I recently learned that you can ask for medical prescriptions to be translated into Spanish. This has been a game changer for my grandpa because he takes so many medications to manage his health issues. I know it may seem like a small thing, but it makes all the difference.

Selina: Now imagine all the things that can go into reducing language barriers as it relates to health care. This is why here at HDR at UCR we promote health equity and we understand the importance of having materials available in Spanish as language barriers can impact the quality of health and ultimately quality of life.

Stephanie: We are thrilled to have a special guest join us today. Please welcome Moises Martinez-Cortez, a translator for HDR and private translation consultant. Moises brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in languages as he not only speaks Spanish, but he also speaks Portuguese, Italian, and French. He holds a record for translating over 15,000 words with us at HDR. Thank you for being with us today, Moises. We'd love to give you the floor to say a few words before we delve deeper into our discussion.

Moises: Hello, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be on this podcast, to be able to share my knowledge with you all.

Stephanie: Please explain how you became interested in becoming a translator?

Moises: So I've always been interested in languages ever since I was young. I started studying French on my own when I was in the sixth grade before they even offered it in school, for example. So a career in the language industry always seemed natural for me. So after graduating college, I started to really become attracted to the idea of starting my own business or going into a career that would give me more flexibility as far as my hours. When I was 23, I suffered an injury to my jaw after a dental procedure, which at the time made it really painful to speak for extended periods of time. And I've since recovered from that injury, but at the time that it happened, I was working at a call center as a customer service representative, and the injury made it really hard to continue working there because of the nature of the job, which involved talking all day. That experience was what really gave me the push to become a translator. It was the perfect field since most of what I deal with is translation of documents, which can be done online from home without needing to speak much. And it's also something that I find interesting and that gives me a lot of flexibility as far as my work schedule.

Selina: Thank you for that. Can you explain the different services a translator can do?

Moises: Sure, so a translator mostly deals with the translation of written material from one language into another. It's very common for people to mistake translation with interpretation, the latter being the translation of speech from one language to another. That being said, a translator can do many other different types of jobs within the language field. I, for example, do translation. I also do interpreting. I also do editing of already translated documents, so documents that are translated by another person or using a machine translator like Google Translate or Microsoft Translator. I also do transcription, which is converting the speech and audio or video material into words similar to subtitling, however in the same language. I can also create subtitles, and I've also worked with voice dubbing, or creating translated audio in another language for a video or podcast, like for example what I do here at the center for this podcast. So yeah, that's a bit of the different services that I and other translators can provide. 

Stephanie: So that's really interesting. I know translators aren't really seen as a traditional health care worker. Did you realize that by translating documents or web pages you're actively contributing to promoting health equity? 

Moises: So I actually did not realize it immediately when I started working for the center. At first I kind of just viewed my work here as any other translation job. It wasn't until I really began reading a lot of the material that I was translating that I began to think, wow, this is really important information and it's very useful for the Spanish-speaking community in the Inland Empire and for the world at large, especially considering that much of the information that the Center puts out is available on their website, on their YouTube page, and even on Spotify, all mediums that can be accessed from around the world. So much of this research is really relevant today, and I think that having it available in Spanish only increases the audience it reaches. I'm aware that language is one of the biggest barriers for people to gain access to healthcare and medical treatment, and a lot of other social services for that matter. And I personally come from a family of Mexican immigrants as so many others in Southern California do. And when I was younger, I vividly remember having to translate for my mom whenever we went to the doctor's office or when she received letters in the mail from her health insurance, for example. So it's funny because it made me realize that in some ways my first gigs in translation and interpretation were when I was 8 years old translating back and forth from Spanish for my mom. And I know we're focusing on Spanish, but I know that this isn't just the case for Spanish speakers. It's a very common experience for a lot of first generation Americans with immigrant parents, and it's a problem that many ethnic and linguistic minorities face when trying to access services as important as healthcare. And I mean, we're talking about services that can mean the difference between living a healthy life or not. And so, because a lot of what the center does is educate the public regarding research about health disparities that usually tend to affect minorities, to me it just makes sense to make that research available to the Spanish speaking population in Spanish. So I think it's great that the Center takes that commitment to equity so seriously, especially considering that the Spanish-speaking population in the Inland Empire is so large. 

