IW 98: Your Turn: Q&A - Poland, USA, UK

Who me?!! Yes, you!

Today we get some thoughts from three sign language interpreters from three countries, Poland, the USA, and the United Kingdom.

I gave them three questions to answer how they wanted. Now we hear their insightful responses.

1. What is one of the biggest challenges you have when it comes to working as a sign language interpreter?

2. What was one of the most memorable moments from the podcast for you?

3. What one perspective of yours about sign language interpreting has changed since your first started interpreting?

Want to answer any of these or ask me a question? Click here to send a voicemail.

Transcript

IW 98: Your Turn: Poland, USA, UK - Q&A

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[ROCK INTRO MUSIC STARTS]

00:00:02 Tim

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Wherever you are, this is the Interpreter's Workshop podcast. I'm Tim Curry, your host. Here we talk everything sign language interpreting the ins, the outs, the ups, the downs, the sideways of interpreting. If you're a student, a new interpreter, experienced interpreter, this is the place for you. If you want to know more, go to interpretersworkshop.com.

00:00:28 Tim

Let's start talking... interpreting.

[ROCK INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

00:00:35 Tim

And now the quote of the day by Irish poet and writer William Butler Yeats.

00:00:44 Tim

“Education is not the filling of a pot, but the lighting of a fire.”

00:00:52 Tim

In today's episode, we hear from you.

00:00:56 Tim

A couple of you have sent me their thoughts on a few questions that I asked.

00:01:02 Tim

This is the reason why I do this podcast.

00:01:05 Tim

To light that fire.

00:01:07 Tim

To motivate to inspire us.

00:01:10 Tim

To give us something more to think about, to feel that understanding of what is the interpreting profession.

00:01:18 Tim

Are we alone? Am I the only one that thinks this?

00:01:22 Tim

Am I the only one that has trouble with these decisions?

00:01:27 Tim

Am I the only one that thinks I can't do it?

00:01:31 Tim

So, today we'll hear some answers from two [three] people who listen often.

00:01:38 Tim

And if you want to answer some questions too or just give me your thoughts, click on the links in the show notes.

00:01:45 Tim

Send me your message. E-mail me your message.

00:01:49 Tim

Either way, I would love to share it with everyone.

00:01:54 Tim

And to go further with this thought of why we do this podcast together, it goes with the second quote.

00:02:03 Tim

By American author and poet Maya Angelo.

00:02:08 Tim

“When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”

00:02:14 Tim

We're not alone. We are all interpreters, so we learn, and we teach each other we share what we're given.

00:02:25 Tim

And the last quote by Helen Hayes, award-winning American actress.

00:02:33 Tim

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”

00:02:40 Tim

We can do this.

00:02:41 Tim

You can do this.

00:02:43 Tim

Together we do more.

00:02:46 Tim

Let's get started.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:02:53 Tim

I asked these listeners three questions.

00:02:57 Tim

The first question, what is one of the biggest challenges you have when it comes to working as a sign language interpreter?

00:03:07 Tim

From the USA we have Jill.

00:03:10 Jill - USA

The biggest challenge I face as an interpreter.

00:03:14 Jill - USA

Is that I am a, quote - unquote, seasoned interpreter, but the younger interpreters are like, “These old dogs got to go away.” [laughs] And I think the biggest… the challenge is, is that…

00:03:29 Jill - USA

I didn't realize how… I don't want to say discrimination, but really it's ageism, right? Like I'm getting more seasoned and people want younger interpreters and they want…

00:03:42 Jill - USA

Even applying for a job now, it's harder to even get an interview. I've noticed. Now that I've been in the field for a little over three decades, which I love interpreting. I'm not giving it up.

00:03:54 Jill - USA

I will retire out of this field, though I don't think I'm the only… I don't think our field is the only field who experiences this. I have another friend that works in another field, and she is experiencing it, the same thing.

00:04:07 Jill - USA

So, but she's in the same job. She didn't switch jobs like I switched jobs. So, that is one of the biggest challenges.

00:04:15 Jill - USA

So, the second biggest challenge is there's not as much of a sense of community that there used to be, right? Technology changed. The world changed. And I really enjoyed that aspect of the field. I didn't realize how much I missed that, that sense of community that no longer exists. And I don't think it just doesn't exist in the interpreting field. Right? There used to be Deaf clubs.

00:04:36 Jill - USA

And so, you used to be… go hang out at the Deaf clubs or even just general gatherings of deaf people, right? Our technology with video phones changed that, the technology with FaceTime and other, you know, social media platforms changed that. And so, I, I miss it. I miss the community and I don't just miss the community as a sign language interpreter, but I miss the community as a whole right now.

