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by Simona Simon and Livinia Suciu 

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There’s different types of interpreting?!

Franz Pöchhacker inspired me in his book, “Introducing Interpreting Studies,” that as an aspiring interpreting student, one must consider “social context of interaction or setting;

·       business interpreting (‘primeval’ interpreting; purpose of trading and exchanging goods, ‘doing business’)  

·       liaison interpreting practiced mainly in commercial negotiations  

·       diplomatic interpreting – where the representatives of different linguistic and cultural communities came together with the aim of establishing and cultivating political relations, rely on mediator’s practicing diplomatic interpreting

·       military interpreting; talks with allies, truce negotiations, interrogation of prisoners, bears historical relationship

·       court interpreting, specific legal provisions, translation of documents and in quasi-judicial and administrative hearings

·       educational interpreting in the setting of a classroom  

·       community interpreting/public service interpreting emerged as a wide new field of practice with healthcare interpreting (medical, hospital interpreting)

·       legal interpreting (police, asylum, etc).

·       media interpreting, broadcast (usually TV) interpreting

·         dialogue interpreting highlights the mode of face-to-face communicative exchange (ex. [international] conference interpreting)

·       Tactile interpreting is a special modality used in communication with deafblind persons, who monitor signed messages by resting their hands on the signer’s hands.  

·       Telephone interpreting/videoconference interpreting (video relay service) allow deaf users of sign language to communicate over the phone, the call being mediated by a ‘video interpreter.’”

While all viable avenues of study, I personally find myself the most attracted to and intrigued by the field of working with the Deafblind and utilizing tactile interpreting, which is an arrangement where a Deafblind person essentially holds onto and grasps the hands of the signer to be communicated with. I presume this type of interpreting would foster a close relationship with a client that interpreters are sometimes seeking in their career path.  Deaf and Deafblind alike are capable of achievements just as hearing people, but they require a special modality of communication which tactile interpreters open the door of accessibility for.  

It is important to acknowledge and respect the boundary of friendship between the Deaf client and interpreter relationship, but it’s generally agreed upon once you’ve learned sign language that most Deaf people are pretty cool and I would recommend hanging out with them.  In fact, I’ve never met a Deaf person I didn’t like. Anyway, I figure tactile interpreting will satisfy for me the craving I have for that direct contact, interpersonal one-on-one form of communication, and I truly hope to leaving a lasting impression on the community of Deafblind capable people.

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Stresses of Becoming an Interpreter

Sometimes, I get asked some pretty frustrating questions about my major by students from other majors at USF, which is fine, because I’m here to inform them.  One is, “Interpreting?  Oh, I didn’t know that was a major you could pick,” but if you read the USF course catalog of majors you can pick, it’s there.  Another, “Deaf culture? What does that mean?”  “Is ASL signed English? No.”  “Does ASL have different grammar?  Yes.”  

Remember, the common goal of interpreting students is to help to bridge the gap of communication between the hearing and the Deaf worlds.  They’re separate, but why should they be?  We should be helping to blend Deaf people naturally into society by providing a high availability of information and communication.  

When I made the decision to become an interpreter, I was a community college student considering all of the different potential majors I could chose to pursue as a transfer to a university.  I was accepted to my first choice at University of South Florida, but up until the day of my orientation, I was a confused student burdened with the pressure of making the decision about what major in college I will chose.  It wasn’t until an especially encouraging teacher at my local community college Pasco-Hernando State College, Michy Smith, who taught me ASL 1 & 2, was I motivated into researching interpreting as a possible option for me.  

I was excited by the idea and after a while of practicing ASL and feeling welcomed into the Deaf community, attending events and making friends and connections, I made the decision to set my long-term goal of graduating from USF with my Bachelors in Communication, Sciences & Disorders (CSD) within the college of Behavioral Community Sciences, concentrating on the Interpreter Training Track.  If you are interested in joining an interpreting program, “specific information concerning programs of study, fellowships, school calendars, and admission requirements should be addressed to the program directors,” according to the American Annals of the Deaf “Programs for Training Interpreters.”  

Robyn Dean and Robert Pollard Jr. teaches us in Application of Demand-Control Theory to Sign Language Interpreting: Implications for Stress and Interpreter Training, that 

“demand-control theory is a job analysis method useful in studies of occupational stress and reduction of stress-related illness, injury, and burnout…describe sources of demand in the interpreting profession, including demands that arise from factors other than those associated with languages (linguistic demands)…include environmental, interpersonal, and intrapersonal demands.” 

