language

  • Crapita’s lack of integrity revealed again

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Evidence continues to stack up on the Court Delays website about Capita Translation & Interpreting’s continuing failure to meet the terms of its courts and tribunals interpreting contract with the Ministry of Justice (posts passim).

    This blog has previously highlighted Capita’s tactics to save its own skin when challenged; back in May it seemed to imply that the Clerk of Nottingham Crown Court was being untruthful when it failed to provide an interpreter for a murder case (posts passim).

    That is, however, not an isolated case, as shown by the following comment posted on the Court Delays website by Tim Sapwell.

    One whole day of Court time wasted.

    Warwick sitting at Leamington Spa

    9/7/13
    Defendant in robbery trial not produced from custody. Then no Punjabi interpreter for witness. Capita claim on telephone to CPS that no booking has been made. This is clearly not correct, because they later send an e-mail giving the exact details of the booking as the subject heading! They say they only have 2 Punjabi interpreters, one of whom is busy and the other cannot be found (!). It is suggested that the interpreter cannot attend before 12 noon the following day because he/she is based 100 miles away. Options offered are that the interpreter could be available at “around 12″ the following day or else a possibility that another could be found who might be available for 10.15 am.

    Identity of defendant withheld – case not concluded.

    First Capita T&I tell an untruth to the Crown Prosecution Service and then contradict themselves: you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried!

    As far as I can see, honesty and integrity are important qualities to possess for undertaking work in the courts. Capita T&I clearly has neither.

  • Farewell to The H

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Open Source, Tech

    Today’s a sad day in the IT news world: The H is closing down. For the last few years it has been an excellent source of IT news in the fields of free and open source software, security and software development, or as it said in its own words: “The H brings you the in-depth coverage of the world of IT, communications, data security and the politics of technology.”

    Earlier today editor DJ Walker-Morgan (aka Codepope. Ed.) posted the message below on The H’s website.

    Although The H has produced many widely read stories, it has not been possible to effectively monetise that traffic to produce a working business model.

    Because of this, after four and a half years as The H and six years online, The H is, sadly, closing its doors. We thank all our readers for their deep interest and engagement. Work is taking place to create an archive to ensure that the content of the site will remain publicly accessible.

    Best regards

    DJ Walker-Morgan and the entire team at The H

    The H was produced in association with Heise Online, a major German IT news site and one I’d recommend.

    So farewell, The H and thanks for providing quality news for the last few years and best wishes for the future; you’ll be missed.

  • Boycott bingo

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities

    The second Ashes Test match is currently underway at Lord’s in London between England and Australia.

    Over the years I’ve become a fan of the live coverage provided by the Test Match Special team on Radio 4 LW; local Bristol community station BCfm interferes with the signal on Radio 4’s FM signal where I live.

    portrait of Geoff Boycott
    Geoff Boycott
    As a consequence, I’ve got to know and appreciate the consummate broadcasting skills of Aggers, Blowers and company, including Geoff Boycott, regarded by some as the ‘greatest living Yorkshireman’.

    One of the joys of listening to the coverage is the banter between the team, especially the ribbing of Boycott and the interplay between him and Aggers in particular.

    Now Geoffrey is not known for keeping his counsel to himself, being a man of strong opinions. Like all of us, he’s got little foibles in his speech and recurring phrases, affectionately known as ‘Boycottisms‘. These Boycottisms have been used to produce ‘Boycott bingo’ cards like the example below.

    image of a Boycott bingo card

    You can get your own Boycott bingo card at http://boycott.gdb.me/.

    Play along and enjoy the game!

  • Chinese interpreter jailed for helping people cheat driving theory test

    Steve WoodsLanguage

    West Midlands Police has announced that a Chinese interpreter has been jailed for helping driving test candidates cheat on theory exams in a scam that’s believed to have netted him up to £100,000.

    Interpreter Peter Hui was approved by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) to guide foreign applicants through the exam and provide a Mandarin voice-over for its multiple choice questions and answer options.

    However, a joint West Midlands Police and DSA investigation revealed Hui had helped more than 200 candidates pass by agreeing a cheat’s code, which involved him saying “shi” – Mandarin for “yes” – before reading out the answer he believed was correct.

    DSA officials became suspicious of the increased number of prospective drivers choosing to be represented by the 55-year-old interpreter as his client list expanded rapidly towards the end of 2011 and into 2012.

    They appointed their own Mandarin language expert to assess audio recordings taken from 27 of his translations and found he repeatedly used the “shi” prompt to steer candidates to the right answer.

    Hui was arrested at the Birmingham test centre on 21st August 2012 and, faced with the evidence, admitted conspiring to defraud the DSA.

    On Monday 15th July 15 Hui was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to 12 months in prison.

    Police finance investigators will look to recover cash and assets Hui is believed to have gained illegally.

    This is believed to be the first time an interpreter has been jailed for such a fraud.

    Two candidates who admitted paying Hui to help them cheat also admitted a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud and were ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £100 costs.

    Theory test candidates that cannot speak or read English can ask for a ‘voice-over’ in one of 21 different languages provided by the DSA-approved interpreters.

    Furthermore, on 10th July officers from West Midlands Police’s ECU arrested an Urdu interpreter suspected of helping bus and lorry drivers cheat on theory tests. He was bailed till a date in September pending detailed enquiries.

  • Advertising’s acceptable face

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Media, Oddities, Open Source, Tech

    KDE is one of the 2 major providers of GUIs and applications for Linux systems (some KDE applications are also now available for Windows too! Ed.).

    It’s currently holding the KDE Akademy 2013, a free, non-commercial event organised by the KDE community, in Bilbao in the Basque Country of Northern Spain from 13th to 19th July.