00:05:01 Tim

Some true feelings from Jill. Have you felt ageism in our profession? How do we offset that? How do we get that old versus young new versus experienced? How do we come together as an interpreting community? Hmmm.

00:05:20 Tim

I think that goes with her questions about...

00:05:23 Tim

Where did the community go? Where did that feeling of camaraderie, that, that connection that we had, not only with the deaf community, not only to develop our skills, but to understand those who we serve to be friends with and gain trust, a mutual trust in a mutual confidence in the work and the practice that we do? Perhaps the feeling of a lost community or a lack of community influences how we see each other as new interpreters versus experienced interpreters.

00:06:02 Tim

Bringing sign language interpreters together as well as sign language interpreters and deaf individuals in one community would help us with any of these feelings, an “us versus them” dilemma.

00:06:17 Tim

Some wonderful insight from Jill. Thank you.

00:06:21 Tim

And from the UK, we have J, a written form from J that I am reading.

00:06:29 Tim for "J" - UK

I think my biggest challenge is overcoming fear.

00:06:32 Tim for "J" - UK

Imposter syndrome is, of course, a recognized trait in sign language interpreters.

00:06:38 Tim for "J" - UK

But I think it goes beyond that to a deeper-seated fear of failure. (There's probably a whole therapy episode to explore where that comes from.) This impacts many aspects of my work, but particularly in maintaining a comfort zone and or pushing my boundaries.

00:06:59 Tim for "J" - UK

I guess it also works as a motivator to ensure I am as prepared as possible.

00:07:05 Tim for "J" - UK

Which in turn helps me to try to be the best interpreter I can be, but I definitely have turned down bookings that I probably could have done well, because of fear, particularly of the unknown.

00:07:22 Tim for "J" - UK

This is something I have had to try and overcome and is a daily challenge, especially if I find myself in a new situation.

00:07:32 Tim for "J" - UK

However, as time goes on and I have a more developed fund of knowledge and more positive experiences, my level of confidence has improved, and I do take more, risks quote unquote, with my booking choices.

00:07:53 Tim

J from the United Kingdom brings up a good point. It's normal for us all to have fear when we start something new.

00:08:01 Tim

So new interpreters, even students, worry about the same thing. They have fear about whether or not we can do this. They understand the implications of making mistakes, of breaking ethical codes, the problems of getting stuck in a moral dilemma, whether or not they'll make the right choices. The right decisions, even the right signs.

00:08:26 Tim

There's the fear of rejection by the deaf community because of a mistake we made, or just the way we interpret or sign.

00:08:37 Tim

And as we continue to work, we become a little more confident. Like J said, we get a little more experience, and we understand much more about the real world of the interpreting interaction. We all face these challenges. We all face this fear not just in interpreting.

00:08:58 Tim

How do we overcome that? I think that is for another episode.

00:09:02 Tim

But the first steps are exactly what J said. Get ready to step out of your comfort zone, ‘cause as an interpreter, we work with people and it's not always comfortable. And the more we work in that uncomfortable place, the more we become comfortable. The more we understand the situation the more we are comfortable with our interpreting process with our own skills.

00:09:29 Tim

Then when we face a dilemma, a moral or ethical choice, or a decision, or even just uncomfortable situations, we are starting our stress level lower because we're not worried about our skills as an interpreter or even our experience. And so that's one reason why it gets better the more we do it.

00:09:52 Tim

Great observations, J. Thank you.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC STARTS]

00:09:54 Tim

A big thank you to everyone who shares this podcast with a colleague and friend. If you want to support the show even more, check out the show notes for links to Buy Me A Coffee because it's very embarrassing to fall asleep during an interview. Thank you.

00:10:10 Tim

Let's go back.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC ENDS]

00:10:12 Tim

And now let's go to the second question.

00:10:16 Tim

What was one of the most memorable moments from the podcast for you?

00:10:21 Tim

This time we have Kamila from Poland.

00:10:25 Tim

And then Jill from the US.

00:10:28 Tim

And back to J from the UK.

00:10:31 Tim

I did not mean to rhyme like that, but I did.

00:10:35 Tim

I will be using my own voice for J again.

00:10:39 Kamila - Poland

So first name, which comes to my mind is Marty Taylor. All of her episodes…

00:10:45 Kamila - Poland

…all of her insights was just amazing, but one I remember, especially when she was speaking about soft skills of interpreters, that kind of caught my attention for longer. And I was then reminding myself that and thinking about the soft skills. That you were not really just the person who is working with the language as a tool.

