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Old March 5th, 2020 #13
Stewart Meadows
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Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 37,511
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Allan View Post
In California alone, 220 languages other than English are spoken, and in government schools there are 92, with Spanish of course being the most common.
Quote:
With 220 languages spoken in California, courts face an interpreter shortage




California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar heads a task force assigned to enforce the “language access plan” boosting translation services in the courts.(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

SEP. 5, 2017 3 AM

Federal law enforcement began investigating California’s courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.

Courts in other states also were examined and faulted. Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin. Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.

But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.

At least 220 languages are spoken in California, and 44% of residents speak a language other than English at home. Seven million Californians say they cannot speak English well.
(...)
The languages for which interpreters are needed are Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, American Sign, Mandarin, Farsi, Cantonese, Russian, Tagalog, Arabic and Punjabi.

But depending on the location of the court, that list expands. It includes Cambodian/Khmer, Japanese, Malayalam, Hmong, Lao and even dialects of the Aleutian Islands.

(...)
A defendant knew only Mixteco, an indigenous language spoken in parts of Mexico.

The only interpreter who could be found did not speak English. So that person translated Mixteco into Spanish, and a second translated the Spanish into English, said Covarrubias, who has helped lead the courts’ language efforts.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...905-story.html

But remember, folks: diversity is our strength. At least that's what this guy keeps telling us: