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Klingon-Americans Have Rights Too...

Klingon interpreter sought for patients
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.

The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.

"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.

Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary.

And now Multnomah County research has found that many people - and not just fans - consider it a complete language.

"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.

County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.

ON THE NET

Klingon Language Institute: http://www.kli.org/

............................................

OK then Bring on the Klingon Ballots, Klingon ATMs, and the Klingon You-Name-Its!

wow. These trekkies are kinda psycho! I wonder when a Klingon Ambassador will be at the United Nations.

The entire West Coast is just becoming a big piece of shit.

So you have to be completely non-sociopathic,
and also be fluent in Klingon.

hmm...seems to be hard shoes to fill.

not surprising but weird....
then again its no worse than the hundreds of people that but Jedi down as there in religion in the last cenus...

I never got the whole StarTrek thing anyways.Never had that much time on my hands.

I have a base knowledge of Romulan, but not fluet in Klingon.
sorry

Doesn't talking to these patients in Klingon all the time just allow them to sink deeper and deeper into their own psychosis?

Does the term, "Snap the hell out of it" even exist in Klingon?

This story is bogus. Here's the scoop on how this urban legend got started:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/5/11/7032/18347

well shucks,
here's the link from Yahoo News - Health

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._interpreter_1

The Oregonian ran it here:

http://www.oregonlive.com/search/ind...?oregonian?lcg

Not only that, Fox News ran it this morning!
(I saw it on Tee Vee!)

Interesting piece, maximusveritas.
Should I believe it?

heh...

For those of you who don't like clicking links without knowing where you are going.

Quote:

Every once in a while, in order to remind myself of the quality of information typically reported, I trace down the source of a particularly ridiculous story. The "Klingon Language Interpreter" myth, which is spawning now, provides an amusing case study of the process of pack journalism.

We begin with the original story source, credited to Steve Woodward of The Oregonian, entitled "If you need someone to Klingon. . ."(sic). The need for a "Klingon interpreter" is presented as an obviously humorous purchasing request. It's a procedural joke arising from the "Klingon language".

That is, on a lark, purchasing officials in Multnomah County, Oregon, decided to make sure that Klingon-language interpreters could be paid by the county, just in case there ever was a need for one. So Klingon was granted official status as a language for the purpose of hiring an interpreter, on par with obscure foreign languages.

In the original article, it's very clear nobody every seriously expected to procure the services of a Klingon interpreter:

The county would pay a Klingon interpreter only in the unlikely case he or she was actually called into service.
"We said, 'What the heck, let's throw it in,' " Jelusich says. "It doesn't cost us any money."

And the humorous aspect was emphasized:

The county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway, greeted the request with initial skepticism. "I questioned it myself when it first came in. "
But, she adds, "There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak."

Jelusich says that in reality, no patient has yet tried to communicate in Klingon. But the possibility that a patient could believe himself or herself to be a Klingon doesn't seem so far-fetched.

"I've got people who think they're Napoleon," he says.

And "Elvish" was suggested as the next language to be added.

So far, very funny. Very much along the lines of Klingon Google.

Then the article entered the media echo-chamber of stories-too-good-to-check (or even sanity-check). A joke about Klingon-speaking mental patients was transmuted into a story implying nonsensical bureaucratic requirements, the sort of rabble-rousing fiction one would expect to hear from ranting right-wing talk-radio.

An unbylined AP story carefully excised all context which would convey the just-joking aspect. Compare the AP version to the Oregonian version.

The AP headline, "Oregon County Seeks Klingon Interpreter" makes it sound as if a staff position is being offered. Then this impression is reinforced by using the quote "We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," as if it were an earnest indication of a legal requirement, not a deadpan joke. The second quote concerning "this was all they would speak", is similarly used as if it were serious. All material indicating only-kidding-folks has been deleted in the AP rewrite: "County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, ..."

And from there, we're off, echoing away. From Newsday or CNN to other sites, and then to uncounted blogs.

A new Urban Legend is born.

i truly hope we all aren't becoming slaves to the media...(gotta read between the lines, people...)

I have an instructional audio CD that teaches the basics of conversational Klingon speech. I'm completely serious, I do own it.

I hate Star Trek, but it'd be nifty to learn Klingon...it'd help me pick up chicks...*cracks brick over head*

I am usually pretty skeptical abt what I read but I sure got sucked in by this one.
Let this be a lesson to us all. Don't believe anything.

Damn I was going to point out the snopes link.....

(must be quicker)

I just had a weird thought....

What if two trekkies had a child, and raised it speaking Klingon in the household. The childs first language would be Klingon. Sorry - I just found the thought to be interesting.

Im caught between laughing and bewilderment. I know mental illness had always been around, and role playing games are fun from time to time, but the world must be overwhelming for some individuals.

My mother works as a psych nurse at the county mental health ward, and while she hasnt come across this yet, the number that come in with "implants" in their brains are countless. She also says they have some sort of a jibbering sign language that they seem to understand.

For those that dont reside in the hospital; hopefully they spend as much time contributing to correct the problems they're running away from as they do being checked out.

For the ones that do it to F*$% with people or converse between one another in code while in front of others, I share some of the same shortcomings. Although learing how to speak Russian takes up enough time as it is.

Do you speak Klingon? We've got a job for you!

From Fox News
PORTLAND, Ore. — Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.
The language created for the Star Trek (search) TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.
Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
And now Multnomah County research has found that many people — and not just fans — consider it a complete language.
"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.
County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.

Need to brush up on your Klingoneese? Try here-->Klingon Language Institute

Some people have way to much time on their hands.

:crazy:

I think Art posted an article about this before, didnt he?

HAHAH how ridiculous. Imagine "Klingon" being an option for subtitles on DVDs.
I don't know if its true but one of my magazines has little random facts at the bottom of the page (either STUFF magazine or MAXIM), and it said that Bible was being translated into Klingon.
This is sort of on the same level as when they tried to get "The Force" as a religion in England (or something along those lines).