The Garden City Telegram

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Children end up interpreting for parents

Published 9/12/2009 in Local News

Editor's note: This is the fourth and final story in a series on translators and interpreters who help break the language barrier, communicate questions, address concerns and share hopes and dreams. Today's stories focus on children who translate for their parents.

By RACHAEL GRAY

rgray@gctelegram.com

Dolores Pedro moved to Garden City nine years ago with her husband, who landed a job at Tyson Fresh Meats.

She settled into the Hispanic community here nicely, except for one problem: She didn't speak Spanish, or English.

Pedro came from Guatemala and only spoke an indigenous language, Canjoval, one of many Amerindians languages in Guatemala.

A year after Pedro moved here, she and her husband had a son, Mario. As Mario grew and socialized, he learned Spanish in his neighborhood and spoke it with his friends. In order to communicate with her community, Pedro also chose to learn Spanish and speaks it now with friends and neighbors. When Mario entered the school system, he spoke more English.

As Pedro found some needs outside of the Spanish-speaking realm of Garden City, she began to rely on Mario as her means of communication. Pedro had another son, Jesse, 5, who is young but speaks three languages like Mario: Canjoval, English and Spanish. He shares some of the interpreting along with his brother.

In order to better serve herself and her family, Pedro knows she must add a third language to her list. She started taking English classes nine months ago. She started at level one and quickly advanced to level two. She can understand most simple questions in English but looks to her sons to help out with certain words.

Pedro said her sons help her with errands, such as grocery store runs or other stores where the clerk doesn't speak Spanish.

"I want to learn English to benefit my family," Pedro said in Spanish. She said she knows her chances of getting a job in Garden City will be greater if she speaks English.

"I want to help my children," she said in English.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 41,000 interpreters and translators worked in the United States in 2006. The number is projected to rise 24 percent, and by 2016 the United States could see 51,000 translator and interpreter jobs. The average income of interpreters and translators is between $12.96 and $22.60 per hour. Highest paid translators can earn $30 an hour.

Mario and Jesse Pedro don't know they do this work. To slip in and out of three languages is common for them. The Pedro family speaks Canjoval at home, Spanish in their community and with friends, and English at school and as needed. The difference between Mario and Jesse and those counted in the U.S. Department of Labor statistics is their work never stops.

But with Dolores learning English, it should get easier.

Janie Perkins, supplemental programs coordinator for USD 457, said using children for interpreting, although often necessary, can be hard on the child.

"It forces them to grow up quickly when they must deal with and interpret adult issues," Perkins said.

To ease the anxiety of non-English speaking parents, USD 457 has three interpreters: one for Burmese, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Jill Whippo, social services director at St. Catherine Hospital, said the hospital must deal with the obstacle of families requesting their own interpreters. St. Catherine has three full-time interpreters for Spanish and uses a language line for other languages.

Whippo said the hospital tries to discourage using children as translators because the child may not have the vocabulary in both languages to fully explain the situation in English and another language. Also, she said, medical information can be a heavy burden on a child.

At United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, most of the staff is bilingual. Francisca Devora, clinic director, said with most of the staff being bilingual, they can avoid issues with children interpreting for parents.

"If a child is told certain information, they might not be comfortable telling their loved one that information, or they may just not understand," Devora said.

Law enforcement officials say they sometimes use children to interpret, especially in first-response situations.

Randy Evans, road patrol supervisor in the Finney County Sheriff's Office, said using children to interpret is sometimes necessary in order to get information quickly.

"Sometimes we have to grab a young one who speaks the language. Some details of the incident may be lost in the translation, or the education of the kid," he said.

Joe Gonzales is one of the English teachers in the Migrant Family Literacy Program. USD 457 pays for half of the program, and Garden City Community College pays for the other half. He's been teaching on and off in the program for 15 years. He currently has 25 to 30 families he teaches in level 1 and level 3 English classes. The classes currently meet at Buffalo Jones Elementary School.

Gonzales said because of the young, quick minds of children, interpreting isn't often hard on them. He said it can sometimes add to problems with discipline because children can give their parents false versions of why they are in trouble at school, he said. Gonzales said the parents who participate in the literacy program know they need to learn English so they can offer something more for their families through better jobs and more education.

About whether it's difficult to constantly interpret for his parents, Mario Pedro said it wasn't.

"I speak three languages," he said. "Someday I'll learn Chinese."

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