Some time ago I was helping a client at a police station in London. The police were quite happy to use my services over the counter, where I spent over hour interpreting between my Polish client and the police. However, when it came to making a formal statement, the police insisted on using their own interpreter, even though I was a fully qualified interpreter, listed on the NRPSI and I have the Metropolitan Police Test certificate for interpreters. The problem was the fact that I was not listed on the Metropolitan Police list of interpreters. I must admit, that list is virtually impossible to get onto. I meet the criteria but I do not know what else I can do to be included.
Anyway, that Polish person, who happened to be a lady with a baby, had to wait at that police station for 4 hours for another interpreter to turn up, even though there was a qualified interpreter already present. Where is the sense in that?

What do you do to maintain your language skills? Do you read books? Do you visit your native country frequently? Do you speak to your friends and relatives on Skype several times a week?

Well, I read books in both languages – English and Polish, in turns. I have a Polish satellite TV. And I do speak to my mum back in Poland a lot! I live in the UK and I do what I can to speak good English, without losing the ability to speak Polish. Language skills are a very important tool in the work of an interpreter. It turns out that not everyone is a true believer in maintaining language skills, I will tell you a story.

Not a long time ago I met a Polish interpreter who, apparently, is constantly in demand. She was a lovely lady; we exchanged some opinions about the industry and chatted about past assignments in general. Yet there was something not quite right about the conversation. As we were both native speakers of Polish (or at least that was my impression), we naturally spoke Polish. However, the lady was mixing Polish and English a lot during the conversation. After an hour I asked her whether she found it difficult to speak Polish. Her reply surprised me a lot. She said that she believed it was incredible that she was still able to speak Polish at all; taking into account the fact that she had been living in the UK for over forty years! She came to the UK when she was a teenager. I then asked her how she dealt with her interpreting work and I learned that she only cared about the English speaker understanding her. What about the Polish speaker? Apparently the Polish speaker will always understand her somehow – or so I heard.

How much attention do you pay to being professional? What do you do in order to maintain your language skills?