- State of Maryland Court Interpreter Introductory Workshop Attendance Requirements in 2013:
Acceptance into the Court Interpreter Program in the fall of 2013 is limited. We are actively recruiting bilingual individuals who speak the following languages: all African languages, Albanian, Bengali, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Greek, Hindi, Punjabi, Laotian, Nepali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese, and Urdu. If you are fluent in English and any of the above languages and are interested in our program, please call Lorena Sevilla Somoza at (410) 260-1576 for more information.
Speakers of the following languages are not accepted at this time due to the sufficient number of interpreters already on the Court Interpreter Registry: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese languages, Farsi, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Korean, Russian, and Spanish languages. Please visit our website in 2014 for future updates.
Additionally, we are recruiting American Sign Language Interpreters(ASL) and Certified Deaf Interpreters(CDI). ASL and CDI interpreters must be certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) in order to be accepted in the Court Interpreter Program.
For additional information or if your language is not listed above, please contact us at (410) 260-1576 or send an e-mail to:
Ksenia.Boitsova@mdcourts.gov, Court Interpreter Program Administrator, Program Services
Lorena.SevillaSomoza@mdcourts.gov, Court Interpreter Program Specialist, Program Services
Please note that priority is given to Maryland residents and acceptance into the workshop is based on experience, language proficiency and education, not on a first come basis. A telephone interview by a member of the Court Interpreter Program staff maybe conducted as part of the application process.
- General Information Regarding Court Interpreter Introductory Workshops and Testing:
- The purpose of the 1-day Introductory Workshop is to familiarize the candidates with the State of Maryland court system and the interpreter's role in a courtroom setting. (Modes of interpreting and resources available for improving skills are addressed, but actual interpreting skills are not taught.). The workshop is language neutral.
- Residents of adjoining states may apply for workshops only if they plan to interpret in the Maryland courts and live within 30 miles of the nearest courthouse in Maryland. Applications may be accepted only if the class is not filled by Maryland residents.
- The written examination in English is administered twice a year. Additional information about the written exam will be provided at the Introductory workshop. The written examination is covers a) comprehension of written English vocabulary and idioms, b) common court-related situations and vocabulary and c) knowledge of ethical behavior and professional conduct.
- The candidate will be invited to take the Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) in English and foreign languages only if the written examination is passed. The LPI measures how well the candidate speaks the target language, not their interpreting ability. It is a one-on-one telephonic conversation with an interviewer conducted in English and the target language.There is a $50 fee for the Language Proficiency Interview.
- Once foreign language candidates have passed both the written examination and the LPIs in the English and target languages, they must attend a 2-day Mandatory Court Interpreter Orientation workshop. This training workshop will address the three modes of court interpreting and provide an introduction to the wireless court interpreting equipment, courtroom protocol, invoicing and interpreter ethics. Candidates will enter the Court Interpreter Registry as eligible interpreters only after successfully completing this workshop. There is a $100 fee for the Orientation Workshop.
- Oral language-specific certification testing is offered annually, but only to those who have attended the Mandatory Court Interpreter Orientation Workshop and have passed the written examination and LPI. Oral certification examinations are currently offered in Arabic, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Cantonese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. Certification exams are administered once a year. Registration forms are mailed to eligible interpreters three months prior to the exams. The exam consists of simultaneous, consecutive, and sight translation components. In order to pass the exam, a candidate must obtain a minimum 70% score on each component.