Are you pretty good at picking up on street slang?  Can you watch The Wire and have no problems figuring out what the various underworld figures are saying?  Are you a linguist who has specialized in Ebonics, Black English, or African American Vernacular English?  Then there’s a job opening for you.  Actually, there are job openings for nine Ebonics-to-English translators, if you’re willing to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In addition to the standard translators for Spanish, Russian, Korean, and other more traditional languages, there’s are the openings for Ebonics translators.  Apparently, on recorded phone calls and wire-taps, some of the slang is so thick and the way of speaking so tough to understand that your average DEA agent can’t grasp it, so it’s time to bring in the experts who can turn the street language into the Queen’s English.  Or at least, standard American English.

If you speak jive, be sure to let your stewardess know.

Tags: African American Vernacular English, Ebonics, Justice Department, unusual job openings, translators, Black English to English translators needed, Ebonics translators, linguists specializing in Ebonics, Request For Proposal, Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA

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