Selina: Well, thank you. As we all know, it is crucial for public health information campaigns to reach people on a deeply emotional level, as you mentioned, if you want to see any changes in their behaviors. However, a simple translation is not enough. There needs to be a bit of transcreation. For our listeners who don't know, transcreation is a mixture of translation and creation. It basically means the content is not translated word for word, it is made coherent and relevant according to the intended community. That said, what strategies do you use to maintain the tone and style of the original text in your translation? And I'm really intrigued to also know how you approach translating humor or satire in text.

Moises: Definitely. So first of all, thank you for breaking down transcreation. I think that's a pretty accurate representation of what that is. I use a couple of different strategies to make sure that tone and style are not lost in my translations. I try my best to use appropriate language in Spanish that matches what is being said or what is really meant in the original text. Like you mentioned, with translation it's hard to translate things word-for-word because every language has different grammar and syntax rules and certain expressions and idioms just can't be translated using their literal translation. Anyone who's bilingual or has knowledge of another language is usually aware of this. So for example, if there's a sentence in English like, you need to follow the directions to the T. I can't translate that literally into Spanish because the to the T part doesn't make sense or it doesn't mean anything in Spanish. However, in Spanish, there is an equivalent expression used by speakers to mean when something needs to be done exactly or perfectly, which is what people mean when they say to the T. In Spanish, you can say, al pie de la letra, which means that something needs to be done perfectly or exactly as it was intended. So in this case, I would use the sentence, tienes que seguir las instrucciones al pie de la letra, because it conveys the same meaning as the original sentence in English. As far as translating humor goes, I really think it is one of the hardest parts of language to translate. Similar to maintaining tone and style, a lot of humor just can't be translated word for word because it won't make sense to listeners. It won't have the same effect. So what I do is I will usually try to find jokes that have an equivalent style of humor or effect. If a speaker is using a pun, for example, I will try to stick with that in Spanish as well. For example, sometimes speakers in English will use an American Southern accent to be comical. However, I can't use that accent in Spanish to make a joke. So in Spanish what I would do is use a Norteño accent, which is a very specific accent from the north of Mexico, to try and have a similar effect on the listener in Spanish. So I really have a lot of respect for translators, especially translators of films and more informal types of media, because they tend to use a lot of humor, satire, and slang in that kind of media.

Stephanie: Thank you.I know you mentioned that you do a variety of translations on different types of fields. But was there ever a time where you had to translate a document that had really highly technical jargon? Like, I know a lot of medical terms are hard to translate and to keep community friendly. So how did you ensure that it was accurate?

Moises: Yeah, so actually, as you guys know, a lot of the work that I do for the center involves technical terms. One of the main ways that I ensure accuracy is by checking multiple sources whenever I have a doubt about a word. Since a lot of the material I translate involves medical and social science terminology, I always try to double-check my choices because an inaccuracy can make a big difference in the name of a disease or the word that I use to describe a different ethnic group, for example. And these are things that can really affect the work of the center. So some of the ways I check my quality is by checking different translation databases to see if other translators have used the term that I'm using before in their translations. If I know that it's a term that other translators are using, it gives me a higher confidence that it's correct because it's been peer reviewed at that point. Another way that I check is by typing my translation into different search engines like Google and Bing to try to find existing material online that has used my term before and that has used it in the same context. So maybe it's a term that's being used in newspapers or maybe it's already being used in other academic material. This also gives me confidence that it's a term that is already circulating. And lastly, I also make it a point to verify terms on the websites of organizations that are considered language authorities in Spanish, like the RAE and the Diccionario del Español Mexicano, which are both reputable sources that are kind of the equivalent of what the Oxford Dictionary is to English, for example.

Selina: Thank you. And so as we, you know, wrap up everything and everything that you shared with us, we're so appreciative of learning everything and how translation is not just something that's so simple, right? You can't translate word for word. So we're excited. But where do you see yourself in the future? industry in some capacity. 

Moises: Recently I've really been drawn to subtitling and the entertainment industry, so I think that's a branch that I would like to explore more. It's also worth noting that the advancement of artificial intelligence is really changing the field of translation, so I really want to learn how to harness the power of AI to continue delivering language services. For now, however, I'm happy and grateful to be working with such an important center like HDR and to contribute to the groundbreaking work that they continue to do. 

Stephanie: Thank you for joining us today on this episode as we discuss the importance of translation within the healthcare world. We explored the importance of accurately translating material to reach a Spanish-speaking community.

And to Moises, thank you for sharing all the wonderful work that you do at HDR.

Moises: Yeah, thank you all again for having me and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about such an important topic and thank you to the Center once more for the important work that they do.

Selina: Thank you for joining us for your healthy dose of disruption.