For P.E.I. interpreters, translating is more than just repeating something in a different language

Sitting somewhere inside a courthouse in the Bahamas, a young Kristina Sweeting would hear the same message repeated twice, once by a stranger and then again by her mother.

"She'd have court cases to go to and sometimes she wouldn't have anyone leaving us so she take me with me and I kind of sit in the back and watch her, and I just thought it was fascinating," she said.

Her mother, who's originally from Peru, worked in the Caribbean country as a translator, helping Spanish-speakers navigate the local court system.

Sweeting has followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a translator and an interpreter for Spanish and Italian. Now based on P.E.I., she helps non-English speakers from Latin American countries do essential things such as go to the doctor or sign up their children for school.

"A translator works more with the written portion of the language," she said. "The interpreter, it's more so with the talking part of the language ... which requires the interpreter to listen and comprehend, and to also translate the language at the same time."

The Immigrant and Refugee Service Association of P.E.I. offers its clients translation and interpretation services. About 90 people who have been trained in-house are on call to assist newcomers settle into their new home. 

Lu Xinghai learned about the services in 2010 when he was taking a Holland College program to improve his English skills.

Lu, who is from Shanghai, said he decided to get training and put his name on the association's on-call list after seeing the high number of people coming to the Island from China at the time.

"They can't understand some things, like the way of living and how to communicate with the people and how to encounter some unfamiliar situations. They don't have that kind of experience," he said.

Lu said a lot of the work involves helping clients navigate institutions that work differently in their home country. For example, he lets them know that in Canadian hospitals you're expected to wait while staff prioritize other patients.

Other situations are trickier to navigate.

"I was at the police station one time. One girl went to the hospital, said, 'OK I have some injury and need to be treated.' Then afterwards, after checking everything the doctor immediately called 911, calls the police station, and says 'OK, there's kind of the potential [for] domestic violence,'" he said. 

"The police just check everything and then afterwards arrest the boy. So you see it is quite different. I was there, and I participated in all the proceedings."

Lu said putting your emotions aside when dealing with that kind of situation is one of the most challenging things about the job.