Translation Service Pennsylvania

I received today, along with a letter saying I qualified for EUC (emergency unemployment compensation), a sheet in 14 languages, plus English, stating,"iMPORTANT! THIS NOTICE MAY AFFECT YOUR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION RIGHTS OR BENEFITS AND SHOULD BE TRANSLATED IMMEDIATELY! If you need assistance, the UC Service Center will interpret this document free of charge."

Now there are several things I find funny here. The languages listed are: Spanish (of course), Chinese, Italian, German, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Russian, Polish, Tagalog ??, Cambodian Khmer ???, Arabic, Greek and Japanese.

First I picture 14 ethnics with these language skills all waiting to translate the letter at some desk somewhere. The lines won't be too long I'm guessing for the German or Japanese translator.

But second I'm wondering what kind of work these people targeted by this notice have been doing, if they can't on their own get the gist of what the letter says.

Isn't this PC ethnic concern run amok? Or is it just me?

By the way I got two duplicate letters and notices, so employment at the Dept. of Labor must be up anyway.

Pa. is also the state that on their drivers license application asks for eye color and offers the following choices: Blue, Brown, Green, Hazel, Pink, Black, Gray, Dichromatic, and of course "Other". Now I was sorely tempted to select either Dichromatic or Other, but was afraid that some cop at a future traffic stop couldn't match me up to the license.

Bureacracies get silly, don't they.

I take it you haven’t been in a Social Security “service center” lately. I went in to get a new SS card and got an eyeful. They have huge signs all over the place offering, where I live, 17 different languages immediately available, and 54 in total. If you have an obscure language, you have to wait while they round someone up. Tagalog is the indigenous language of the Philippines. If you want to make your hair stand on end, drop in at a SS center in an urban area and get a full taste of 1) where your SS payments are going and 2) what is being done to our society.

I once worked in a non-profit where clientele sometimes required the services of a translator. Translators had to be notified in advance of appointments. When a non-English speaking or deaf person did not show up for the appointment, we were required to pay the translator (who did show up) despite no services rendered. It happens more often than you might think.

Pa. is also the state that on their drivers license application asks for eye color and offers the following choices: Blue, Brown, Green, Hazel, Pink, Black, Gray, Dichromatic, and of course "Other"

Pink eyes? Are they giving drivers' licenses to rabbits now? Or are they inquiring about the applicant's ocular health?

They must be covering the albino minority with this one. It’s no joke either. Someone actually had to decide they couldn’t cover Pink and Dichromatic with “Other”. I can’t figure out what Other means with the bases all covered like this. Maybe “glass”?

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