A SERVICE FOR SPEECHLESS CLIENTS
By Jackie Peterson

When a person who speaks only English steps into the Spanish-speaking world, you’d have to say that he or she is absolutely speechless. Some weeks ago, the Pacific Pearl ran an article about Vanessa Bernal, personal relations agent for Personal Bilingual Assistant, a personable young woman put the words right into the mouths of those voiceless souls. Well, actually Bernal doesn’t put the words in their mouths, she does their talking for them. Out of curiosity, we asked her the other day what types of needs she is filling for her clients. By far and away, she says, the most in-demand service requested so far is helping people with their immigration documents. While these days there is usually somebody who can speak English at the front counter of the Immigration office downtown, setting up an FM-3 (residence permit) is a somewhat complicated, time-consuming matter. You need to submit pictures, you need to obtain forms at a stationery store, you need to fill out application forms which ask their questions in — what else? — Spanish. After accompanying a number of clients to Immigration, Vanessa has worked out a fairly quick and painless way to represent her clients and get the job done without much effort on their

part. With the help of a notary,she is now able to act on their behalf to negotiate both new FM-3s and annual renewals without their even having to go to the Immigration office in person. Other matters that Bernal has been able to handle for this voiceless minority are complaints about timeshare sales or other unfulfilled sales promises, which she and her customer can take to the Consumer Affairs Bureau. Everybody calls this agency Profeco, which is its Spanish acronym. Profeco is willing to help people get their money back if they have been outrageously misled by fast-talking pitchmen and have the sales receipts to back up their complaints. What else? Bernal says she has been called upon to translate real estate contracts, fideicomisos, condominium bylaws, and other legal contracts that her clients are unwilling to sign without being able to read and understand them in their own language. When it comes to big-money transactions like the purchase of a piece of property in a foreign country, the cautious homebuyer has discovered that having somebody like Bernal on hand to translate the fine print is, as the saying goes, priceless. For more information, see ad on this page Personal Bilingual Assistant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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