With increasing frequency, interpreter training courses meeting specialized needs are being developed in the United States. One such class for Southeast Asian refugee mental health interpreters was held at the University of Minnesota under the auspices of the Twin Cities Project (TCIP) during the summer of 1991. The languages involved were English, Hmong, Vietnamese, Cambiodian (Khmer) and Lao. As a principal instructor, the author assisted in planning and implementing a specialized curriculum geared to the working requirements of this group. This article (1) presents the background for the course and hence a framework for a discussion of the pedagogical techniques; and (2) examines successful teaching strategies when the instructor and the students share only one working language, in this case, English. The discussion concludes with the author’s personal observations regarding the feasibility of ‘generic’ interpreter training.