5 Multilingual Celebrities That Might Surprise You!

Being in the language access industry we often only think of the importance of providing limited English speakers, deaf and hard of hearing patients with with access to healthcare, legal and government services through the use of interpreters.

Once we take some time to look beyond the day to day necessities of language access it becomes apparent how diverse a society we live in. It amazes me the hidden polyglot talents that people possess. I’ve done some research and found a few notable celebrities that are multilingual, some of which will surprise you! Actors and actresses can be described as intellectual people, their ability to memorize and improvise massive scripts under extremely tight schedules proves to be a daunting task. However, many of the well-known actors and actresses gain recognition from their English-speaking roles in their movies and not their ability to speak another language. You might be surprised to learn that Mila Kunis’ first language is Russian and can speak it flawlessly! Let’s take a look at other bilingual celebrities.

Actress Sandra Bullock speaks fluent German. Her mother was a German opera singer and at the time her father met her while stationed in Nuremberg! In 2000 Bullock won a Bambi award which is the German equivalent to the Oscars. You can check out the video of her acceptance speech here!

Natalie Portman is quite the linguist. Not only is she fluent in Hebrew, she is also fluent in Spanish, German, Japanese and a little bit of French. Portman was born in Hershlag, Jerusalem but she moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 with her family due to her father’s medical training and career advancements. Check out this video of Portman speaking Hebrew in a few interviews.

One of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, loves French, And he can speak it fluently too. And he even managed to fit in French classes into his busy class schedule while attending Columbia College. He felt that the French classes were more “interesting”. Have a look at this video of Gordon-Levitt in a French interview back in 2005.

Last and most certainly not least, Johnny Depp. Depp lived in Paris for over a decade with his former partner Vanessa Paradis. Not only are they both fluent in French, both of their children are bilingual also! This is quite impressive since Depp was born and raised in the United States.

It’s amazing to think that many gifted actors and actresses have such impressive hidden lingual talents. This was just a short list of my favorite actors and actresses, here is where you can find a larger list of bilingual celebrities. It’s safe to say that interpretation industry would get an influx of interpreters if there was ever a disaster to happen in the film industry!

The EU is going straight to the source!

The EU Court of Justice operates a substantial language access process. With over 600 lawyer-linguists staffed internally and managed by Directorate-General, the courts still outsource one-third of its translation and interpretation work to freelance translators and interpreters. So as of December 16th, 2016, the courts issued an invitation to bid for a new framework contract worth about €6 million. However, language service providers (LSPs) need not apply! With the EU Court of Justice running such a large operation, why would they want to take on the burden to manage it themselves? Going straight to the source and cutting out the middleman is a characteristic of cost cutting, however, certain precautions must be taken in order for these cost cuts to be worth this extra burden.

Now, this is all well and good for the EU courts, but they must adopt a system to effectively manage the direct relationship with these translators and interpreters. What was previously managed by the Language Service Providers (LSPs) must now be managed by the EU Court of Justice internally. To do so effectively they will need a system to manage the freelance translators and interpreters, ensure that approved linguists meet any compliance and certification requirements and have processes in place to streamline the accounts payable and accounts receivable. Interpreter Intelligence is a system that streamlines all of these processes and allows an organization to easily access and update all their customer and client information and centrally manage all their bookings in a single secure and convenient platform. The Intelligence Scheduling System is a system that has helped numerous organizations transform their scheduling activities while significantly improving the efficiencies of their businesses, either for existing businesses who have switched over, or new organizations starting off for the first time.

Upon learning about this, I cannot help but see the potential for the EU Court of Justice to struggle if they fail to take the correct steps in implementing the correct language provider management software. They should really take a step back and do a complete and comprehensive analysis of their needs before taking any action. The implementation of a system like Interpreter Intelligence would prove to be greatly beneficial as they undertake this huge transition. If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Intelligence Scheduling System, we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business.

What is Video Remote Interpreting and what are the main benefits of it?

VRI (Video Remote Interpreting) is a service that uses web cameras/video phones to deliver sign language and spoken language interpretation services. This type of interpretation is generally sought after to communicate where the parties involved are at different locations and require a sign language interpretation promptly. The popularity of VRI is growing and in an emergency situation when an interpreter cannot make it to the hospital or court in time, VRI is the next best affordable alternative.

