Interpretation Team Gets Together and Talks About Language

Oct 30

The Bainbridge Prepares Interpretation Team, the volunteers ready to help out at events or an emergency by providing English language interpretation, had its first social gathering October 26. The team met at Sister's Cider House on Hildebrand.One of the primary topics of conversation were the languages spoken by team members. The team is currently comprised of 29 people who are interpreters for a range of languages in addition to English, including Spanish, American Sign Language, French, German, Swedish, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. The team is actively looking for volunteers, including Vietnamese and Korean speakers.Another topic of conversation were language statistics for Bainbridge Island and Kitsap County. The discussion prompted Team Leader Elizabeth Ozimek to do some additional digging. Here's what she found:

95% of Islanders list English as their main language, with the next largest groups speaking German (1.5%) or Spanish (1.2%).
The fastest growing ethnic group in Kitsap is the Hispanic population (up 54% since 2010, slightly lower than the 63% Hispanic growth rate observed between 2000 and 2010).
The second-fastest growing ethnic group in Kitsap is Pacific Islanders (up by 28%).
7% of the BI pop. is foreign born.
6.2% of BI households (families) speak a language other than English at home.