IW 124: Special Report 1: efsli 2024 Torino Italy - Practitioners' Commitment

"Qualified: What Next? (From Safe to Practice to Strive for Excellence)"

This Special Report is filled with live in the conference interviews. You can feel the atmosphere and joyous community of colleagues.

Listen how each participant describes their experience and why they come to efsli. One professor, researcher outside our profession gives some wonderful compliments to all of us.

Next week, even more research shorts and perspectives from our colleagues will come.

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Transcript

IW 124: Special Report: efsli 2024 Torino Italy - Practitioners' Commitment

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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]

[Sounds of people mingling, talking, dishes rattling, continue through the episode interviews]

00:00:34 Tim

And now the quote of the day by James M Kouzes, best-selling author…

00:00:41 Tim

“It always takes a group of people working together with a common purpose in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration to get extraordinary things done.”

00:00:53 Tim

This quote fits right in with efsli and all the sign language interpreters that came together this year to renew our commitment, our passion to sustain our profession by learning from each other, the researchers, the ideas and perspectives that were shared on this wonderful weekend we call the efsli conference.

00:01:14 Tim

This year, it was in Torino, Italy, a beautiful town, beautiful people and beautiful food. Let me warn you right now the interviews here are short, fun, exciting and full of atmosphere from the conference. That's right. They're all live except a few.

00:01:32 Tim

They're all in big rooms with many people, with coffee voices, laughter and that conference excitement. And there's something different about the sound this time. But the first interview will tell you all about that and why we all have to suffer just a little bit to get this information this time.

00:01:53 Tim

So let's sit back and learn about the efsli conference 2024 from Torino, Italy and all my favorite friends. Let's get started.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

[Sounds of people mingling, glasses, dishes clinking]

00:02:10 Tim

So, Gill, you were supposed to bring me your microphone. Why did that not happen?

00:02:15 Gill

Bruce happened.

00:02:17 Tim

Bruce Cameron, right?

00:02:20 Gill

Who's Cameron happened? Yes.

00:02:21 Tim

Yeah. So it's all his fault.

00:02:22 Gill

Absolutely. His fault. Didn't come in the post, never got it. No sight of… afraid so.

00:02:30 Tim

I see. Well, we'll just have to make do with this.

00:02:33 Tim

So, Gill, how's your experience here in efsli? How many times have you been to efsli?

00:02:39 Gill

Not too many actually.

00:02:43 Tim

Where you at, in Glasgow?

00:02:45 Gill

I was in Glasgow, I was in Warsaw, so I've been too WASLI, but not so much, efsli, to be honest. It's always been a problem trying to get flights. [Tim: hmm]

00:02:56 Gill

You know that's the, the decider and work, but yeah, I've really enjoyed today at this weekend.

00:03:03 Tim

Well, yeah. Scotland is pretty isolated out there in the Arctic Circle, I understand. [Gill and others laughing]

00:03:09 Tim

What is it this year that impressed you?

00:03:12 Gill

Think it was really nice topic as well.

00:03:14 Gill

It was really interesting to see how the presenters just enjoyed that they were looking at reflective practice and everything about that and you-, once you're, you're qualified and what comes next.

00:03:25 Gill

So even though I’ve been qualified a long time, I just wanted to see what was out there. I think you can become quite complacent when you've been in the profession for a while. So it was just to look at that from a different lens, really. Was nice.

00:03:38 Tim

I agree. Thank you so much.

00:03:41

No probs. [starts laughing: You crafty, crafty man!]

00:03:46 Tim

Did you catch that at the end? She called me a crafty fellow. Maybe it's because I asked about Bruce and then continued to interview her when she really didn't want to be interviewed. She was too shy, but it worked and she gave us some wonderful thoughts, like a trooper. Thank you, Gill.

00:04:06 Tim

Our next guest was also a little shy at the conference, but she committed to send me this message for all of you. Here she is.

00:04:18 Elke

Hello everyone. My name is Elke. I come from Vienna, Austria, and I love attending efsli conferences. My first conference was several years ago. It was the 2006 conference in Prague. Since then I have attended over 10 conferences and every year I look forward to the exciting topics the exchange with colleagues and the growth of the efsli family.

00:04:42 Elke

From 2008 until 2010, I was on the efsli board and was responsible for publicity and promotion. Advertising for efsli is still, something I am doing today and I'm trying to get more and more Austrian colleagues excited about eflsi. In 2012, the efsli anniversary, the 20th anniversary of efsli took place in Vienna and I was part of the organizing committee.

00:05:08 Elke

It was a wonderful time with a special efsli ball with costumes and ball gowns for the board. In Dubrovnik, six years ago, I gave my first lecture at the conference and presented a study on the topic of designated interpreting at an Austrian pharmacy. As you can see, efsli conferences are my passion.