VRI can reduce costs dramatically. In nearly every scenario, when compared to an interpreter arriving in person, VRI is considerably cheaper. With lower costs and the consumer being given access almost instantly to an interpreter, VRI is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

VRI allows to address the challenges of cultural sensitivities. Yes, a telephone interpretation can be very easy and casual, however, it does not take into consideration critical aspects such as body language, hand movements, and facial expressions. The risk of a misinterpretation is greatly increased when using audio only interpretation. Here is an example of such a case where a phone translator let to a mishap in a hospital, the doctor diagnosed him with a drug overdose when in fact he was suffering from a bleed in the brain. This misinterpretation resulted in the patient becoming a quadriplegic.

With the level of everyday technology now present in personal electronics, you don’t have to go far to find a laptop with a built-in microphone and camera. Having instant access to certified interpreters at your fingertips is one of the many benefits of VRI. In the past having a camera built into a laptop was a rare occurrence, this meant VRI would have struggled, but now with everyday technology having such features as standard, the hospital or court can schedule a VRI appointment on-demand and the interpreter can make the VRI appointment from their own home within minutes!

VRI will change the way last minute appointments happen. Here at Interpreter Intelligence, we are developing a user-friendly software that can prove to be very beneficial to all parties involved. Our platform will take quality and easy usability into consideration as VRI scheduled appointments need the highest of quality as we understand the implications of a misinterpretation. If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Scheduling System or our VRI software in development we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business by contacting our support team.

Top benefits to implementing an online scheduling software.

Managing an interpreter’s schedule at different locations and times is a daunting task. With your financials, interpreter’s information, client information and a list of upcoming unfilled jobs all being on separate platforms, it makes the whole process very difficult. Interpreter Intelligence was created to solve these issues and provide benefit to language service providers who struggle with the wide range of activities not located on a centralized platform. So here are some of the benefits that an interpreter management and online scheduling software can provide to your organization.

Access Anytime and Anywhere

With the software being based online, it doesn’t matter what computer you are using, your own URL will be provided to you so you can access it wherever and whenever you like, all you need is an internet connection. This also goes for the interpreters checking their own schedule to self-assign themselves a job or clients creating a new booking themselves. Interpreter Intelligence allows you to centrally manage all your bookings in a secure and convenient cloud-based solution. 

Time saver – Eliminating the back and forth

Another primary benefit of adopting an online scheduling software is that it increases your efficiency. For example, the interpreter’s availability is already set, so when you or your clients create a booking, an interpreter who is already willing to work can be offered the job directly and reduce the amount of time going back and forth trying to find a suitable time for everyone. Interpreter Intelligence’s ‘Employment Eligibility‘ feature is an example of a timesaving benefit, reducing the time going back and forth. Quickly determine whether the interpreter meets the criteria necessary to be eligible for assignment to a specific booking.

Gain insights from extensive on-demand reporting.

Implementing an online scheduling software that records as much data as Interpreter Intelligence would result in a huge benefit for the reporting aspect of your business. On the Interpreter Intelligence system, you can easily review statistical data about the state of your business on a periodic basis defined by you. Quickly see bookings broken down by language, customer, and activity spanning any duration. All data is readily exported in Excel of CSV format for further statistical analysis and sharing with customers.

Quicker lines of communication results in fewer unfulfilled bookings.

With many bookings coming in last minute, the level of urgency is critical when trying to fill that appointment. What is needed in this situation are fast points of contact. The agency needs to know who is available, who has the qualifications, who is within the distance the clients is willing to pay the mileage for and who is a preferred interpreter for that client. Last minute bookings fair very well in Interpreter Intelligence’s system as we cater for all these requirements and much more. 

As you can see, the implementation of an online scheduling system to manage your agencies interpreter appointments can provide benefit across all aspects of your interpreter scheduling business. Be it speed, flexibility, fewer unfulfilled appointments or accessibility to the system. If you found these aspects interesting be sure to check out our product features on our website or get in contact here if you want more information on what we can provide you.