Certified Translation & Interpreting Services

Mission and history

Mission Our mission is to provide the highest quality, effective, and culturally appropriate interpreting and translation services to all organizations that serve clients with Limited English Proficiency.

Who we are The Language Banc was founded in 2006 in response to the growing need for well-trained, professional interpreters in the healthcare industry. Since then, The Language Banc has expanded its services to all industries—government, legal, business, education, and more. From the beginning, we have focused on providing excellent customer service and ensuring quality in everything we do.

The Language Banc is committed to improving and empowering the communities that we serve. Our multicultural staff works with hundreds of interpreters who live and breathe the culture of the people they help and serve. The Language Banc also sponsors and organizes educational seminars to assist health care providers and other organizations to learn more about the different cultures and communities.

Leadership

Siyad Abdullahi – President and CEO

The Language Banc President and CEO – Siyad Abdullahi is a physician by training, public health professional and nationally-recognized expert in cultural competency. Siyad is Somali, grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, and came to the U.S. to attend graduate school. He is fluent in Somali, Swahili and English. Dr. Abdullahi has served on the boards of Axis Medical Center, FairVote Minnesota, the City of Minneapolis Capital Long Range Improvement Committee, City of Minneapolis Public Health Advisory Committee. Dr. Abdullahi is the recipient of the International Immigrant Achievement Award from The International Leadership Institute.

Over 1,000 Interpreters Available 24/7

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Quality service

At The Language Banc, you’ll never have to leave a voicemail; every caller talks to a real person. That’s because your needs are our priority. The Language Banc was formed more than a decade ago response to requests for professionally…

Minnesota and beyond

The Language Banc is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but we provide services across the country.
We have worked throughout the state, in Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona and more. Thanks to robust…

More languages

We have a team of linguists including medical, schools, legal, manufacturing, and government to serve your all your organization’s language needs: VRI, onsite, and telephonic. We provide translation and interpretation in more than 150 languages, from Acholi to Yoruba and everything in between…

General inquiries: Info@thelanguagebanc.com

Human Resources: hr@thelanguagebanc.com

Scheduling a service: scheduling@thelanguagebanc.com

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What Our Clients Say

I just wanted to let you know that I just had an AMAZING interpreter experience that I wanted to let you know about. We had an interpreter scheduled for our parent teacher conferences but the interpreter did not show. In a pinch, we called the Language Banc and asked for an interpreter to join our Google Meet meeting. Hibo, the Somali interpreter, entered our call and was one of the best interpreter experiences I have had. Not only did she navigate the hearing difficulties with Google Meets but also incredibly helpful by staying on the line when we had to switch teachers. After this experience, Language Banc will be the first call I make and I hope that you can personally forward to this email to Hibo to thank her for help. Thank you for your time and THANK YOU HIBO!

Bloomington Public Schools

Your interpreter did such an incredible job interpreting for our patient. He was complete, patient and thorough. Really, such a great job and a wonderful interpreter to work with. I look forward to using The Language Banc more often in the future because you definitely hire quality people.

HP Midway Clinic

We recently switched to your agency and love the professionalism of your interpreters. We used to work with agencies who sent us freelance interpreters who were both unprofessional and who directed patient care in ways we were uncomfortable with. We chose your agency because you take the high road when it comes to customer service, support and training. Thanks for the great work.

Lifetree Clinic

“The Language Banc has actively partnered with us to better understand our needs and improve upon the quality of interpreters chosen to cover our hospital and clinics and the promptness and accuracy of billing. Since The Language Banc joined our list of contracted providers, we have seen significant improvement in our provider satisfaction scores across the organization.”

Regions Hospital

“My scheduling team uses The Language Banc for nearly all of our last minute needs because they have proven that they can provide quality interpreters very quickly. This enables our organization to better care for our patients through quality language services. Additionally, they have repeatedly provided rare language interpreters when other agencies we work with have been unable to do so.”

Park Nicollet Clinics and Methodist Hospital

“[The Language Banc’s interpreter] was very professional and highly competent. Even though the appointment took considerable time she never slowed down, stopped or lagged in her efforts. She was the best interpreter [our provider] has ever worked with. It really means so much when we have professionals [such as your] interpreters on our patient care team.”

University of Minnesota Physicians

“Another agency cancelled on us at the last minute. We called The Language Banc and you were able to find a Mandarin interpeter to come to our clinic within an hour. Thanks to you, the patient was able to undergo needed cateract surgery as scheduled. You’re truly amazing.”

Chu Vision Institute

“They are also prompt in handling last minute interpreter requests, even for rare languages, and their response to complaints is always prompt and effective.”

Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare

“The interpreters you send are truly outstanding. One in particular, . . . , always goes above and beyond and is truly great. She’s a wonderful person and always puts the patient’s interest first. Patient’s trust her and so do we.”

Health Partners Highland Park Clinic

“You guys have the best interpreters, very reliable. You train so well and have amazing staff. The Language Banc is just top notch and make things so much easier and better for us and our patients. We appreciate everything you do for us.”

Fairview Health Services

Partnerships

Corporate Memberships

The Language Banc is dedicated to continuously improving the quality of our language services and supporting linguistic talents around the nation. We partner with many national programs and associations to advance the translation and interpreting industries, as well as support the immigrant communities we serve. We are corporate members of the following organizations:

About us