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Community Interpreter Questions with
Detailed Verified Answers
Question: What is community interpreting?
Ans✅ ✅: A specialization of interpreting that facilitates access to community
services.
Question: Define medical interpreting
Ans✅ ✅: Interpreting for patients, their families and healthcare providers.
Question: A medical interpreters are community interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: Yes
Question: What is the purpose of interpreting?
Ans✅ ✅: To facilitate communication between two parties who do not share a
common language.
Question: Describe communicative autonomy
Ans✅ ✅: The capacity of each party in the encounter to be responsible for and in
control of her or her own communication.
Question: Which area of community interpreting has become the most
professionalized?
Ans✅ ✅: Medical or healthcare interpreting
Question: List the minimum requirements for a community interpreter
to practice as an interpreter?
Ans✅ ✅: Be 18 years old, Have a high school or secondary school diploma or
equivalent, Have proof of language proficiency, Have a certificate for 40 hours of
interpreter training
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Question: Describe the difference between a certificate and
certification.
Ans✅ ✅: Both are credentials. But a certificate is a piece of paper. A certificate
might attest that you attended a program or workshop or conference. Certification is a
process. It involves a rigorous evaluation of interpreter skills and usually includes
written exam followed by and oral skills exam.
Question: Which kinds of organizations develop recognized certification
programs for interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: The interpreting professions broadly, at least in North America, recognize
only those certification programs developed by federal or state/provincial
governments and professional bodies.
Question: If you graduate successfully from a 40-hour interpreting
program, are you certified?
Ans✅ ✅: No. You are professionally trained. If you have also been tested for
language proficiency, you can refer to yourself as qualified.
Question: Name the organizations in the United States that provide
national medical interpreter certification.
Ans✅ ✅: CCHI (Certification for Healthcare Interpreters and NBCMI (The National
Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters)
Question: Is there national U.S. certification for community
interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: No. But there is state certification, in the state of Washington only, for
bother medical and social services interpreters.
Question: What is code of ethics?
Ans✅ ✅: A set of directives that specifies the requirements or expectations
intended to guide the conduct of practitioners of a profession. In other words, ethics
are the strictest requirements of any profession.
Question: Why do ethics matter?
Community Interpreter Questions with
Detailed Verified Answers
Question: What is community interpreting?
Ans✅ ✅: A specialization of interpreting that facilitates access to community
services.
Question: Define medical interpreting
Ans✅ ✅: Interpreting for patients, their families and healthcare providers.
Question: A medical interpreters are community interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: Yes
Question: What is the purpose of interpreting?
Ans✅ ✅: To facilitate communication between two parties who do not share a
common language.
Question: Describe communicative autonomy
Ans✅ ✅: The capacity of each party in the encounter to be responsible for and in
control of her or her own communication.
Question: Which area of community interpreting has become the most
professionalized?
Ans✅ ✅: Medical or healthcare interpreting
Question: List the minimum requirements for a community interpreter
to practice as an interpreter?
Ans✅ ✅: Be 18 years old, Have a high school or secondary school diploma or
equivalent, Have proof of language proficiency, Have a certificate for 40 hours of
interpreter training
, Page | 2
Question: Describe the difference between a certificate and
certification.
Ans✅ ✅: Both are credentials. But a certificate is a piece of paper. A certificate
might attest that you attended a program or workshop or conference. Certification is a
process. It involves a rigorous evaluation of interpreter skills and usually includes
written exam followed by and oral skills exam.
Question: Which kinds of organizations develop recognized certification
programs for interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: The interpreting professions broadly, at least in North America, recognize
only those certification programs developed by federal or state/provincial
governments and professional bodies.
Question: If you graduate successfully from a 40-hour interpreting
program, are you certified?
Ans✅ ✅: No. You are professionally trained. If you have also been tested for
language proficiency, you can refer to yourself as qualified.
Question: Name the organizations in the United States that provide
national medical interpreter certification.
Ans✅ ✅: CCHI (Certification for Healthcare Interpreters and NBCMI (The National
Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters)
Question: Is there national U.S. certification for community
interpreters?
Ans✅ ✅: No. But there is state certification, in the state of Washington only, for
bother medical and social services interpreters.
Question: What is code of ethics?
Ans✅ ✅: A set of directives that specifies the requirements or expectations
intended to guide the conduct of practitioners of a profession. In other words, ethics
are the strictest requirements of any profession.
Question: Why do ethics matter?
