Welcome

Tennessee Association of Medical Interpreters & Translators (TAMIT)  is a professional organization for interpreters and translators of written, spoken and signed languages in Tennessee. Among TAMIT ‘s members are linguistic experts in many professional fields, including medical, judicial and technical.

Professional interpreters and translators provide essential services for hospitals, clinics, and healthcare agencies in both the public and private sectors. TAMIT ’s members enable medical providers and governmental agencies to communicate with the rapidly-growing LEP (Limited English Proficient) population in Tennessee and throughout the Mid-South.

Frequently Asked Questions

Interpreters facilitate spoken communication between people who speak different languages by converting speech or sign language into the nearest possible equivalent into the target language.

Translators convert text from one language into the nearest possible equivalent into the target language. Both translators and interpreters strive to conserve as much of the original meaning, tone, intent, and register as possible.

Possibly, but the rest of the short answer is: having the use of two hands does not a pianist make. Many bilingual people simply do not have the innate abilities and meticulousness to be a good translator or interpreter. Either way, acquiring a level of fluency and general knowledge of the culture of your working languages will require years of effort and immersion.

We have all seen the often amusing results of machine translation, where a computer program renders word-for-word “translations” in a target language. When machines run into phrases such as “putting on the dog”, they simply cannot render a cultural equivalent. For thinking, there is nothing like a brain!

CAT or Computer-Assisted Translation is done by human translators, whose translated phrases or words are remembered by the program, which TYPES them again. This is different from machine translation, which generates “translations” by using a database of “exact” matches. In other words, CAT tools remember what a human has already translated as a cultural or grammatical equivalent, and it remembers previous usage. In essence, machine translation generates, CAT tools remember and type, in order to save the translator time.

Upcoming Events

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Membership

Through active membership, professionals and students have the opportunity to help shape the future of the organization, while furthering their career with eduction and resources that address the specific needs and interests of interpreters, translators, and advocates alike.

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Increasing Public Awareness

“Eight percent of US Citizens speak limited English, for these 25 million Americans professional Interpreters can mean the difference between life and death.” – IMIA – International Medical Interpreters Association