Boston Interpreter Services: Cape Verdean Creole & Latin American Spanish for Community Meeting

Boston, MA.  August 2, 2016 – Language Connections, an interpretation and translation services company, works regularly with local municipal agencies helping to bridge the language gap between citizens and the city representatives. For this particular project, our client, the City of Boston, asked us to provide interpreting services during a community meeting which took place to discuss a Verizon FiOS partnership with residents and get their feedback regarding upgrading cable TV and broadband service. Public meetings such as this bring together many different ethnic groups in a city like Boston where several dominant immigrant communities reside.

Although we generally provide Boston interpreters to encompass a large range of languages, for this meeting among the largest groups expected to attend were native Cape Verdean (Portuguese Creole) and Latin American Spanish speakers. We selected interpreters for both language groups. Cape Verdean Creole, a language spoken by about 1.2 million people, is most prevalent in Cape Verde and by some groups in Angola, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal and Senegal. We often provide interpreting services for Spanish, both for Latin American and Castilian Spanish speakers, and have come across 3 major differences between the two which we must take into account when providing linguistic services for a Spanish speaking audience.

Our simultaneous Cape Verdean Creole and Spanish interpreters facilitated during discussions to allow all attendees to express their opinions or concerns, and our technicians provided all necessary interpreting equipment. Our Interpreting Project Manager successfully put together full interpreting services within the client’s limited time frame.