They also pose the question of the effectiveness of the idea of a professional employee saying, “I’m taking a mental health day.”  Is taking a break between stressful situations and assignments in your professional life advisable or does constant stimulation and development of your skills contribute to the challenge of your stamina as an interpreter and your ultimate success?  It is up to the individual interpreter to decide.  

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Culturally Complex Scenario # 2

What would you do if one Deaf teacher teaches you one way is the proper way to sign a certain vocabulary word or grammatical concept, but another one of your Deaf teaches you a different way is the correct way to sign this.  Would you tell the teachers what one another said, as if one of them is wrong, would you decide for yourself which is the correct way to sign the sign, or would you match the dialect of and use the preferred word choice for when you are interacting with each teacher?  

Remember, it is important for the ease of comfort and smooth communication for everyone with Deaf people to use words and grammatical styles that they tend to prefer in their dialect.

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Bridging the Gap

When I began my educational career in the field of American Sign Language Interpreting, I dictated this objective for my resume that I at first thought was totally unique and would distinguish me from my peers in pursuit of future career opportunities.  It is:

“aspiring interpreting student looking to bridge the gap of communication between the hearing and the Deaf realms,” and maybe sometimes (if I’m feeling frisky) upon editing or freshening up of my resume I’d add or take away, “to positively contribute to society by helping the bridge the gap of communication between the Deaf and the hearing by aiding the respect and spreading of awareness of Deaf culture.”  

I’m sure I’d read an article or two somewhere that put the idea of that word order in my head, but I find it somewhat amusing when I see now during various discussions of Deaf culture and language, something along the lines of this one that I also found in Chouc & Conde’s Situated Learning in Translator and Interpreter Training: Bridging research and good practice, “to bridge the gap between the theoretical learning in the formal instruction of the classroom and the real-life application of the knowledge in the work environment.”  I’m particularly tickled by little evidences that the world revolves around coincidences.  

Quick question:  How would you sign ‘coincidence?’  Would love to hear the readers’ thoughts!  

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Culturally Complex Scenario # 1

You and your interpreting classmates are attending a conference and during breaks, they insist on speaking English quietly amongst each other.  What would you do?  You have a few options: speak back to them in English, which the Deaf will not like, ignore them and not talk to them at all, or respond to them in sign language, hopefully encouraging them to sign and not talk.  I, personally, would probably sign in response to them to get them to sign, but you can decide for yourself which is the best option.  

Proposing this scenario was incited to me by reading Trudy Suggs’ A Deaf Perspective: Cultural Respect in Sign Language Interpreting, 

“I noticed, almost immediately, a specific group of interpreters who whispered to each other without signing. Participants in the first workshop had been extremely respectful about signing at all times. The conference organizers had also clearly stated that one language was to be used. I naturally assumed that for workshops led by Deaf presenters, all present would sign.”

Presumably similar to Trudy’s experience, I often find myself troubled with my fellow ASL interpreting classmates whispering around me during breaks and while socializing.  I seem to be one of the few who is uncomfortable with talking around others who I am fully aware are capable of signing. Perhaps I take the ‘no-talking policy’ a little too seriously, but it is suggested for a reason; to facilitate and support ones’ efforts toward fluency.  As Chouc & Conde would agree with the statement in Enhancing the learning experience of interpreting students outside the classroom, “Research on interpreting has already shown that ‘learning takes place when the learner is actively involved in situated action;’ this can be achieved through the use of authentic materials in the classroom.”  

There is further evidence that signing amongst interpreting students as opposed to speaking English is suggested as ideal or optimum conditions in efforts toward fluency, given the fact that the student should be expected to meet a standard level of expectation provided they are within the same grade level of instruction, in Brooke Macnamara and Andrew Conway’s Working Memory Capacity as a Predictor of Simultaneous Language Interpreting Performance, during related research they asked the question, “What is the relationship between working memory capacity and skill acquisition among American Sign Language (ASL)-English simultaneous interpreter trainees?”  They “found that amount of training, working memory capacity, and initial simultaneous interpreting performance positively predicted final simultaneous interpreting performance” demonstrated a very important relationship.

A language learner must be fully immersed in their newfound language; I, personally believe we do not need practice with our English skills in that we are already fluent, but we severely need all the practice we can get in hopes to become successful interpreters.  In the world of ASL where a vastly fewer percent of people are likely to be aware and fluent within the general population than most other spoken languages, interpreting students essentially have limited time with one another to get the utmost practice time in, in addition to the mandatory socialization with Deaf people.  This concludes my rant portion of the blog for the day, thank you for reading.