00:11:10 Kamila - Poland

You really go into interpreting as a whole person.

00:11:13 Kamila - Poland

And she was also speaking about good attitude of interpreter and this how easy to work you are as a person. But this is important or of course, are you responsible as well. But at the same time flexible, are you not just the person from 9:00 to 5:00 and you will just not speak after 5.

00:11:38 Tim

Again, we come back to professionalism, soft skills, experience that matters for a whole holistic interpreting practice.

00:11:49 Jill - USA

Hey, Tim, it's not one thing about the podcast that’s [inaudible], it's about all of the interpreters that you have interviewed from all of these other countries face the same challenges and struggles that I face in the country that I live in currently. And so, for me, it was more of an “AHA!”.

00:12:06 Jill - USA

Like, we are one large community of interpreters really want… Our heart is for the most part, all in the right place. We want to serve deaf people and unfortunately don't have a good memory anymore. But there was one person that said like,… the, in the, one of the countries and it was the woman. And she said, ‘that deaf people have an X number of allotted hours of interpreters to use for the year’, and that was just a, a shocker for me because I was like, “What?!” Like, how could somebody only pick and choose…?

00:12:39 Jill – USA

…that they wanted interpreters for their doctor's appointments. Let's say they have an ongoing medical thing, or they wanted to pick them for employment, which has so many socioeconomic impacts to their life.

00:12:53 Jill - USA

But they are only allotted so many hours in, in, in the year for interpreting services from the country. And I was like, how do you, how do you make those choices? Those are really hard choices to make.

00:13:05 Tim

Yes, we learn so much from each other. Even seasoned interpreters can be shocked to learn things from other fellow interpreters. And it reminds us that in the lives of those we serve many barriers and obstacles have to be endured.

00:13:24 Tim

And the more we learn about those barriers to access, those limitations that they have to live with, the better professionals we become, professionals with the heart of understanding, trust and reliability.

00:13:41 Tim for "J" - UK

I loved the episode on names and names signs.

00:13:46 Tim for "J" - UK

Episode 85.

00:13:48 Tim for "J" - UK

I found it a really insightful exploration of something that is so commonplace we rarely even think about it. And yet it carries so many complexities. It's very easy to be thrown in an interpretation by a name sign.

00:14:07 Tim for "J" - UK

Especially when you may not even be aware that it is a name sign.

00:14:13 Tim for "J" - UK

You're just aware of something was signed that did not really have relevance to the conversation? Or did I miss it? Did I get that wrong?

00:14:23 Tim for "J" - UK

It can put all sorts of confusion gremlins into your head.

00:14:28 Tim

If you're feeling a little outside of the comfort zone, then it can be a challenging one to recover from.

00:14:37 Tim for "J" - UK

That's without even getting on to how to pronounce names. So yes, a really thought-provoking episode.

00:14:47 Tim

Sometimes we have to really analyze our interpreting practice. All aspects of what we do needs to be reviewed, thought about perhaps even journaled, so we can see patterns that we are doing. Perhaps there are habits that are preventing us to develop further or there's some aspect of our skills that we need to work on and haven't quite noticed it yet.

00:15:14 Tim

Name signs are just one of those things that we don't think about in depth as much as we should.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC STARTS]

00:15:20 Tim

Thank you to all the hundreds of people following this podcast. If you want to hear from interpreters around the world and get the latest episodes, follow the podcast in your app. Just check out some of the links in the show notes to help you with that. Thank you. Now let's go back.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC ENDS]

00:15:37 Tim

And the third question?

00:15:39 Tim

What one perspective of yours about sign language interpreting has changed since you first started interpreting.

00:15:48 Tim

Again, we have all three replies.

00:15:51 Tim

From Kamila in Poland.

00:15:54 Tim

Jill in the USA.

00:15:59 Tim

And J from the United Kingdom, see what I did there.

00:16:03 Tim

Yeah.

00:16:04 Tim

So, let's listen to their answers.

00:16:06 Kamila - Poland

When I started working as an interpreter, I think I didn't see interpreters’ community as a source of support as a group of people who I really need, I think back in that time was a bit different.

00:16:21 Kamila - Poland

Because there was not that much assignments and interpreters were more competitive between each other. And I think also me as a young person, I just thought, “I'm so independent and I can manage myself”. And now during all these years, I think much more, I see and appreciate friendship with other interpreters.

00:16:42 Kamila - Poland

And this openness to talk about our tough moments, difficult decisions, but also joy of interpreting and this kind of peer support. Fellow support is, is very important to me. Now this, this was not when I was young, uh, baby interpreter. [lightly chuckles]

00:17:05 Tim

Hmm this touches on what Jill has said earlier, all about community. We need to remember that. Community is important not only for learning from each other, but to feel that support.