00:05:27 Elke

And I'm really looking forward to seeing you all next year in Lisbon. Best wishes and take care. Bye, bye.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:05:41 Tim

Hanna, you're from the States and this is your first efsli conference. What were your expectations before you got here about what this would look like, how it would feel and how does that compare to now that you've been here?

00:05:55 Hannah

Great question. My expectations before coming here, they were pretty big. I was expecting to come here and hopefully meet people with a similar background to me. Maybe people from the US, maybe people who made the move to Europe. That was my expectation.

00:06:11 Hannah

And coming here was a little bit different. It was initially overwhelming. There was several languages to contest with and had to figure out sort of how to make my way in terms of communication. But I've met some wonderful people. I met you, who is from the US and moved to Europe. So I accomplished my goal.

00:06:32 Hannah

And I met several others from all across Europe, so it's been wonderful.

00:06:36 Tim

How have you handled the communication? Because you know ASL and English obviously, but here we don't use as much ASL, although many people here do know some ASL, and of course English. What about International sign or, or just brokering the language in a gestural way? How did that work out for you?

00:06:58 Hannah

In terms of brokering the language, I'd say I found it easier to understand, to comprehend when folks were doing that with me. And when it was then my turn to respond or to communicate then that's where I found I had a bit more trouble, but I did go back to the hotel room a couple of nights and you know, brush up on my IS.

00:07:18 Hannah

So, I found that helpful and it, it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it was going to be.

00:07:24 Tim

That's good. That's good. So how did you see the actual structure of the conference compared to maybe conferences in the US and what are the pros and cons that you see?

00:07:37 Hannah

Hmm, I would say the overall structure seems to be what I'm familiar with in the US. The workshops and the content seems to be pretty similar, but what's different is just the accumulation of people and the difference of perspective, and I think that's very, very rich, more rich, I would say, than you'd find in the in the States.

00:07:59 Tim

Well, that's comforting to know. [Hannah slightly chuckles] How many years of experience do you have as interpreting and what was the impetus to bring you here?

00:08:07 Hannah

So, my experience level is still pretty new. I've got just over two years in the field.

00:08:13 Hannah

So, the impetus to come here was actually the location. I found out it was in Italy and really couldn't turn that down. I've been traveling a lot this year, my first time out of the country was last year, so I'm very new been bitten by the travel bug and having said that, and having found out it was in Torino, I thought how could I pass it up?

00:08:35 Tim

How indeed. Thank you.

00:08:37 Hannah

Thank you.

00:08:39 Tim

Are you enjoying efsli?

00:08:42 Unknown participants

Very much. [Tim: And you?] Yeah, it's very interesting. [Another chuckles and replies] Same.

00:08:47 Tim

Same. Well, that's great. I'm glad you love it. Bye!

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC STARTS]

00:08:52 Tim

Thank you so much for incorporating this podcast into your world. Now, don't be selfish. Tell a friend and colleague about the podcast. Share with them this podcast and the many stories from sign language interpreters around the world. Thank you. Now let's go back.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC ENDS]

00:09:09 Prof Alys Young

My name is Alys Young and I'm from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

00:09:14 Tim

That would be, professor. So we're here at efsli, and I'm talking to one of the presenters. Is this your first time coming to efsli conference, and if not, what is your feeling and experience this time around?

00:09:29 Prof Alys Young

OK, so this is the first time I've ever been to an efsli conference. I've been to many conferences all over the world connected with sign language and deaf studies, but never to efsli.

00:09:39 Prof Alys Young

I was really keen to come because the project that I was talking about with my colleague crosses disciplines and so we're jointly presenting in lots and lots of unusual places, some of which are well known to us, some of which are unfamiliar. So this is an unfamiliar context for me. What do I think of the conference?

00:09:59 Prof Alys Young

I'm struck by a couple of things. First of all, how many people are here? There's over 200 people here and I don't know why, but I'd expect it to be less than that. So that's impressive.

00:10:11 Prof Alys Young

I'm also struck by a sort of sense of commitment in the atmosphere, so people are clearly as one mostly and want to learn and want to be engaged with what's happening. And there's clearly quite a lot of diversity in the backgrounds of the individuals here and the languages they're using and their status as a deaf person, as a hearing person, and so forth. But it kind of is not mattering most of the time because people are looking with a common purpose and that's impressive.

00:10:42 Tim

Why did you think there would be fewer people?

00:10:45 Prof Alys Young

Oh that's my ignorance. I, I guess I'm used to very large academic conferences. That's principally research conferences and I was very aware this is a practitioners’ conference and I stupidly just thought well, there's gonna be fewer practitioners who have the time, the finance and the commitment to come to something like this.

00:11:05 Prof Alys Young

So, I guess I was expecting about half the number.

