Is "So You Want to Be an Interpreter?" still good?

CrazyPaul said:
Yeah, I wonder why. My son, daughter and three nieces are CODAs. I told them that an interpreter makes good money but they are not interested. Oh, well, that's their decision.
Click to expand...

The number one reason they gave was because they had been interpreters their entire childhood and have had enough. They want to be selfish as adults and do what they want to do, not what they had to do.
 
CrazyPaul said:
The supervisor was like speechless.
Click to expand...
Still, the interpreter isn't supposed to "take over" the supervisor's responsibility. If the supervisor says nothing, the terp signs nothing.
 
DeafCaroline said:
The number one reason they gave was because they had been interpreters their entire childhood and have had enough. They want to be selfish as adults and do what they want to do, not what they had to do.
Click to expand...
What about good pay (easy money)?
 
Reba said:
Still, the interpreter isn't supposed to "take over" the supervisor's responsibility. If the supervisor says nothing, the terp signs nothing.
Click to expand...
Oh well, you know when a deaf person gets angry, he/she signs too fast or big in an angry way so the interpreter didn't get all of the messages. The interpreter was not certified. She is no longer interpreting at my work since VRI was installed.

I am curious when you interpret angry messages, do you do it the same way or in a calm way?
 
CrazyPaul said:
What about good pay (easy money)?
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter. It's not what they want to do with their lives. Many many children of deaf parents have talked about the stress of interpreting for their parents. Can't be easy on a kid when your parents and the doctor or whomever get impatient with you because you didn't sign fast or well enough even though you're just a kid, not a trained professional interpreter. I can see why after a childhood of this, they don't want to deal with it anymore and live life on their own terms.

I can understand this completely. I've gotten impatient with my sons a few times when they were just trying to help and I feel really bad about it. It's quite a burden to put on a child.

You should check out some CODA videos on youtube for their first hand accounts as to why they don't want to be professional interpreters.
 
CrazyPaul said:
...I am curious when you interpret angry messages, do you do it the same way or in a calm way?
Click to expand...
I use whatever expression/tone the signer/speaker uses. Otherwise, the message is incomplete.

That doesn't mean that I stomp my feet or pick up a club to mimic the person. I do try to keep my signs and speech clear.

However, I'm not there to referee.
 
Anij said:
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )



Nothing like making assumptions about millions of people based on a handful! Gees.

Of all the Deaf ASL users I've known there's maybe one that fits into the "over emotional" category.
That over emotional etc type of behaviour is an individual "human thing" and has nothing at all to do with someone being hearing , Hoh, deaf or Deaf.

It's too bad she's basing a career choice on 1 or 2 people, because she's just as liking to run into this in the Hearing World as the Deaf one.

I'm a bit curious why her Dad didn't correct her on this misconception of Deaf people, and in stead let her continue believing it.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the very act of "using your hands" (When I was young a lot of jokes centered around Italians and Jews being unable to talk without waving their hands in the air like ______), using facial expressions, talking loud, (It was often said Blacks and Puerto Ricans couldn't sit down and have a quiet "civilized" conversation like "white" people, they always had to "raise their voices to high heaven") is often considered to be "over emotional" by many conservative hearing white folk.

I find it interesting that when I was young the standard used was "Like white people" but now that use is politically incorrect what is said is, "They are not acting professional". But when you lay down the old standard for "White conduct" and the new standards for "Professional conduct" except for those "codes of ethics" the standards are exactly the same.
 
:wave:I've heard of those ideas and stereotypes, Berry.
the parallel between "professional conduct" and " 'WASP'-conduct" is something to think about-
 
Berry said:
Unfortunately the very act of "using your hands" (When I was young a lot of jokes centered around Italians and Jews being unable to talk without waving their hands in the air like ______), using facial expressions, talking loud, (It was often said Blacks and Puerto Ricans couldn't sit down and have a quiet "civilized" conversation like "white" people, they always had to "raise their voices to high heaven") is often considered to be "over emotional" by many conservative hearing white folk.

