THE BOAT PEOPLE TRIAL The challenge for translators

As the prosecutor and the defense lawyers argue in the court, the six defendants look on, trying to figure out what’s taking place during the proceedings. They don’t speak a single word of English. Their native dialect is Fujian, but they speak and understand a great deal of Mandarin, China’s official language.

The defendants who are being tried before a jury for alien smuggling would be clueless if not for the translators who take pains interpreting the legal conversations.

“It’s not easy. When a lawyer delivers a speech for 10 minutes, I could only translate at least 50 percent of what the lawyer said,” says a translator who wants to be identified only as Betty, her “American name.”

Betty says translating every word or sentence in verbatim from Mandarin to English is impossible that she has to summarize what’s being said.

“I do the translation on installment basis. But I try very hard to make sure they understand what’s going on,” Betty says.

The trial for the six defendants accused of bringing 51 undocumented aliens into the US territory entered its second day yesterday.

Three Coast Guard officers took the witness stand during the whole day session. Defense lawyers cross examined them to reveal the condition of the fishing vessel when it was interdicted and later sunk by the Coast Guard last April.

Charged at the US District Court of Saipan were Xue Jian Hui, He, Xi Di, Shi Guo Rui, Gao Liang, Shi Peng, He Xiu Jin, who are referred to by the prosecutor as “enforcers.”

The presence of translators is crucial as language barrier could potentially snag the trial. They are the only medium to make it possible for lawyers and their clients to communicate.

For interpreters, half of the challenge is translating English into Mandarin, the other half is translating legal language into layman’s language.

“Doing translation in the court is especially hard because the defendants know nothing about the US legal system. The US legal system is entirely different from our system in China,” says Agnes Ning. “They fully understand though that they are presumed innocent until proven guilty like what the judge always tells them,” she adds.

The US District Court pays a translator $65 per four hours, which is a little higher than the amount paid to a court-appointed lawyer who gets $60 per court hearing and $40 for any work outside the courtroom. A translator who works beyond four hours — say four hours and five minutes — automatically makes $120 a day.

Although she is not a lawyer by profession, Agnes says her part-time job at the court requires her to learn legal jargons and procedures. “Maybe I can be a lawyers someday,” she quips. (MCM)