What does NEP and LEP stand for?

NEP: Non English Proficient LEP: Limited English Proficient

Is the knowledge of a foreign language enough to be a successful Healthcare interpreter?

As our profession evolves and develops into a recognized and important contributor to the healthcare industry, proficiency speaking a foreign language is really just the starting point of the healthcare interpreter's professional development. Much like the ability to read legal books does not automatically mean a person can practice law, the healthcare interpreter must have adequate training to effectively serve as the vital linguistic and cultural link to the NEP/LEP patient. The professional must begin their career with a firm grasp of medical terminology, human organs and systems, their functions, how major diseases affect the body, as well as a general understanding of how medical groups, HMO's, hospitals and clinics manage their patients.
Apart from bilingual competency, a healthcare interpreter must learn: how to address both patient and provider, where to sit, when to interrupt if necessary, to advocate or not, to fully understand and comply with HIPPA regulations and confidentiality issues, to employ professional boundaries, to tailor their interpreting to the circumstance, and to manage pre-appointment protocols. These and many other skills are now recognized as the requisite knowledge base necessary for best business practices in our field.
Cultural brokering is also a critical on-the-job skill that gives healthcare providers an access point to the belief systems and practices that directly impact a patient's medical history and level of cooperation in taking responsibility for their own health.
Language World Services requires a minimum of 40 hours of training, as well as ongoing professional development covering issues such as: ethics, vocabulary, mental health interpreting, health literacy, and cultural brokering issues to ensure the quality of our interpreter pool.

What is a Target Language? What is a Source Language?

A Source Language is the language used by the speaker, or the written language a document is written in that will be interpreted or translated into another language. A Target language is the language of the listener, or the objective of a translation.

What is the difference between an interpreter and a translator?

Translation is the conversion of a written text into a written text in a second language, whereas Interpreting is the spoken form of converting one language into another.
Can an interpreter translate and vice versa?
Being verbally fluent in another language does not necessarily mean that the same individual can write correctly and clearly in that language. A translator's work is solitary, with time budgeted into the process to examine dictionary translations and make judgments about the best way to convey the message. S/he are familiar with idiomatic expressions specific to the audience. This process is called localization , and takes into consideration a reader's educational, social, and cultural background.
An interpreter's work happens in the moment and most often in-person, where there is little time to look up dictionary translations. The objective of the professional interpreter is for the complete transfer of the thought behind what is spoken in one language into a second language. Listening, visual observation, a fantastic short-term memory, and a large mental reservoir of vocabulary are critical skill sets for the interpreter.

Does translation software work?

Currently there is no 1-click solution to translate one language into another. Although there are a variety of off-the-shelf consumer software products that claim to translate correctly, the truth is that language is a particularly difficult, high level function of the human brain. To date, there is no technological solution for accurately capturing meaning in one language and conveying the meaning into a “perfect translation.” Many consumer translation software programs merely translate literally, and create translations that have glaring errors in syntax and grammar.
Translation is as much a social science as a linguistic process. Localizing a Spanish translation to the vernacular of an agricultural worker versus a white collar readership from separate countries in Latin America requires a grasp of the cultural nuances and idiomatic expressions that capture's a reader's attention, and accurately and completely convey the meeting, tone and intent of the written communication.
Human linguistic capabilities represent one of the more evolved and complicated functions our brain is capable of, and as such, interpreting and translating is one of the highest functions our brains perform. Even today's fastest supercomputers cannot capture the rich intricacies of language interpreting and translation.