is the authorized online version of The Community Interpreter® International, the world’s leading entry-level program for medical, educational and social services interpreting.
TCIO covers the ethics, standards, protocols, skills and modes of interpreting in healthcare and community settings. It shows interpreters how to address communication barriers and manage cultural misunderstandings, with a special focus on message transfer skills (such as chunking, paraphrasing, parroting and anticipation) and best practices. TCIO also grounds the interpreter in vital decision-making skills.
TCIO is composed of 24 short courses. These 24 lessons include 9 video instructors, more than 240 interactive activities, 21 role plays in 9 language pairs, quizzes, videos of interpreters in action, and much more.
TCIO is fun! Its learner-centered and interactive skills-based training prepare you for the field. If you want to work as an interpreter in healthcare, schools or general community services, this program will launch your career.
Though created by spoken-language interpreters, this program warmly welcomes signed-language interpreters, who have benefited, and in many cases, become trainers for the face-to-face program. However, please note that “educational” interpreting in TCIO refers to “community interpreting in schools” (for parents) and not K-12 interpreting (one-on-one, for children).
Module 1 of TCIO is your introduction to the profession of community interpreting. It addresses healthcare, education and social services interpreting.
This module dives into the skills and protocols necessary to conduct yourself as a professional medical or community interpreter.
Module 3 is your roadmap on cultural competence and what to do when communication breaks down in the interpreting session. By the end of this section you will have learned advanced strategies for cultural mediation that will help you facilitate meaningful cultural dialogue among participants in the encounter.
In this module, you will learn who you are as an interpreter and how you fit into the profession. By the end of this section, you will know what it means to be a professional interpreter and how you can conduct yourself to honor and uphold this important profession.
No, CCC is an organization dedicated solely to interpreter and cultural competence training. Our mission is language access. However, we do provide graduates of The Community Interpreter® with a list of nearby language companies and public organizations that employ interpreters. We also occasionally send out job postings to our program graduates and/or e-newsletter subscribers at the request of other organizations.
Cross-Cultural Communications is the leading international training agency in the U.S. devoted to community interpreting, educational interpreting, healthcare interpreting and cultural competence. It is also the only organization that licenses community interpreters across the U.S. and in other countries. We regularly train bilingual staff as well as contract interpreters. We also provide training and consulting services to private companies, non-profits and government agencies. Our programs are grounded in a mixture of theory and practical, hands-on activities.
The Community Interpreter® International, or TCII, is a 40-hour certificate training program for interpreters who are just starting out or those experienced interpreters who are looking for a recognized qualification. Subjects covered include the interpreting code of ethics and standards of practice in order to give participants a solid grounding in the profession. This is complemented by practical, hands-on activities such as role-plays and interactive group discussions. The program fulfills the 40-hour training requirements considered by many (certifying bodies employers and industry associations) to be the minimum needed to entire the field.
At the moment, a combination of two CCC programs fulfills this requirement: Medical Terminology for Interpreters (7.5 hours) and The Community Interpreter® International. Since TCII is open to all community interpreters and the subject matter covers education and social services as well as medical interpreting, at the end of each TCII session any participant who is seeking medical interpreter certification will be given a letter from CCC, stating the number of hours that can be counted towards this requirement. Typically 34-36 hours count towards the 40 hour requirement.
Yes, although the CE credits offered for each program will vary according to course length and content. Our programs are currently approved for continuing education credits by the following organizations:
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