Lawyer Spanish Resource PageThe ability to speak lawyer Spanish is becoming more and more essential. Whether you're a judge, an attorney, a paralegal, or a law student, there's one thing you need: effective communication with others. Communication involves not only being able to say what needs to be said but also listening and understanding what is being said to you. Communication is definitely a two-way street.
While you might be able to communicate the way you want to and need to in English, chances are there are times when you need to be able to communicate effectively in a language that's not your first, such as Spanish. So the question isn't whether or not you need to be able to communicate, but rather, how fluent you want your communication to be. What your needs are will determine the measures you are willing to take to be able to do Spanish translation or interpretation on the job. These measures can consist of the more labor-intensive ones (courses, classes, self-study) to those requiring minimal effort (electronic translators and books). As I outlined in my article on Spanish for law enforcement personnel, let me outline some of the pros and cons of the various approaches to learning lawyer Spanish. Lawyer Spanish Courses It's true that for most things, the more effort you put into something, the better it will turn out. This is definitely true when learning lawyer Spanish by taking courses. They are probably the best way for you to learn Spanish you can use on your job; however, taking courses is often the hardest route for people to take. The reason? Time. And a lawyer's time is worth lots and lots of money! (Just ask my brother-in-law, an attorney.) As a lawyer, you're most likely working at being a good lawyer and don't have a lot of time to take courses on how to improve your Spanish ability. So what does that mean? That if your goal is to learn more than a couple of phrases from a book, you're going to have to figure out a way to plan your time so that you can take some classes. Luckily, there are lots of organizations to help you with your goal of learning more lawyer Spanish. That brings us to the question of where to look. Well, the first place to look is right in your own neck of the woods. Your local bar association might just offer such a class or might be able to give you some good leads about finding a class. The Dallas Bar Association, for example, offers a program of classes titled "Spanish for Lawyers." They offer beginning, intermediate, and advanced level classes with topics specific to lawyers. Your local association might offer something similar. If you can't find anything locally, your state bar association might be able to offer some assistance. Another place to check for classes being offered is at your local college or university. I know that Brigham Young University in Utah offered Spanish classes for lawyers at one time. Call your university's law school or Spanish department. They'll usually be able to give you some answers. While we're on the subject of college, another option you could go with if you're not able to find any courses, or the arrangement doesn't fit your schedule, is contracting out to a tutor. You might not be able to get a professor to tutor you one-on-one (you could always ask, though), but there are plenty of graduate students or even undergraduate students that could give you some tutoring according to the level you're at and what you want to learn. Students are pretty reasonably priced, too. If you've got a little more time on your hands and really want to get immersed in learning lawyer Spanish, you can always do study abroad programs. There are many programs to choose from and you'll want to make sure and do some research before you decide on one. --------------SIDENOTE-------------- To learn more about what to look for in a Spanish translation study abroad program, click here. --------------END OF NOTE----------- Here are a few websites for specialized study abroad programs I've found online that you can check out (I don't necessarily endorse any of them; I've provided the links so you can get an initial feel of the type of stuff that is out there.):
Lawyer Spanish Books If classes aren't your thing, either timewise or due to the fact that you might not need to be that fluent in lawyer Spanish, another option you have consists of buying lawyer Spanish books and dictionaries. The advantage to using books instead of going to classes and courses is that you can set your own schedule. However, that advantage is also a disadvantage because you'll have to keep yourself motivated to study and learn. Also, depending on how well your Spanish is initially, you'll have to find somebody to practice with. Another advantage to books over courses is that books will cost you a lot less than a study abroad course in Spain. If your goal is to brush up on some skill that you might have lost, or if you want to just be able to say a few phrases or increase your Spanish vocabulary, you probably won't need to spend money on a course. Some good lawyer Spanish books and dictionaries will be all that you need. Amazon has a good list of lawyer Spanish books you can check out. Lawyer Spanish Electronic Translators If you don't have time to take a course, and if you find books too cumbersome and awkward to carry around, luckily you do have another option: electronic translators. Spanish electronic translators have fairly recently begun to change the landscape of Spanish translation. Now, instead of resorting to flipping through phrase books, you can simply use a touch screen translator to find the word or phrase you're looking for. Buying a Spanish translator comes with its own set of rules; it's not like buying a Spanish-English dictionary. Translators often come with different features and options and it's important to know what you want and need before investing your money in an electronic translator. --------------SIDENOTE-------------- If you want some more tips on choosingan electronic translator, click here. --------------END OF NOTE----------- Electronic Spanish translators can be very nice tools to work with if you would like an easy way to reproduce English into Spanish. They are much smaller than books or dictionaries and are often organized in ways that make it easy for you to access the information you're looking for. However, as advantageous translators can be, they do have a drawback: they are usually too generalized to be of any use to a professional needing specialized vocabulary. Recently, though, more and more companies are realizing the importance of specialized translators and have begun to make translators for specialized vocabulary. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never seen a specialized Spanish translator for lawyers. However, as I was looking at some different websites for companies that make electronic translators, I ran across Ectaco's Attorney SpeechGuard lawyer Spanish translator. As explained on the website, "this handheld speech-to-speech translator understands English and will recognize a multitude of typical phrases encountered in legal context and reproduce them in Spanish."
Some of the features of this translator include:
This is a good tool for you if you need to be able to do Spanish translation on the road or while you are meeting with people. If you only need something that you can access on your computer at the office or your laptop, a much cheaper option is the Attorney SpeechGuard Emulator for Windows. It has all of the functions of the handheld version but for a much cheaper price. If you don't need to access the translations away from your desk, this would be the version to get. As you can see from the above, there are a ton of options to choose from when trying to improve your lawyer Spanish. Just remember that the most important thing is to first assess your needs and goals. Once you do that, you'll have a better idea of what will work best for you. Related pages:
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