Tilé and Olly Meets: Sumeet Kaur and Lynn Geng

We bring you this very special episode with two interpreters, Sumeet Kaur and Lynn Geng. We first met Sumeet and Lynn at the North Queensland Law Association Conference where they presented alongside judicial officers on how to engage with interpreters.

Sumeet has over 10 years of experience providing interpreting services for the community, as well as for courts and tribunals across Australia. She is currently pursuing a Master of Translation and Interpreting with RMIT University and has been serving as an examiner for NAATI since 2016.

Lynn Geng is a NAATI Certified Specialist Legal and Health Interpreter in Mandarin and English. She received six years of comprehensive interpreter training during both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees (The University of Queensland). Lynn has been practicing as an interpreter in Australia since 2013. Lynn taught the Diploma of Interpreting at the Sydney Institute of Interpreting and Translating for five years. As one of only seven Mandarin specialist legal interpreters in the country, she collaborates with various language service providers to train court interpreters and mentors them in applying the Recommended National Standards for working with interpreters in courts and tribunals.

Sumeet and Lynn reminded us that the role of the interpreter is a crucial one for the administration of justice and the collective responsibility of all actors in the courtroom (not just the interpreter) in the realisation of the right of people accessing legal systems to be heard and to communicate. We were inspired by the thoughtful way they approach their vocation, especially hearing the spectrum of human experiences, from the beautiful to the confronting for which they have provided interpreting services. There’s a lot of good learning in this episode, and we even get to put our voice acting skills to the test with a couple of role plays exploring when interpreting is done well or not.