Career found in translation

It's not an easy mission, in this post-9/11 age.

A few good linguists fluent in Arabic and English, that's all Everette Jordan was looking for, at last week's annual American Translators Association meeting in Seattle.

For Jordan, head of a new federal agency that does everything from secret to everyday translations, this was prime recruiting ground, he said, what with more than 1,600 members attending.

But finding people who can pass a stringent security screening and perform at a high translating level for what the government calls "terrorism-related languages"?

That's tough.

Jordan was looking for the equivalent of Tim Gregory, 34, of Kent, one of the conference attendees. These days Gregory makes around $80,000 a year, mostly working from his home, translating Arabic documents into English.

He's one of a handful of translators in this state with a top-secret government clearance working for the National Virtual Translation Center.

We have a dearth of Tim Gregorys, said Jordan, director of the translation center established two years ago by Congress to provide translation for "all elements of the intelligence community," from the CIA to the FBI to the National Security Agency (NSA).

Jordan said the FBI and the NSA have some 3,000 full-time translators.

But with the sheer volume of documents coming through the pipeline — from pamphlets to newspaper editorials to "pocket litter" — the need for translators is never-ending, said Jordan. With a virtual agency, the translators don't have to be stationed in Washington, D.C., but can work from anywhere in the U.S.

"Pocket litter" is any piece of paper with writing that has been taken from someone brought in for questioning. By way of a secure Web site, pocket litter gets translated by someone like Gregory.

Jordan's agency, currently with 80 full-time employees, 60 part-timers and always looking for more, takes on a lot of the excess and not-so-top-secret materials. Last year, he said, the agency processed 250,000 documents, ranging from two pages to 100,000 pages.

"And that's just the printed material," Jordan said. There also were audio recordings, videos and Web broadcasts.

Gregory's workday starts after bidding his wife goodbye as she leaves for her job in human resources. They live in a four-bedroom home, no kids, with a dog named Dusty.

He doesn't talk to his wife about his government translating work.

One of the bedrooms is Gregory's office, which has a couple of computers, a VCR, DVD player, fax machine, file cabinet, bookshelf and a dog bed for Dusty. One computer is hooked up to receive Arabic TV channels, such as Al-Jazeera.

The TV serves as background while he logs onto a secure government Web site and begins to translate.

Gregory, who's a bit overweight and a tad geeky, joined the Marine Corps in 1989, right after graduating from Kentridge High School.

After testing Gregory, the Corps decided he'd go to linguistics training and offered him the choice of Arabic or Korean. He chose the former, but at first was apprehensive at seeing the 28-letter Arabic alphabet.

Gregory soon grew to appreciate the language and the culture, though he's never visited an Arab country.

Openings for "L-3s"

At the translators conference — which covered such topics as "Translating Humorous Russian Poems for Children" and "Didactic Proposal for Bridging the Gap Between Translators and Interpreters ... " — Jordan made his pitch.

What he is looking for, he said, are translators who test at least at an "L-3" level, on a scale of L-1 to L-5. An L-1 would be an individual with basic high-school knowledge of a language — someone "able to find the bathroom."

An L-2 would be able to translate the front page of a newspaper. An L-3 could translate an opinion piece in the editorial page. An L-4 could write such an opinion piece. An L-5 would be a native speaker "who worked every day at a very high level."

Gregory rates himself as an L-3 plus.

Jordan said U.S. colleges aren't geared to teach translation — "they're geared to teach literature; translation is considered a lesser calling."

He also said there are problems with recruiting "heritage" speakers of a language, the kids of individuals who immigrated to this country and who spoke the language at home.

"They have to be clean," said Jordan, indicating an intensive background check. "They have the concept of a secret police doing a background check, and they don't want to do it. And in some of their local communities, they don't want to be caught up in working for the U.S. government."

Job is a good fit

But for Gregory, it is a calling he doesn't regret.

At his Kent home, sipping his coffee, having a microwave lunch, he keeps translating an endless stream of documents, some of interest, some boring. After a while, his dog goes to the living room to stare out the window.

He proudly admits that it's a geeky profession. Figuring out, for example, a particular turn of phrase.

"I find that interesting and exciting," he said. "I had no idea I was going to end up doing this. There is more to it than looking at people as bad guys. It's all shades of gray. In the Middle East it's not all bad guys and the al-Qaida. There are a lot of wonderful, generous people."

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com