    The local public transport company has also picked up on this event and is advertising it on its ticket machines; and in 3 languages too!.

    image of Bilbao public transport ticket machine
    Free software advertising – Bilbao

    Would London Underground or the UK’s train operating companies do likewise?

    I’ve written before of my dislike of advertising (posts passim), but advertising for community-based projects – even if those communities are scattered throughout the world – is something for which I’ll make an exception.

  • France: Twitter hands over anti-Semitic tweets data

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    Twitter logoMicro-blogging site Twitter is complying with a recent judicial decision to hand over identification data for anti-Semitic and racist tweets, reports Le Monde Informatique.

    In October last year, there was outrage after numerous anti-Semitic comments were posted on Twitter using the hashtags #UnBonJuif (a good Jew) and #UnJuifMort (a dead Jew). When alerted to the tweets, Twitter immediately removed them. The UEJF (French Jewish Students Union) and four other human rights and anti-racist organisations appealed to the courts to force Twitter to hand over personal details of users who had posted the tweets so they could be prosecuted under French laws against publishing racist and discriminatory hate speech.

    In June 2013 the Court of Appeal in Paris dismissed a plea by Twitter and confirmed the social media site’s obligation to pass on the details of the authors of racist or anti-Semitic tweets to five human rights associations concerned.

    Twitter announced yesterday that it had handed over the “data likely to enable the identification of certain authors” of anti-Semitic tweets. Twitter also regard this move as settling the dispute with the UEJF, which had directly criticised the social network and its CEO, Dick Costolo, requesting €38.5 million in damages. The parties to the dispute are now going to work together to fight racism. Twitter added that this included “taking measures to improve the accessibility of the reporting procedure of illegal tweets”.

  • Inadequate interpreter supplied, case adjourned

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Yesterday’s Wales Online carried a report of a court case at Cardiff Magistrates Court involving public order offences by Tamil protesters on 20th June connected with a protest at the city’s Swalec Stadium against the presence of the Sri Lankan cricket team on British soil.

    Hidden in the report was yet more evidence of the failing interpreting contract between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Capita Translation & Interpreting (posts passim), in this instance, the provision of an incomprehensible interpreter.

    An eighth man admitted throwing a stone at a passing car outside the stadium, while a ninth man accused of common assault was unable to submit a plea because he could not understand the Tamil interpreter provided by the court – his case was adjourned until July 23.

    How can the MoJ continue to claim that the contract is working well when courts around the country experience delay, disruption and additional expense?

    If any reader has evidence of court delays for whatever reason (e.g. Capita not providing an interpreter, G4S failing to produce defendant for hearing, etc., they can be reported at https://courtdelays.wordpress.com/.

  • Little bird, big name

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language

    The other afternoon I was having a rare afternoon pint in the shady garden of The Volunteer Tavern in St Judes when mine host Peter Gibbs asked me a question along the lines of: “What are these small brown birds I keep seeing in the garden?”

    I told him that I’d frequently seen (and heard; as the RSPB remarks, “For such a small bird it has a remarkably loud voice.” Ed.) wrens in the garden.

    image of a wren
    The Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    The wren is Britain’s smallest bird, measuring 9.5-10 cm, and used to feature on the back of Britain’s smallest coin – the pre-decimal farthing, which ceased to be legal tender after 31st December 1960.

    image of George VI farthing
    George VI farthing. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    Despite its small size, the wren has a big binomial name: Troglodytes troglodytes.

    The wren is found across the UK in a wide range of habitats – woodland, farmland, heathland, moorland and islands and is a regular visitor to gardens, including pub gardens in central Bristol. 🙂

    In European folklore, the wren is named the King of the Birds. According to a fable attributed to Aesop by Plutarch, when the eagle and the wren strove to fly the highest (presumably for the title of King of the Birds. Ed.), the wren initially rested on the eagle’s back and then when the eagle tired, the wren took off from his back, soared above him and so won the accolade.

  • Court ‘interpreters’ being sent to Fire Service College

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    Reposted from RPSI Linguist Lounge, with added links.

    Anonymous writes:

    You might be aware that Capita acquired the Fire Service College, the award-winning leader in fire and emergency response training, for £10 million. The Fire Service College, located in Moreton in Marsh – Gloucestershire, gets clients from all over the world, including: the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

    Some of their delegates can’t speak in English, so therefore Capita has tried improving their Fire Service College by bringing their very own, cheap, ‘Interpreters’ to assist the delegates.

    So now, as you can see, the court ‘Interpreters’ which work for Capita are now being sent to the Fire Service College, to interpret for the delegates who are being trained for emergency response; I just hope they can interpret accurately.

    Anyway, Capita called me up and offered me a 3 month interpretation project at the Fire Service College before it was actually official that Capita had acquired the College. I gave it a go, but I didn’t really like it because it was actually quite hard compared to Court Interpreting but it actually looked like Capita hired their best interpreters which have been on the NRPSI.

    However, Capita had told me that I had to arrive the night prior to the day I interpret for the delegates. So, it becomes clear that Capita don’t trust its interpreters and know that they are unreliable.

    Now let’s get to the interesting part, the rates. The normal day is 8:30 to 17:30 with a 1 hour lunch at about 12:00, so for the day (8 hours of full interpreting) you just get paid a flat fee of £140. That’s the amount of 7 hours interpreting in a court. But what was different was that they paid me door-to-door travel time and of course millage [sic].

    Therefore, Capita pay you less, for harder work.

    But on the other hand, Capita do give you free accommodation (which is on-site but not nice at all), they also give you free food; including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, there is a bar, gym, swimming pool and some small shops.

    It does look quite appealing, doesn’t it? But it does mean leaving your family for 5 days in the week and giving you only 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) to go back home and spend it with your loved ones.

    If any of you, Interpreters, have been to the Fire Service College, please leave a comment.

    Many thanks.

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