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Comparison of Deaf & English Culture

There are plenty of cultural and social tendencies which distinguish the Deaf and hearing folk.  Incidentals which are plenty acceptable among the hearing; for example, breaking eye contact and looking away briefly during a conversation or getting distracted by something more interesting, would be deemed rude by a large majority of Deaf people. 

A socially accepted set of rules exist that determine proper etiquette for behavior around Deaf people which take some getting used to as a hearing person. However, as Elliot Marlene states in Sign Language Interpreters and the Quest for Cultural Competence, “in the Deaf world credibility comes from Deaf people and from Deaf experience.”  In fact, reading through that article introduced an idea to me I hadn’t thoroughly considered before - “How sorry is SORRY?” discussing “the role and function of apology in a variety of cultures and about call and response structures in dialogic languages,” and how in my video I described as “Lastly, if there’s a miscommunication, just say sorry, and move on with the conversation; you’ll fix the problem together, it’ll be fine.  Thank you.”

theaslapp.com/faq/ answers the question, “What is Deaf Culture?” citing their source from the World Federation of the Deaf, "Deaf people as a linguistic minority have a common experience of life, and this manifests itself in Deaf culture. This includes beliefs, attitudes, history, norms, values, literary traditions, and art shared by Deaf people."

Simon & Suciu explore “Raising Cultural Awareness in Interpreting Students” in support of the Deaf culture by saying,

“The communication process is thus hindered both by the cultural differences and by the incapacity of the speakers to transmit their message in a language that is mastered by all of them. In such a situation, the interpreter’s role is obvious: s/he needs to take into account the cultural background of the communication partners in order to relay the message as accurately as possible and to facilitate the oral exchange effectively.”  

This, to me, signifies the importance of matching the dialect of the Deaf client, which is a topic I briefly discuss in my video, “Remember, it is important for the ease of comfort and smooth communication for everyone with Deaf people to use words and grammatical styles that they tend to prefer in their dialect.”

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A Day in the Life of an Interpreting Student

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Sources Cited

Elliott, Marlene.  “Sign Language Interpreters and the Quest for Cultural Competence.”  18 December 2013.  http://www.streetleverage.com/2012/08/a-deaf-perspective-cultural-respect-in-sign-language-interpreting/.  25 April 2017. 

Jacobson, Laura.  “Hearing Loss, Deaf Culture and ASL Interpreters.”     https://www.med.unc.edu/cmep/education/current-residents/resources/clinical/unc-general-pediatric-clinic-documents/SignLanguageandHearingLoss.pdf.  25 April 2017.   

Pöchhacker, Franz.  “Introducing Interpreting Studies.” Routledge.  Second Edition (2016). 25 April 2017. 

Suggs, Trudy.  “A Deaf Perspective: Cultural Respect in Sign Language Interpreting.”  7 August 2012.  http://www.streetleverage.com/2012/08/a-deaf-perspective-cultural-respect-in-sign-language-interpreting/.  25 April 2017.  

DEAF CULTURE FAQ YOU ASKED, WE SAW, WE ANSWERED. http://theaslapp.com/faq/.  25 April 2017.  

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Peer Reviewed Sources Cited

Chouc, Fanny.  Conde, Jose Maria.  “Enhancing the learning experience of interpreting students outside the classroom. A study of the benefits of situated learning at the Scottish Parliament.”  The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. Volume 10, Issue 1: Situated Learning in Translator and Interpreter Training: Bridging research and good practice.  (2016).  http://www.lib.usf.edu/.  25 April 2017.    

Macnamara, Brooke N.  Conway, Andrew R.A.  “Working Memory Capacity as a Predictor of Simultaneous Language Interpreting Performance.”   Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.   Volume 5, Issue 4, December 2016, Pages 434–444.  http://www.lib.usf.edu/.  25 April 2017. 

Robyn K. Dean, Robert Q Pollard, Jr.; Application of Demand-Control Theory to Sign Language Interpreting: Implications for Stress and Interpreter Training. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ 2001; 6 (1): 1-14. doi: 10.1093/deafed/6.1.1.  24 April 2017. 

Simon, Simona.  Suciu, Lavinia.  “Raising Cultural Awareness in Interpreting Students.”  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences.  Volume 197, 25 July 2015, Pages 1242-1245.  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815043918.   25 April 2017.  

Wallace, Ivey.  “Programs for Training Interpreters.”  American Annals of the Deaf.   Volume 159, No. 2, pgs 188-195.  (2014).  25 April 2017.