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Kachin Interpreters

Professional Kachin interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

"Kachin" names a people of several languages; Jinghpaw is the one usually meant

What language does a Kachin client speak? Usually Jinghpaw (also written Jingpho), but ask: “Kachin” covers several ethno-linguistic groups that share the name Kachin or Wunpawng — Human Rights Watch lists the Jinghpaw, Rawang, Lisu, Maru, Zaiwa, Lawngwaw and Lashi — and their languages are not all close. In standard classifications Jinghpaw sits in its own branch of Sino-Tibetan, while Zaiwa and Maru are Burmish languages, Lisu is Loloish and Rawang is Nungish.

So a request for “Kachin” should come with the client's own name for their language. A Jinghpaw interpreter does not automatically cover a Lisu or Rawang speaker, though some people from the smaller groups also use Jinghpaw; the client can tell you which they want to testify in. A Burmese interpreter is the substitute bookers reach for. Whether it works depends on the person's schooling and, in a claim against the Myanmar military, on whether they are willing to give the account in the language of the state they fled. Ask rather than assume.

The Kachin conflict shapes the accounts, and who should interpret them

On June 9, 2011 the Myanmar army launched an offensive that ended a seventeen-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army, and some 75,000 people fled to about thirty camps along the Chinese border within the first months. Human Rights Watch documented torture during interrogations, rape, landmines and forced portering by soldiers, including of children as young as fourteen, and child recruitment and landmine use by the KIA. The Kachin are predominantly Baptist and Roman Catholic, and religion runs through many accounts.

That bears on the interpreter. An applicant describing army abuse may not speak freely through an interpreter they identify with the Burman majority; one who fled recruitment by the armed group may be wary of an interpreter with ties to it. They will rarely say so. Ask the client privately and tell us; the pool is too small to promise a choice, but we would rather know before the interview than read it in the transcript.

The pool is very small, and relay through Burmese may be the realistic option

The 2009–2013 American Community Survey counted 520 people speaking Kachin at home, 415 of whom spoke English less than very well, and the only state figure it published was 20, for California; elsewhere the samples were too small to show. Human Rights Watch notes that Kachin refugees have been resettled in Western countries, but there is no newer detailed count, and the interpreters who work in Jinghpaw are few.

Give as much lead time as you can and say which Kachin language the client speaks. Where no Jinghpaw–English interpreter is available, relay through Burmese (Jinghpaw to Burmese to English) can work if the client accepts Burmese in the chain, and for Lisu, Rawang or Zaiwa speakers relay may be the only option. We confirm whether we can staff it, directly or in relay, before you book.

Kachin is a rare language

Only a handful of qualified Kachin interpreters work in the United States — we found five or fewer across state court rosters, professional directories and freelance platforms — and courts and hospitals book them first. That is why Kachin carries the rare-language rate, 75% on top of the base: $140 an hour by video or phone with a one-hour minimum, and $192.50 an hour in person with a two-hour minimum, plus travel. Give us as much notice as you can: two weeks is comfortable, a few days often is not enough.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, except the rare languages — Mam, K’iche’, Q’anjob’al, Tzotzil, Mixtec, Fuzhounese, Hakka, Hakha Chin, Kachin, Balochi, Bambara, Soninke, Tigre, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic — which carry 75%. If a language is not on the standard list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Rare languages — add 75%: $140 per hour virtual and $192.50 per hour in person. These are the languages with only a handful of qualified interpreters in the United States, listed below.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply within minutes, four business hours at most, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability or rare language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• Human Rights Watch — Untold Miseries: Wartime Abuses and Forced Displacement in Burma's Kachin State (March 20, 2012)
• Glottolog — Jingpho (Sino-Tibetan, Brahmaputran, Jingpho-Luish)
• Glottolog — Zaiwa (Lolo-Burmese, Northern Burmish)
• Glottolog — Rawang (Sino-Tibetan, Nungish)
• U.S. Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home, ACS 2009–2013 (October 2015)

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