New iPad video has ASL from 0:35–0:37, but none of the 5:37 video is captioned. ASL sells but captioning costs, #Apple? apple.com/ipad/#video—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 07, 2012
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Why don’t we call ourselves interpreters for the Hearing?
I mean, Hearing people are the ones who hire us, right? Hearing people need us to interpret for them because they are not fluent in sign language, and most of the time, Hearing people foot the bill. So why do we so often side with our Deaf consumers? We signed-spoken language interpreters probably all have our “Stupid Hearing People!” stories, but where would we be without them? (And remember, for the majority of us who are not CODAs, we used to be Stupid Hearing People ourselves.) Hearing people may be naïve about signed language, deafness, and Deaf culture, but most of them mean well. Hearing people who hire spoken-signed language interpreters want what we want: to make communication accessible so that Deaf and Hearing people can understand each other. They deserve our respect and compassion, not our condescension and contempt. I used to not understand why some hearing consumers made such a production of introducing the interpreters they hired. I thought it was paternalistic and patronizing to Deaf people to make such a show of “their wonderful interpreters.” Then I realized that Hearing people who hire us spend a lot of money for a reason– to prove a commitment to accessibility, build an audience, or develop business relationships. You know what? They pay for the right to use us as advertisement just as much as a company that buys a stadium or arena pays for the right to slap their name on it. Yes, it can be argued that they “have to” provide for accessibility by law, but think about when they don’t have to do this, but they do it anyway. Think about when a company of Hearing people visits a company of Deaf people to pitch a business deal or make a presentation touting the advantages of working with their organization. They didn’t have to visit the company or make the presentation; they chose to. Likewise, they chose to hire interpreters which, if you think about the cost, is not an easy choice to make. So I say if they make a display of graciousness, be gracious and don’t resent them for it. If they talk slowly and clearly, don’t interpret their actions as talking down to Deaf people– try to see them as caring people who are working very hard to do the right thing and be accommodating. I say all this because I have seen the negativity signed-spoken language interpreters display on their faces and with their body language, and in their conversations with other interpreters. And, mea culpa, I have been guilty of it myself. But I am growing and changing! I really encourage my colleagues in the field to put themselves in Hearing people’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. They are worthy of the same support and respect we give our Deaf consumers.
Notes on verbiage Read the rest of this entry
A flash of ASL but no captioning? Oh, the irony.
Interpreting teams being blunt with each other for the sake of consumers
They did not seem to find a need to soften the statements with qualifiers or with the use of questions. As indicated earlier, this may be due to their comfort level with each other. (Shaw, 1995 p. 265)
I read the above statement in an article by Risa Shaw called “A conversation: Written feedback while team interpreting” and it summarized the many examples of respectfully blunt notes the interpreting team wrote to each other. I envy their rapport, that they were able to be so blunt with each other for the sake of their consumers! I felt the same envy when I read the article in the Views last spring by the husband-wife interpreting team and the notes they wrote to each other while teaming (Snyder & Snyder, 2011). I have not had many experiences with no-nonsense, helpful, “just-say-it” note-taking; yes, I have done notes, and it has been helpful, but I don’t think the notes between me and my partners have ever been as dedicated to excellence as these examples are.
Have you had the pleasure of such note-taking with your team interpreters? I would love to read some examples of notes you have written to each other that have had positive affects on the work at hand. Consumers: Have you even been aware of the feedback your interpreting teams are giving each other that is positively or negatively affecting the service you receive? Please leave comments.
References
Shaw, R. (1995). A conversation: Written feedback while team interpreting. In Elizabeth W. (Ed.) Mapping Our Course: A Collaborative Venture, pp. 245-276. Charlotte, NC: Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Retrieved from http://www.cit-asl.org/members/PDF/Proceedings/CIT%201994.pdf
Snyder, C. & Snyder, N. (2011). Let’s go team! Views 28(2). Alexandria, VA: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.
Where are the sign language interpreter blogs today?
