Klingon interpreters needed

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From CNN.Com

Qapla'! Hospital seeks Klingon speaker

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) --Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in
Klingon.

The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of
about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in
metropolitan Multnomah County. "We have to provide information in all the
languages our clients speak,"  said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement
specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about
60,000 mental health clients.

Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a
consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary. And now Multnomah County
research has found that many people -- and not just fans -- consider it a
complete language.

"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this
was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator,
Franna Hathaway. County officials said that obligates them to respond with
a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise
officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages
such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and
Tongan.