WBZ Water Cooler: The Mandela Memorial Interpreter

December 15, 2013 12:47 PM By Rod Fritz

Filed Under: CBS Boston, Drew Moholland, Mandela, Mandela Interpreter, Rod Fritz, WBZ, WBZ Water Cooler

In these combination of pictures taken on December 10, 2013 US President Barack Obama delivers a speech next to sign language interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie (R) during the memorial service for late South African President Nelson Mandela at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. South Africa's deaf community on December 11, 2013 accused the sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial of being a fake, who had merely flapped his arms around during speeches. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died in Johannesburg on December 5 at age 95. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)

BOSTON (CBS) — At The WBZ Water Cooler: Every day that goes by it seems we learn more about the bogus interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s Memorial, but we wanted to look at the signing itself.

People in the sign language field must have known right away the guy was a fake right? Was the guy making any sense? Is sign language the same all around the world?

For these answers we talked with Cindy Ramos, a certified sign language interpreter.

She has interpreted for President Barack Obama, VP Joe Biden and MA Governor Deval Patrick. Ramos told us that sign language is not universal, and she said yes, it was obvious the interpreter at Mandela’s funeral had no idea what he was doing.

WBZ’S Rod Fritz Reports.