In Denver, people can now turn their bilingual skills into cash — and perhaps a promising future — thanks to a first-of-its-kind program being rolled out by the Denver Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs in which residents will be able to get free interpreter training and a chance at contract work with the city.
DOIRA officials are looking for anyone who is proficient in English and one of more than a dozen listed languages, including Vietnamese, Amharic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, French, Burmese, Karen, Farsi, Somali, Nepali, Korean, Urdu, Haitian Creole, Khmer Armenian and Swahili, and are open to those who speak additional dialects, as well.
With the city welcoming more and more foreign-born residents — including refugees looking for help with local services — the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs is in need of interpreters. It plans to start training polyglots next month, with classes beginning on August 21 and running for about three weeks.
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