Village offers bienvenido to new translation business

Lawrence resident Georgette Shamyer recently opened Bilingual Personal Resources, which offers services ranging from tax preparation to computer classes in Spanish.

By: Lea Kahn
Purchasing a car, setting up a business or learning to use a computer isn’t easy — but throw in a foreign language barrier, and a challenging task quickly becomes a daunting one.
   That’s where Georgette Shamyer comes in with a new business called Bilingual Personal Services. Ms. Shamyer and her mother, Maria Shamyer, who is a consultant to the business, opened an office at 2665 Main St. in the village of Lawrenceville last month.
   Bilingual Personal Services specializes in handling matters for Spanish-speaking clients, Georgette Shamyer said. The firm also helps English-speaking clients who need something translated into Spanish, the 26-year-old Ms. Shamyer said.
   The services offered range from tax preparation to guidance in organizing, purchasing or selling a small business and financial counseling. Ms. Shamyer and her mother also help clients work through the college application process and also provide computer classes in Spanish.
   The "vast Latino community between Lawrence, Princeton and Hightstown" illustrates the need for translating services, Ms. Shamyer said.
   "New Jersey has become a melting pot," she said. "A language barrier makes a small problem seem like a larger problem. People feel so limited because they have no control over a situation."
   A language barrier presents roadblocks for everyday tasks, Ms. Shamyer said.
   "But anything they need, we try to help them," she said. "We can translate birth certificates and letters of reference, or any kind of correspondence they may need."
   Bilingual Personal Services works with many professionals who may be able to help its clients, Ms. Shamyer said. In fact, it has arranged for a workshop May 22 which features attorneys, bankers, accountants, Realtors and educators aimed at helping the immigrants. The workshop is set for 5 to 7 p.m. at the Lawrenceville Fire Co. on Gordon Avenue.
   Bilingual Personal Services is an outgrowth of a home-based translation business set up by Maria Shamyer, who was born in Peru. Ms. Shamyer, 60, immigrated to the United States as a teenager to live with family in Franklin Township. She returned to Peru for college and subsequently came back to the United States, settling in the Princeton area.
   Georgette Shamyer, who was raised in Princeton and West Windsor townships, joined her mother in the translation business. Ms. Shamyer, whose native language is English but who learned Spanish as a child, graduated from Mercer Christian Academy and attended Mercer County Community College.
   Ms. Shamyer credits her daughter with the initiative to take the business out of the house and into an office setting. The elder Ms. Shamyer worked from home while she was recuperating from an automobile accident.
   The goal of Bilingual Personal Services is to help the Latino community and to educate them, said Maria Shamyer. The firm also wants to contribute to the community, and it believes it can do so by helping others, she said.
   "With the help of good (professionals), I want to help them become whatever they can become," Ms. Shamyer said of the immigrants. "I want to bring them into society so they can be responsible, pay their taxes, become (American) citizens and become productive."
   For more information, contact Bilingual Personal Services at (609) 620-9000.