I find it interesting that when I was young the standard used was "Like white people" but now that use is politically incorrect what is said is, "They are not acting professional". But when you lay down the old standard for "White conduct" and the new standards for "Professional conduct" except for those "codes of ethics" the standards are exactly the same.
Click to expand...
Not only hearing white people, Asians are one of them, too. That reminds me of my Asian ex-wife's embarrassing story about her mother who forbad her and her deaf brothers/sister to talk to each other by signing in public before they moved here from their country because her mother thought signing was not "professional".
 
Berry said:
You are over looking a serious question if you are her boyfriend.

Do YOU understand what an interpreting career means to you?

Can YOU take the stress? Are you secure with yourself and your relationship?

This is from experience. My daughter is a terp.

Her current love interest and I are eating lunch at a popular restaurant with her. She taps on her blue tooth. "Hi,(name) what's up?"

BF, "My god we are eating lunch. Tell them to call back."

She squints at him. "Yes." head nod. "Yes." Frowns. "Twenty minutes." She stands up, wraps some food in a napkin, jams it into her purse.

BF, "Sit down. You can't leave. We are in the middle of lunch."

"Love you dad," she gives me a kiss and heads for the door.

BF, "Why didn't she kiss me goodbye too?"

"You pissed her off." I'm laughing, which does not help matters.

BF, "She didn't even tell us where she is going."

"Hippo law. (Yes, that is the way I pronounce it). Confidentiality. She can't."

BF, "She could be going to meet some guy in a motel right in front of me and how would I know?"

"You don't. You need another girl friend with a different kind of job. Lots of em out there."

BF, "If she marries me she won't need to work."

"If you are rich enough she would work Pro Bono." I add, "For free," in case he does not understand what "Pro Bono" means. "The situation would be the same. She loves what she does."

BF "We came in her car. How do I get home?"

"I'll take you. But first I'm going to finish my lunch. In the mean time there is a cute waitress over there. I'll bet she never gets phone calls like that." I watch the waitress and pretend I don't notice how he is glaring at me.
Click to expand...

you just won the internet, I shall hand over the reigns
 
Berry said:
Unfortunately the very act of "using your hands" (When I was young a lot of jokes centered around Italians and Jews being unable to talk without waving their hands in the air like ______), using facial expressions, talking loud, (It was often said Blacks and Puerto Ricans couldn't sit down and have a quiet "civilized" conversation like "white" people, they always had to "raise their voices to high heaven") is often considered to be "over emotional" by many conservative hearing white folk.

I find it interesting that when I was young the standard used was "Like white people" but now that use is politically incorrect what is said is, "They are not acting professional". But when you lay down the old standard for "White conduct" and the new standards for "Professional conduct" except for those "codes of ethics" the standards are exactly the same.
Click to expand...

WOW, just WOW .... once again, so very glad I'm Canadian (where all of the above examples have been considered derogatory, racist and even whispering them "in jest" would thankfully get any minor instantly expelled from school, and any adult fired, for at least the last 30years ... YIKES)
 
Anij said:
WOW, just WOW .... once again, so very glad I'm Canadian (where all of the above examples have been considered derogatory, racist and even whispering them "in jest" would thankfully get any minor instantly expelled from school, and any adult fired, for at least the last 30years ... YIKES)
Click to expand...
Was Berry talking about schools?

I think I grew up in the same era as Berry, and I lived in many states of the USA, and I don't hear all that, so that attitude wasn't everywhere.

When I was a teen, there was some joking about using so much manual expression but many of my friends, neighbors and my teachers were Italians, Greeks, and Jews, so that seemed the natural way to communicate. (I'm part Portuguese.) It wasn't anything derogatory.

I never heard the "act white" comments when I was growing up, which was over 40 years ago.

I'm not saying those things didn't happen but only that they didn't happen all over the USA.

I'm surprised that a minor would be instantly expelled from school for such an infraction. It seems to me that a teachable moment would be more in order, especially for a first offense.
 
Reba said:
I'm surprised that a minor would be instantly expelled from school for such an infraction. It seems to me that a teachable moment would be more in order, especially for a first offense.
Click to expand...

