Separated by a Common Tongue: Foreclosures Trap Translators in Middle
For years, interpreter Yu Ching ended many calls by saying, “Congratulations. You have been approved,” as she helped credit-card companies and mortgage lenders reach a growing share of the Mandarin-speaking market in the U.S.
But on a recent morning, the call-center interpreter didn’t have the last word. “You’re sending me off a cliff,” shrieked a woman, after Ms. Ching relayed a bank official’s refusal to let the woman avert foreclosure by selling her house for less than the value of her mortgage.
Ms. Ching, and legions like her, occupy unique listening posts in a changing economy. During boom times, these telephone-based interpreters enabled financial companies to push loans, mortgages and cheap credit to growing communities of Asian and Latin American immigrants. Now, as many of those bets have gone bad, interpreters are busier than ever helping the same banks try to coll
ect.