Advocates Say Need For Pennsylvania Dutch Court Interpreters Is Great
(Lancaster, PA) -- The state court system is encouraging Pennsylvania Dutch speakers to become court interpreters. Currently, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts' Interpreter Certification Program has no Pennsylvania Dutch interpreters among its 44 languages. Administrator Natalia Petrova says an interpreter with a solid grasp of the language and the cultural aspects of the community would offer crucial skills in court settings. She says this would be especially true for survivors of sexual abuse or witnesses in such cases. She also says her group is often contacted by other states with Mennonite communities that assume Pennsylvania has interpreters, only to find they don't.