REQUIREMENTS
TO BECOME AN INTERPRETER
OF THE
NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM
According to Mr. Miranda (see
Interview
in this issue), at the moment the only
educational requirement is a high school diploma and passing a written
and an
oral test. First, the candidate has to pass the written test: It is a
multiple
choice test designed to test the English and Spanish proficiency. If
the
candidate passes, it gives he or she the right to take the oral test,
which
consists of a video showing a courtroom scenario. It’s not necessary to
know
any legal terminology at this point. There are normal conversations and
they
ask the candidate to interpret while watching what’s been said from
English to
Spanish or from Spanish to English and this is recorded onto an
audiocassette.
That audiocassette is sent to a person that grades it and combines the
result
with the score of the written test that determines the final score and
the candidate’s ranking on the list. The minimum age to take the tests
is 18
years and there is no limitation. The last test was given in 1998 and
now there
is one coming up on April 27th but the registration was closed in
January. The
entry salary of the NYS Unified Court System interpreters of the is
about
$39,000 and the benefits include four weeks paid vacation, thirteen
sick days a
year, thirteen paid holidays a year, medical insurance and pension. The
interpreters may belong
to a Union, ‘D.C. 37” that is part of “FACSME”,
the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees.
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