00:17:20 Jill - USA

What has changed for me is what I will and will not interpret anymore. What do I mean by that? So, I think I was more rigid in the beginning as an interpreter, and I see more of a gray area in interpreting than I used to. For example, I would have never taken an appointment where I knew that a woman, umm, …

00:17:39 Jill - USA

…was dealing with having to make the choice to have an abortion or not because they didn't want them to have the abortion. But my perspective now as a, a woman in this world where our bodies are being litigated [chuckled] and what we can do with our bodies. I very much will take those appointments and I, I have… because I've been an interpreter in some of those situations, I have more compassion for the choices that they're having to make for their own personal life. And I think I'm more flexible in terms of I don't get to force my values on somebody else.

00:18:12 Jill - USA

But it's already challenging enough for a deaf person to find an interpreter for whatever it is, right? Because so many interpreters want to do this? Or they won't do that.

00:18:19 Jill - USA

And so, I try to see it more of I'm willing to interpret for you because you need the communication access. This is not about my belief system or what I would or wouldn't do. I'm not in their shoes. I need to give them access.

00:18:34 Tim

When we all started, we were afraid to take assignments that we thought we were not ready for, and that's a good thing. We should use caution.

00:18:43 Tim

Being very careful to accept assignments that we are not ready for, that we are not qualified to do.

00:18:51 Tim

However, as we become more experienced and seasoned, we need to make sure that we're not doing it only because we don't want to, only because it might make us feel uncomfortable because it's not what we believe. It's not what we would do. It's not of interest to us. Jill makes a great point. It's about access, their access, going beyond the barriers, having a heart, knowing that it's about them and not about us.

00:19:25 Tim

Great thoughts.

00:19:27 Tim for "J" - UK

When I was going through my training, I remember thinking that all qualified interpreters were amazing, confident, able to work and adapt to any situation.

00:19:38 Tim for "J" - UK

Then I got my purple, a trainee badge.

00:19:42 Tim for "J" - UK

Then yellow, qualified badge.

00:19:46 Tim for "J" - UK

Joined the interpreting community and realized that actually, we… are… all human. Everyone makes mistakes and hopefully learns from them.

00:19:58 Tim for "J" - UK

Lots of colleagues question their abilities and are insecure, and even the most well qualified and experienced colleagues get… it… wrong sometimes.

00:20:13 Tim for "J" - UK

And that's all OK. We repair, we reflect, we regroup, we retrain and pick ourselves up and carry on trying to do the best we can.

00:20:26 Tim for "J" - UK

I remember reading somewhere that when you are qualified you are just in the foothills with your boots on, ready to make that climb.

00:20:37 Tim for "J" - UK

Nearly seven years on and still climbing.

00:20:42 Tim for "J" - UK

Thanks Tim. Keep calm and keep podcasting.

00:20:47 Tim

Yes, that age-old problem, comparing ourselves to others. Assuming that we are not as good as they are, that they obviously are almost perfect. They don't have the problems we do. We all know this is useless to think about, but we still feel that sometimes, don't we?

00:21:08 Tim

But once we realize that we're doing it, that's when it starts to change.

00:21:13 Tim

And that comes with experience and community.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC STARTS]

00:21:22 Tim

This was a wonderful episode put together hearing from others what they think, how they feel, and what they're doing in their part of the world. I'd love to hear from each of you. Click on the links in the show notes to send me that voicemail or send me an e-mail.

00:21:38 Tim

Give me your thoughts.

00:21:40 Tim

There were some common threads today in these comments. These answers in this conversation we were having. We all fear something, becoming a professional, working on our people skills, our soft skills, our professional skills, is all part of developing as professional sign language interpreter. And we learn those skills from each other and the best way to do that is with community. Find your community. We have one here but where you are find that community.

00:22:15 Tim

The deaf community and the sign language interpreting community. Grow together so that we can stop comparing each other, but learning who we are and how we each are going through the same things. So, let's bring each other together in this worldwide community of sign language interpreters where we can learn and grow that much faster, that much stronger.

00:22:42 Tim

And keep lighting that fire, giving yourself that inspiration, that motivation, the passion for our profession. And when you do learn something or you get something, give it back. Teach another. Share it. Because remember, you were once a beginner and those who are teaching you, who are showing you, who are leading by example… They're only there because they started as a beginner.

00:23:11 Tim

So, until next time… Keep calm. Keep community interpreting. I'll see you next week. Take care now.

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC ENDS AT 00:23:56]