I began writing this website in 1996, and when I turned it into a blog in 2006 I searched the blogosphere and I found some other ASL interpreter blogs. Back then, two of the four blogs I found were inactive, and since then, the other two have become inactive.
Today, things are different. While I have continued to publish my posts about interpreting for the deaf and various topics, other blogs have emerged and thrived. Here are four that I am aware of:
- Filipino Deaf from the Eyes of a Hearing Person: Issues, activities, experiences and technologies about Deaf People in the Philippines. This blog has been active since March 2007. Jojo, the blogger, offers a perspective slightly different from American Sign Language interpreters’— yet there are more similarities than differences between American and Filipino interpreters for the Deaf. Well worth checking out.
- Reflexivity: Interpretations by Stephanie Jo Kent: From critical thinking to responsible action. This is an active blog, quite scholarly, by a woman working on her PhD who is an interpreter, researcher, speaker, etc. It is an insightful and eclectic blog.
- Street Leverage: Amplifying the Voice of the Sign Language Interpreter. I just found out about this blog last week, and I could not remember the name of it. The domain streetleverage.com doesn’t help me remember that it’s an interpreter blog, but then I suppose neither does danielgreene.com.
They make up for their domain name by putting “Sign Language Interpreter” or “Sign Language Interpreting” in all of their post titles. Street Leverage has only been publishing for six months now—since August 2011—but their contributors are well-known in the sign language interpreting community, including: Anna Witter-Merithew, Dennis Cokely, Carla Mathers, Brandon Arthur, Wing Butler, and Antonio Goodwin. I have met each of these authors through work and workshops, and I know they know their stuff. Street Leverage is only about sign language interpreting, so combined with their contributors, they have both credibility and focus. - Thoughts from a Sign Language Interpreter. The blog’s author, Jon Barad, just informed me of his blog this morning in a comment to my post called Where are the interpreter blogs?. He started his blog in June 2011, eight months ago. So far he has six posts, well written, from a business and professional practice perspective. Definitely another blog to watch.
If you know of any other blogs, I would be happy to blog about them!
Like this:
Where are the interpreter blogs?
When I first turned danielgreene.com into a blog in 2006 I asked the question Where are the ASL interpreters blogs? and found only a few. Since I’ve been in grad school for “interpreting studies” with a concentration in teaching, I’ve learned about and sought out other interpreter blogs—not ASL interpreter blogs, but interpreter blogs nonetheless. Here are two:
- The Interpreter Diaries: Smart, academically informed blog about interpreter training and professional practice. I have been following this blog for a few months now.
- The Liaison Interpreter: I just found this blog today, and the most recent post is from today, so it is current. I checked the archives, and it seems the blogger has been quite active since 2007, publishing an average of 175 posts per year— much more active than I have been! This is a blog I am going to give a good viewing.
Googling for the search terms ‘interpreter’ and ‘blog’ just now, and I found something I have seen before: an interpreter blog gone dry. In The Court Interpreter blog, there is a post (only one of four) called Reworking the blog that reads:
You may have noticed I deleted all of my earlier posts.… A lot of what I wrote in the past about interpreting was sophomoric and offensive and this time around my focus is going to be on entertaining and informing the public without compromising myself professionally. (The Court Interpreter)
I mean no disrespect in citing this example; I mention it because it shows how hard it is for interpreters to blog about their work. This is understandable! We deal with many frustrations, challenges, and ethical dilemmas that are hard to talk about publicly without breaking confidentiality. The Court Interpreter’s last post was written on February 24, 2011— almost a year ago today. Let’s take a closer look… that last post, Now tweeting, or twittering, or whatever you call it. I checked out Court Interpreter’s Twitter feed, and indeed, they have microblogged actively since switching to Twitter. So, it may be a loss to the blogosphere, but their voice is still out there— 140 characters at a time.
That is all for now. Believe it or not, this post took me an hour-and-a-half to write, and it’s now 11:30 PM. Slow writer, I guess. How about you? Are you an interpreter/blogger? Do you know of any good interpreter blogs to read? I would love to hear from you.
