Translation Services Two Women Tap Into Strong Market For Cross-Cultural Communications

For Marta Reyes-Lytle and Maria Patricia Brown, “I don’t understand” is blasphemy.

So is no entiendo, Ich verstehe nichts, and je ne comprends pas.

Reyes-Lytle and Brown are certified translators. They’ve interpreted for a man in a drug-induced psychosis and alerted Spanish-speaking parents that their children were exposed to chicken pox. They’ve translated for diplomats and listened to the last words of a dying Italian priest.

Last week, they decided to make it their careers. The partners expanded their home-based business into a fullblown translation service, Spokane International Translation and Language Services. The partners are native Spanish speakers and have contracts with local interpreters to provide services in 20 languages.

Reyes-Lytle, a Spokane native who lived for more than 20 years in Colombia, has been translating confidential documents for the U.S. government for five years.

Brown, a Peruvian native, has translated for local hospitals since 1992, when a nurse overheard her talking to her sick daughter at Shriners Hospital. The nurse promptly asked her to translate for other Hispanic patients, and her referral list grew.

Like long-lost sisters, each woman mirrors the other’s frenetic hand gestures. Reyes-Lytle swears she’s assumed Brown’s Peruvian accent.

Actually, they met only three months ago when Brown wandered into the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. A receptionist directed her to Reyes-Lytle, who was the Chamber’s member services manager.

“Like good Latinas, we immediately became friends,” Reyes-Lytle giggled.

When Reyes-Lytle suggested teaming up, Brown agreed. Reyes-Lytle quit her job and took out a loan, and both sunk in personal savings to open a tiny, North Side office.

The women set out to differentiate Spokane International from other Eastern Washington translation services. Many are home-based operations with uncertified staffs, ReyesLytle said.

The women make their interpreters pass a battery of tests to ensure competency in medical, legal and social welfare terminology. They require translators to be certified with the Department of Social and Health Services.

“We don’t leave off a single accent mark,” Reyes-Lytle said.

The company is already snagging legal and business contracts, and is working on translations for a Norwegian divorce decree and Youth Gang Prevention fliers. The company specializes in medical translation for high-risk cases.

Brown - whose father is an orthopedic surgeon in Peru - is fluent in esoteric medical terminology. She can rattle off the Spanish word for myelodysplasia, and she can explain the term to patients unfamiliar with the jargon.

Her work is crucial to the medical community. Not only does she lessen hospitals’ chances of getting malpractice suits, she is the only link between doctor and patient.

“One wrong word could mean the doctor takes out the wrong organ,” Brown said.

When her job becomes too stressful, Brown concentrates on the rewards - smiles from frustrated doctors, rapport with exasperated patients.

“There’s an instant kinship between us. Every patient seems like a family member,” Brown said. She also does follow-up calls and is available 24 hours a day. (She even ordered a pizza last week for a hungry Mexican patient.)

The partners get astonished looks when they say they provide interpreters for 20 languages. Because of the relatively small minority population here, native English speakers are often skeptical that Spokane has a need for translation services, they said.

“People who aren’t involved in Spokane’s ethnic community would never be able to estimate the demand for this service,” Reyes-Lytle said. The market for Russian and Vietnamese is already immense, she said.

As Spokane grows, the partners want to provide translation service in 80 languages. They hope to teach language classes and seminars on business protocol abroad.

“We intend to be a full-service language broker,” ReyesLytle said. They are also experimenting on-line, cultivating sources and contracts worldwide via Internet.

They also emphasize community service. Eventually, they hope to teach English as a Second Language to ease foreigners’ transition to the Northwest.

“I’m dying to help out Cuban refugees who come here and go through severe culture shock. That’s what would really make me fulfilled,” Reyes-Lytle said.

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MEMO: Spokane International can be reached at 327-8064. The office is located at 315 W. Mission, Room No. 7.