Blog Archives
Interpreting & translation associations around the world
In graduate school for interpreting studies, we are learning about interpreting and translation associations worldwide, including ASL-English and beyond. It is exciting to broaden one’s horizons. Here are some associations of interpreters and translators, both signed/spoken and spoken/spoken:
- AFILS: Association française des interprètes et traducteurs en langue des signes, afils.fr
- AIIC (in English): Professional Conference Interpreters Worldwide, aiic.net
- AIIC: Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence: aiic.fr
- APTIC: Associació Professional de Traductors i Intèrprets de Catalunya: aptic.cat
- ASLI: Association of Sign Language Interpreters: asli.org.uk
- ATA: American Translators Association: atanet.org
- AVLIC: Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada: avlic.ca
- CIT: Conference of Interpreter Trainers: cit-asl.org
- EFSLI: European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters: efsli.org
- IATIS: International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies: iatis.org
- NAD: National Association of the Deaf: nad.org
- RID: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf: rid.org
- TAALS: The American Association of Language Specialists: taals.net
- WASLI: World Association of Sign Language Interpreters: wasli.org
Keep an eye on this blog’s link list for more links to come. If you know of a terp/trans association that should be listed here, please comment.
Beginning a teaching practicum
I'm doing my teaching practicum in an ASL linguistics class @ Western Oregon University; this morning I Spyped into class for the 1st time!—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) April 05, 2012
On Thursday, I Skyped from my home office to a classroom at Western Oregon University to begin a teaching practicum. As a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies program with a concentration in teaching interpreting, I will be observing and participating in a Linguistics of ASL course in the Bachelor of Arts in Interpreting program. It is as important for me to audit this course as it is for me to observe and help teach it, because we did not have an ASL linguistics course in my ITP in the early nineties. We did learn about ASL linguistics from the green books (Baker & Cokely, 1980), and my Deaf Culture teacher, Freda Norman, shared with me articles on ASL linguistics studies from Salk Institute; still, this is my first actual ASL linguistics class. I am excited to work with professor Elisa Maroney, student teacher Halene “Hal” Anderson, and the students in this class.
Here is the video I made in ASL to introduce myself to the students in the class:
Have you ever done a teaching practicum or had someone doing a teaching practicum in one of your classes? If so, what is one thing you would tell a person starting one?
Books used in this course
- Baker-Shenk, C. & Cokely, D. (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher’s resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: T.J. Publishers.
- Humphrey, J. & Alcorn, B. (2007). So you want to be an interpreter? An introduction to sign language interpreting, fourth edition. Renton, WA: H&H Publishing Co, Inc.
- Lucas, C. & Valli, C., Mulrooney, K.J. & Villanueva, M. (2011). Linguistics of American Sign Language: An introduction. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
What interpreters can learn from HTML
What could HyperText Markup Language (HTML) possibly have to teach interpreters? I learned HTML in the nineties, and I made the connection to interpreting the other day when I watched a colleague’s interpretation. The English sentence she interpreted was:
Also you can take them to a consignment shop, which– they’ll buy your clothes, which gives you a little extra money.
My colleague’s ASL interpretation was:
ALSO YOU CAN BRING TO WHAT CALLED C-O-N-S-I-G-N-M-E-N-T STORE. WHAT MEAN GIVE(I-to-them) CLOTHES? GIVE(they-to-me) MONEY. [1]
Notice that my colleague prefaced “consignment shop” with “what’s called” and she changed “which…” to “which means” (I’m back-translating so you get the idea). She effectively marked her terms so that when the listener saw “called,” they would know what came next was a term, and when they saw “which means,” they would know what came next was a definition.
This reminded me of a Definition List (DL) in HTML. Just like all elements in HTML, a DL has beginning and ending “tags” that mark the language in the container as having a semantic value, or being a certain “kind” of information; in other words, they give context to content. A DL is a list of Definition Term (DT) — Definition Description (DD) pairs. This site’s Interpreting Glossary is an example. This is the HTML code:
<dl> <dt>ASL</dt> <dd>(Pronounced “A-S-L.”) American Sign Language, the signed language used by deaf and hard-of-hearing people throughout North America, with the exception of Quebec.</dd> <dt>CDI</dt> <dd>Certified Deaf Interpreter</dd> … </dl>
And this is how your browser renders it:
- ASL
- (Pronounced “A-S-L.”) American Sign Language, the signed language used by deaf and hard-of-hearing people throughout North America, with the exception of Quebec.
- CDI
- Certified Deaf Interpreter
…
The opening tags in angled brackets and the closing tags in angled brackets with a slash show the beginning and end of each element. Marked-up language also shows the boundaries of semantic values; it contains discourse markers, sentence boundaries, and transitional phrases. Marked-up language helps the listener to parse the information, just as HTML helps a Web browser to parse the language on a Web page; it cues the listener to the genre so they can place it in a schema; in other words, it gives context to content. My colleague marked up her language just like HTML!
I have never heard anyone compare interpreting to HTML before, but the idea of semantic markup in interpreting/translation is not new. I remember my mentor, Jean Kelly, taught me to preface a number with what it stands for such as ADDRESS / PHONE NUMBER / COST, etc. I am calling it semantic markup or data tagging for now, but I would love to know if there’s already a term for it.
How about you? Do you appreciate semantic markup in interpretation/translation? Do you think interpreters can learn anything from HTML? As usual, all stakeholders are encouraged to comment, be they clients or practitioners, hearing or deaf, and whether they interpret, transliterate, or translate in spoken and/or signed languages.
Words in ALL CAPS are English glosses of ASL signs, H-Y-P-H-E-N-A-T-E-D words are fingerspelled, and lowercase words are meanings embedded within the three-dimensionality of signs, such as the directionality that creates pronomialization and dative case in “I-to-them” and “Them-to-me.” This is not the only way to notate ASL, but it is what I’m using here.
