Bridges For Language Training and Staffing Corp

The owner responded to my review and replaced our foul original interpreter with a professional accurate and appropriate lady.
He also showed up and stayed the entire session.
Four stars for the follow through. Would have been five if for not the first negative experience.

This course was very informative and helped me develop my interpreting skills to a more professional level. I’m really surprised by these other reviews because my experience with Bridges was great. I used to volunteer as an interpreter at different clinics in my area and figured I could pursue this further. Bridges made it clear to me from the beginning that this was not a language course, but a program that would teach me how to use my language skills in a professional way to help patients who didn’t speak English well. They also made it clear that it is not a certification course, but a training course where we receive a certificate of completion. The trainers were very nice and had a lot of experience in the field. I learned the proper procedures for interpreting, what to do in difficult situations, and a lot more. I learned a good overview of body systems, and every question I had was answered. We had a speaker come in who had 18 years of experience as an in house hospital interpreter who held an open conversation with us to ease some of our worries about starting to work professionally. I didn’t feel ready to go into the emergency room and interpret right away, but that’s what our shadowing and practice hours were for. I liked this training program and have recommended it to several of my bilingual friends

Okay now I HAD to write this review I. Eventhough this business wasnt listed I decided to add it (I was that serious and did not intend to let it slide). So I was hired at this pretty big clinic to work as a Medical bilingual interpreter eventhough I was not certified. Forward almost 4 years I decided to finally get my certification to move on to bigger & better things. I looked around for schools offering this type of certification, but I could only find 1 (other than Bridges which was where my coworkers have gone to get theirs) but their starting date was waaay off so I decided to call Bridges which starting date was
I basically waited at that time and decided to go for whoever started their course first. Bridges called and Rosie the person who is in charge of phone calls & emails was very nice and helpful. at the beggining. I made the HUGE (HUGEST!!!) mistake of my life by enrolling with them. Total cost was $ 500 bucks for about 5 weeks training (once a week).
What a waste of my hard earned money!!! Not only did they only touch the very least basics of the role of the interpreter, but they basically provided us a bunch of useless paperwork & let us go blindly into the field. I can honestly say I feel very sorry for the students who attended the training who have no medical background, bcuz even I, with almost 4 years of medical interpreting left the training more confused than when I initially arrived. They concentrated more on HIPAA which is important to know, but what else is there to explain about it except keep your mouth shut &respect patients privacy as you would want your privacy to be kept confidential?
Questions were not welcomed &were actually discouraged. I am one to be very involved if something interests me I am very vocal & if something is unclear to me I will ask questions until it is clear to me &only me. On the very first day I sat next to a very involved (as am I) vocal person and we asked away on a variety of possible events we could encounteer as a working interpreter. Let me just tell you that Manuel, the owner of this corp, got real frustrated to the point he REFUSED to answer any more questions on the subject! I was actually ignored when I raised my hand so I had to speak up& say EXCUSE ME I have a question& he went to the board& ask if it was about that, bcuz if it was we were done with it! Im sorry, but as paying students we should decide that, not the owner who im sure all that is in his mind is time is
this time Rosie came and whipered to me that I should raise my hand… really?!

After the class was done Rosie came from behind us and put her hands on our shoulders to call us «preguntonas» which is Spanish to describe someone who asks alot of questions in a not very polite way. The next day was started by them taking much «valuable» time saying how they couldnt waste time with certain questions & how a question police was assigned to blow a whistle if anyone spoke out w/​o raising their hand and being called! Yes people this really happend in an adult training!!! LOL. For medical terminology they gave us a list of things we must translate, which btw nobody revised or even checked to see if it was at least completed.
So yeah besides that, at the end of the course we were only offered a very few options to where we could complete our internship which only included one hospital in Chicago one in Aurora & 2 clinics I believe. They were honestly PUSHING us to complete our internship in Cook County Hospital, which required more hours of our service (100 instead of the programs required 40 hours to receive certification).Now I know some of you are probably thinking thats better you get more practice, more time to spend learning as a student, but you cannnnnot be any wronger. The guy in charge of the department in County (which was 1 of 2 special speakers in the training) boldly admitted that if you were «good», he’ll leave you by yourself. I do have 4 years of pro interpreting exp, but even I was very scared & intimidated by it. Im here to learn & be corrected, not to work for free! It is my internship & at least I planned to take advantage of that &absorb as much as possible while shadowing & received as much feedback when being absorbed. Besides, I learned that you do not have to be that «good» to be left alone in Cook County under his supervision as brand new interpreters who only received 5 training days (all in the weekends, not even consecutively) were left alone to wonder the hospital w/​o even knowing how to get around. Very not only unprofessional, but also dangerous. Interpreters with experience know how true this is.
Emails are not answered & if they are it is in a very rude and obnoxious way. I will be happy 2 forward anybody the emails. I actually asked the hiring manager of where I am completing my internship if i applied will the name Bridges make him worry & he said it
would serve as a smudge instead of a plus in a resume ppl!