For some Hmong, law is still tough to understand

About two-thirds need legal speech translated

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

It has been 30 years since the Hmong began settling in Western North Carolina, but community leaders say they are still trying to fully bridge the language barrier and need more and better trained translators in the courts.

About a third of the 15,000 Hmong living in the Catawba Valley and McDowell County speak English well enough to communicate and understand the law, said Tong Yang, executive director of the United Hmong Association of North Carolina, leaving many others dependent on translators if they have to go to court.

"Even though they can communicate well enough to get by in everyday life," Yang said, "they might not be able to fully understand what a judge or a lawyer is saying in a court proceeding."

And that creates several hurdles for the Hmong, who have been trying to adjust to this county's culture and still maintain their Southeast Asian identity.

Court administrators, judges and lawyers, Yang said, often don't understand the Hmong culture and the complexity of the language, making it, in turn, difficult for non-English-speaking Hmong to grasp how the system works.

"There's a lot of legal jargon ... and we just don't have those terms," Yang said. "Sometimes one word in English would take a couple of sentences in Hmong to explain."

That's a common challenge in the legal system, said Jenny Fernandez Griffin, a state certified interpreter, and one that she has been working with Yang and Hmong translators to overcome.

Her company, Bilingual Consulting, coordinates contracts between interpreters and the courts and has been training Hmong translators about the court system and introducing them to some of the more complex legal terms.

"Even though they can be very good interpreters, they might not understand how the court system works fully, and that can cause interpreters to freeze up," she said. "What they need is a little bit of direction on how to operate in a courtroom and the mechanics of the system."

Currently, courts only provide Spanish translators but will work with other groups, including the Hmong, who need to provide their own translation services, Yang said.

The United Hmong Association works with all Hmong needing translation services, Yang said, but only gets reimbursed if the court requested the translator to work on criminal, child protection and domestic violence cases.

Since the association doesn't charge clients for translation services, and the courts will only pay for time spent in court, Yang said, it is difficult to recruit translators and have them available when needed.

"Nobody can make a living out of that, and it's hard to find someone who is willing to make that sacrifice to be a court translator," he said.

The solution, Yang said, would be for the association to hire a full-time translator to work on cases, both criminal and civil, in Burke, Catawba and Caldwell counties and have a few other interpreters on call.

And while members of the Hmong community say there's a need in the court system for more translators, there may not be enough Hmong going through the courts to justify paying for a full-time interpreter.

District Judge Bob Brady, who has been talking with Yang on ways to provide better translation services, said he doesn't see Hmong in court very often and thinks the state would prefer to pay for translators on a case-by-case basis rather than fund a full-time position.

"It's always better to have someone on staff," he said, "but you have to look at the need for it."
And as fewer Hmong immigrate to the United State and younger Hmong learn the language, the need for translation services will likely diminish over the years, he said.

"Many of the second generation and the young people learn to speak English," he said. "It doesn't seem like it would be a long-term need and goal."

Who are the Hmong?
Originally from China, the Hmong fled to the mountains of northern Laos in the early 1800s, where they remained until after the Vietnam War. When the Communist Pathet Lao overran the country in 1975, thousands of Hmong fled to refugee camps in Thailand and then to the United States.

More than 300,000 Hmong have sought refuge across the United States, and about 15,000 have settled in North Carolina. Most of those live in Catawba, Burke, Alexander, Caldwell and McDowell counties, where the foothills terrain and climate are similar to their Laotian homeland.

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