Field Trip to the Court(08/10/2006)

I've never thought that I would see real criminals in life. I knew them from TV, and that's it. Today, when they were actually in front of me. That was a major shock. It was not because I was afraid of them. Well, they were all handcuffed. But the scene was so striking when I saw a group of people in prison clothes walking in front of me. I didn't feel comfortable of looking at them. It was odd. Really odd.

We were assgined to go to a felony court. I saw the judge, baliffs, prisoners, stenographer, attorneys, etc. I heard the baliff saying, "All rise." It was so much like movie scenes, but it's not. It's real life going on. Prisoners got handcuffed. Families cried for the arrested. Probated people were under arrested in the court! Stories like "threatening his wife, yelling that he's going to kill her" actually happened.

It is to my dicovery that most of the felonies were Hispanic people. Some of them don't speak English. It's really hard to imagine how someone can live in a foreign country without knowing the language. But it was kind of sad to see the fact that some Hispanic people are marginalized, no matter what the reason was.

After the trial (it wasn't even a trial. The judge merely arrange the time for the pre-trial and hearings.), I was put in the witness stand. I was going to testify a domestic violence. I was asked why I was in the hospital, why I was pictured bruises. I was trying to cover for that guy, but I knew I failed. Of course, that was only stimulation. River was my interpreter, and she did well. That was strange, though. I could understand everything Joe, the professor, said. Yet, I had to pretend that I could only speak Mandarin. Somehow, I still got nervous, even if I don't have to do any interpretation. That was really helpful for us to know what a court interpreter should do. It was difficult, for sure. Imagine myself being a court interpreter, I guess the most difficult part will be not being able to say something you know that's going to leave impact on the trial.

Will I think about being a court interpreter? I guess I will still give it a try, if possible. It may be cruel to get used to the reality happening in the court, but it will not be a bad thing to do what I can do for them.