Sure I can.
I'm going to start though by making a distinction. You said two things that I just want to make very clear. What we're talking about here is not language training. When people come to an interpreter training program, the assumption is that they already have a very strong command of their working languages. We don't train them to speak another language. We train them to interpret. The skill set to interpret is extremely demanding. The languages are in place before they come to us.
The other distinction that I want to make is between written translation on one hand and spoken interpreting on the other. Those are two separate skill sets, although connected in some ways. Very often in interpreting programs, the people who come to us have a background in written translation. We use that as a springboard to teach them to interpret.
With regard to the examples I was giving, one was based in the United States and the other one was based in Canada. They are typical of what tends to happen. About 10 years ago, I was part of study that was conducted in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. We spoke to a 150 different primary care physicians, nurses, and social workers who dealt with patients who don't speak either dominant language, English or French, and the services that are provided. We heard stories like these, in which very often family members are called upon to interpret. Clearly that's not sufficient. In some cases, family members may not even have the language competency. They certainly don't have the interpretation training.