![]() ![]() Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union Elementary.Census Bureau Top foreign languages in U.S. In addition to language interpretation, enhanced 911 services include emergency assistance for hearing-impaired callers.Ĭontact reporter Rick Brewer at (209) 239-3324 or Spanish (including Spanish Creole) According to the California Board of Equalization, the statewide 911 surcharge is 0.5 percent of each phone bill. The Federal Communications Commission allows local governments to charge a fee to pay for this feature. We just send help."Ĭalling NetworkOmni doesn't cost cities anything, because a portion of everyone's phone bill pays for enhanced 911 services. Osborn said non-English-speaking residents might be reluctant to call 911 in an emergency, because they might not know interpretation services are available.Īnd if someone is in the country illegally, he said, "We want to stress that in an emergency, we don't ask if you are a resident or not. It's just patched right into our phone lines." "It's become almost seamless to us," Osborn said of using language interpretation. But the fierce competition in the translation/interpretation industry, which costs consumers $1billion per year, has not been felt at the local level. NetworkOmni employs translators for more than 150 languages, officials said. In the years since, Language Line Services has gone private and built an international staff that can translate more than 170 languages. So the officer contacted the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and set up a way to get an interpreter on the phone quickly in emergencies. "Frankly, he got tired of wondering if he was speaking to the victim or the perpetrator," Hansman said. Spokesman Dale Hansman said that in the early 1980s, after an influx of Vietnamese refugees immigrated to the United States, a San Jose policeman's difficulty in crossing the language barrier spurred the company's creation. It originally was formed as a volunteer operation in 1982 to deal with 911 calls in Santa Clara County. Language Line Services of Monterey held California's emergency call contract for many years. "But we'll stay on the line as long as it takes, and that can be 20 to 30 minutes at times," he said. He said it takes an average of 20 seconds to connect a caller to an interpreter, and the average call lasts less than five minutes. Mendoza said the NetworkOmni line is called an average of 40,000 times per month to interpret emergency calls throughout the state. The calls usually last five or six minutes, tops," Manteca Police Department spokesman Rex Osborn said. "It isn't like we stay on the line for half an hour or anything. Either way, Vicente, the interpreter and original caller are connected until enough information is gathered to determine the best course of action. Sometimes, the caller is linked directly to an in-house interpreter, and sometimes a conference call is set up. If Vicente is unsure of the dialect, operators contact professionals who can identify the correct language and get Vicente and the caller to the right interpreter. Many translators work from their homes throughout the world. If Vicente knows the language needed, she asks for it, and an interpreter is connected almost immediately. When a dispatcher, such as Crystal Vicente of Manteca, receives a call that needs interpretation, she presses her quick-dial button that automatically calls NetworkOmni's dedicated 800 number. "This is a growing, emerging industry, especially because of the continued growth in the immigrant population," said Manny Mendoza, vice president of sales and marketing for NetworkOmni. ![]() ![]() NetworkOmni won a three-year contract to interpret statewide emergency 911 calls in April 2005. The company works with more than 2,500 linguists around the world and staffs language centers in North and South America. The third-party call goes from the dispatcher to NetworkOmni Multilingual Services, which provides over-the-phone interpretation assistance for businesses and government agencies. That auto-dial button is pressed often in San Joaquin County, where dozens of languages other than English are spoken. They can hope an on-duty staff member speaks the caller's language, or they can press a button and be connected automatically to a Thousand Oaks-based translation service. Dispatchers have two options when an emergency call comes into a police station in San Joaquin County and the caller doesn't speak English. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |