Curriculum III · Access and practice
Working with an Interpreter
A professional — not a cousin and not the bilingual coworker from the hall. Speak to the person.
35–45 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning
Course outline
- 6 minutes
Who is in the room
Three people. You look at one of them.
- 7 minutes
Who is not the interpreter
Child, spouse, the Somali coworker from floor three.
- 5 minutes
Time is part of the design
An interpreted meeting is longer. If you do not book it, you chose English-speed.
- 5 minutes
Book one
A live appointment. Then plain language on the paper that follows.
Share this course
What you’ll be able to do
Explore and practice
- Identify how working with an interpreter affects a DHS decision, service, or workplace process.
- Use the course concepts and evidence to examine one live policy, form, meeting, service, hire, budget, or engagement plan.
- Choose and document one defensible change, the person who owns it, and the date the team will review it.
What you can take into your work
- Make and reconsider scenario decisions without being assigned a score.
- Complete the practical activities and record a one-minute transfer commitment.
- Apply the learning to a live work object in the Equity Analysis Toolkit.
Bring one live work object into the application workspace. Name who it was built for, who may carry the burden, and one change or formal escalation.
Listen to the introduction
Read the introduction
An interpreter is a professional, not a family member and not the bilingual coworker you grabbed in the hall. Minnesota has a guide for this work. Speak to the person, not to the interpreter. Book time. Do not ask the child to interpret a benefits decision. Voluntary. For every DHS employee who meets the public.
Interpreter Job Aid
Professional. To the person. Not a child. Not unpaid identity.
Do not ask the child to interpret a benefits decision.
Use this aid while applying Working with an Interpreter to a live DHS work object.
- Do not ask the child to interpret a benefits decision.
- Use the relevant formal door when a right, complaint, labor process, safety duty, or Tribal consultation is involved.
Bring one live work object into the application workspace. Name who it was built for, who may carry the burden, and one change or formal escalation.
Before
- Book qualified.
- Double the time.
- Brief terms, not character.
In the room
- Face the person.
- Short chunks.
- Interpreter hears everything.
Never
- Minors.
- Hallway bilingual as default.
- Talking about “her” in the third person.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
Sources and further reading
- MDH — Working with Medical Interpreters
Minnesota evidence. Match when you can. Accuracy is the point.
- DHS — LEP resources (nested language lists)
Five primary translations; fifteen interpreter cards. A list is not the dialect.
- Language access as a design (this hub)
The channel around this room.