Chuj interpreting and translation

Chuj interpreting for immigration, legal and health settings

Chuj has two main varieties, associated with San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán, which differ in some vocabulary and pronunciation. Giving us the client's home municipality lets us match the variety where possible. Chuj is not readily understood by speakers of K'iche' or Mam, so interpreters for those languages are not substitutes.

Our Chuj interpreters are ready for immigration hearings, solicitor meetings, medical appointments and child welfare assessments. Remote work is usually the best route, either a video call on the SILA Linguists® app or your own conferencing tool, or a telephone line staffed whenever you need it. Sessions are interpreted consecutively, with care over dates and family relationships, and you can ask for a woman or a man to interpret. For children and young people, we brief interpreters on the setting in advance, so that questions about school, family and journeys are put in words a young person from San Mateo or San Sebastián will follow.

Chuj translation and certified translation

Written Chuj follows Guatemala's official Mayan alphabet, with apostrophes for glottalised consonants. Mexican materials may follow slightly different conventions, so we confirm whether readers are in Guatemala, Mexico or elsewhere. We translate hearing notices, care plans, school letters and personal statements, adding audio recordings where a family prefers to listen.

Identity cards and birth records from Guatemala and Mexico come in Spanish, so certification is done from Spanish, each translation signed with a declaration of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as tribunals, the Home Office and schools, and by employers. Should a document be needed north of the border, a provincially certified translator can be arranged; for US immigration, a signed certificate of accuracy accompanies it.

Transcription and language analysis

Interviews and recorded evidence in Chuj are transcribed line by line with time codes, an English version and clear labels wherever Spanish or Q'anjob'al creeps in. For asylum claims where origin is in question, a specialist LADO assessment of the speaker's language can be commissioned through us.

Sectors we support in Chuj

Our vetted, trained and qualified Chuj linguists can support asylum caseworkers, tribunals, legal advisers, hospitals and community health teams, schools, social services and child welfare organisations. At SILA Linguists® a single team plans each assignment from start to finish, and every Chuj linguist signs a non-disclosure agreement and works within UK GDPR. Chuj speakers who have settled in the US or Canada can be interpreted for at asylum hearings, refugee board sittings, legal aid meetings and health check-ups, mostly by video or telephone.