Here's the thing - in most if not all Canadian schools, on the first day of classes each year students are given and explained the school rules, and the contents of their schools handbook.

This includes dress code, order of conduct, what is and in not permitted on school grounds etc. Children are also told that there is a zero tolerance policy in terms of racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious etc discriminatory comments and what will happen if someone makes said comments (orally, written or signed). Clear examples are given, questions are allowed to be asked etc. and then students and parents sign an agreement that the child will follow the rules set out or be disciplined accordingly.

It's not as if students are unaware that these are the rules ... they do. You break the rules, you pay the price.
Typically students are expelled/suspended for a week the first time, then progressively from there. Many schools also have mandatory counselling and cultural understanding sessions that must be attended.

Workplaces have similar contracts, and depending on the infraction the action which will be taken.

As a country that LOVES our diversity and encourages multilingualism, multiculturalism, etc at home, school and in the workplace, there is simply no room for comments that degrade, stereo-type etc anyone. By the time a child is school age they already know (and have been taught from family,friends, peers, media, etc) that making negative, derogatory, etc comments is not acceptable - and on the off chance they don't, they learn it the first few days of school (where their classmates are typically a wide spectrum of colours, religions, cultures and linguistic groups).

Do they occasionally happen, yes, are they tolerated in schools and workplaces - no.

Having lived and attended College in both the USA and Canada, I do know that the two countries have more different "norms" regarding what is allowed/acceptable to say (even in jest) and what is not.

There's a reason the USA is called a Melting Pot, and Canada a Mosaic.


(p.s. I most of my family are teachers, profs, and various educators all of which deal with this daily)
 
Reba said:
Still, the interpreter isn't supposed to "take over" the supervisor's responsibility. If the supervisor says nothing, the terp signs nothing.
Click to expand...

This is another one of those "it depends" situations. If the interpreter found the Deaf person difficult to understand because of their agitation then I think it would be appropriate to say, "Can you calm down? I'm having trouble understanding you." However, it would probably not be appropriate to just straight-up tell the Deaf person to calm down.
 
dogmom said:
:wave:I've heard of those ideas and stereotypes, Berry.
the parallel between "professional conduct" and " 'WASP'-conduct" is something to think about-
Click to expand...

Have not heard the term "WASP" in so long I wasn't sure anyone would know what it meant.
 
Mountain Man said:
This is another one of those "it depends" situations. If the interpreter found the Deaf person difficult to understand because of their agitation then I think it would be appropriate to say, "Can you calm down? I'm having trouble understanding you." However, it would probably not be appropriate to just straight-up tell the Deaf person to calm down.
Click to expand...

This is another of those authority, control, issues. Whenever anyone is upset the person who wants control, or believes they should be in control, invariably demands the subordinate person "calm down and be reasonable."

However if you apply a little human understanding, and have a little patience, the person, and or persons, who are upset will calm down eventually when they have the emotions out of their system.
 
Reba said:
Was Berry talking about schools?

I think I grew up in the same era as Berry, and I lived in many states of the USA, and I don't hear all that, so that attitude wasn't everywhere.

When I was a teen, there was some joking about using so much manual expression but many of my friends, neighbors and my teachers were Italians, Greeks, and Jews, so that seemed the natural way to communicate. (I'm part Portuguese.) It wasn't anything derogatory.

I never heard the "act white" comments when I was growing up, which was over 40 years ago.

I'm not saying those things didn't happen but only that they didn't happen all over the USA.

I'm surprised that a minor would be instantly expelled from school for such an infraction. It seems to me that a teachable moment would be more in order, especially for a first offense.
Click to expand...

No, I was not talking about schools, although teachers and many kids in school held similar attitudes.

You were not actually told to "Act White" you were told to "act like ladies and gentlemen" and other races, nationalities, were disparaged for not doing it. You may have grown up in the same era, and with many of the same cultures, but if you never had an all white contingent in your family explain that you were a product of miscegenation that was an offense against man and God that should have been aborted for the sake of decency, you will find it hard to understand my admittedly skewed viewpoints.
 
Back
Top