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Common Sense Advisory Blogs
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Over-the-Phone Interpretation (OPI) and Emergency Services
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The newspaper account chronicles the timeline of a 911 (emergency) call and offers an MP3 download of the call. The call was routed to an interpretation service provided by Language Line, also in California. A few things caught our eye:
- Although a great service, over-the-phone interpretation (OPI) is not perfect. Language Line claims that it takes an average 9.7 seconds to put a Spanish interpreter on the line, but in this case, the company missed its target by more than a minute.
- 911 calls are very bureaucratic.
- The newspaper offered readers an opportunity to comment on the story. Some comments were shocking, falling into the "immigrant, learn English or go home" category.
OPI is just one form of oral interpretation that happens every day in American courts, hospitals, and any other place where non-Anglophones connect with officials speaking English. A couple OPI companies rival some of the 10 biggest language service providers in terms of annual revenue.
Are there debates -- other than the "speak English" crowd -- about the value of OPI versus, say, translated documentation for a DVD player? Unlike LSPs, OPI companies provide an instantaneous, obviously valuable service that can save lives and keep people out of jail -- that is, unless the Racine readers prevail in their misguided English-firster preference to send immigrants back to where they came from.
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