00:11:08 Tim

Well, first of all, that's, that's a good thing for us as practitioners to know that others see us as committed and willing to take on that professional development. Let me ask you then about your research that you presented on with Professor Jemina Napier. And can you give us a summary of what you think we in the audience and, and the listeners should get from this? What's, what's the main goal?

00:11:37 Prof Alys Young

You don't ask simple questions, do you? So, I think the goals are on a number of levels. So, I as well as being a researcher working in sign language, deaf studies, I am a professor of social work as well and I'm still a registered practitioner. And when I first heard the idea for this research project I thought this project has got to cross disciplines, got to cross the idea of outstanding research. That's not me plugging the research, but it's got to be high quality research.

00:12:09 Prof Alys Young

And it's got to be high quality practice. So one of the things that both Jemina and I jointly wanted to achieve was that people understood that this project could not have happened unless active practitioners and researchers were working together, preferably researchers who were also practitioners and working across disciplines.

00:12:30 Prof Alys Young

So yes, the project is about interpreting mediated Mental Health Act assessments.

00:12:36 Prof Alys Young

But it's all, so hopefully a way for people to be thinking, actually there's other contexts and other topics that could be addressed by people from very different sides of the academic and professional world coming together to explore a question together.

00:12:53 Tim

For me, as a practitioner, it shows how we should be engaged with all of our clients, all of the stakeholders, all the communities that we're serving to find out their perspectives and their needs, rather than focusing on language but rather their goals and intention of what the discussion the dialogue is about.

00:13:15 Tim

How many researchers worked on this and, and what were their backgrounds.

00:13:20 Prof Alys Young

So, there were six of us who worked on this, and I'm at that stage in my career where I enjoy the privilege of only working with people I like or people I think are interesting.

00:13:31 Prof Alys Young

And so, because I knew this, grant was focused both around practice but also around, you know, making a change, making an impact that led me to think, OK, who else needs to be here? So, Jemina Napier and I've worked together on a number of projects. We like working together and we're, we're both good at what we do. So that was great.

00:13:52 Prof Alys Young

I then thought OK, I need another social worker involved in this.

00:13:56 Prof Alys Young

And I was fortunate enough to have been the doctoral supervisor for Sarah Vicary, who's a professor of mental health social work at a different university from mine. So, I contacted her and said, hey, do you want to join in? And then I thought, I need a spoken language interpreter specialist.

00:14:16 Prof Alys Young

And the spoken language interpreter specialist preferably needed to come from my university because we needed somebody else from the University of Manchester. So, I rang up someone who I knew about but had never met. And I sort of interviewed them over the phone and thought I like how she talks.

00:14:33 Prof Alys Young

She's got a really good background, so this was Rebecca Tipton. So, she's in the team. And then I thought, actually, if we're looking at spoken language and sign language. We also need a deaf academic involved in this project and another one of my doctoral students was Celia Hulme, who's just finished her PhD. Well, when the project started, just finished her PhD.

00:14:54 Prof Alys Young

And so she joined in as well. So that was the third person from Manchester, but a very important other perspective. And then Jemina said to me, hey, there's this great researcher who I was, her doctoral supervisor, who has researched and spoken language and mental health. And she's quite you know, again a bit like Celia's early stages of her career, why don't we bring her involved? And that was Natalia Rodriguez, Vicente. And so, we were the six.

00:15:24 Tim

The presentation was wonderful, and I think it shows that the collaboration you had gave some really wonderful results for all of us.

00:15:33 Prof Alys Young

Can I just add one more thing? I think interpreters as a profession are very good at describing themselves as practice professionals, and I very much respect that, and I understand that. I wonder the extent to which interpreters think of other people as practice professionals outside their profession, because that same momentum around trying to get people to understand the depth and complexity of what we do as practice professionals has been there for many years in social work.

00:16:02 Prof Alys Young

And I wonder how much conversation is going on between those two groups of practice professionals.

00:16:09 Tim

I like that perspective because many other researchers like Robyn Dean and so forth, have commented on the fact that we are a practice profession, but we haven't necessarily been teaching our interpreting students that's what we are and there are other practice professions that we can learn from.

00:16:27 Tim

Thank you for your experience here. I think it will help practitioners and those who might be interested to come to efsli next year.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:16:41 Tim

Reflections of efsli.

00:16:43 David Wolfenden & Tim joking around

Reflexes. Reflexivity. Reflexivity of efsli…

00:16:46 David Wolfenden

[almost sounding intoxicated] Reflexivity of of efsslii… It's very nice. Yeah, it's very good. Thank you very much.

00:16:52 Tim

That's one of our older interpreters, David Wolfenden, trying to drink his coffee at the same time. And you are?

00:16:59 Tabea

Tabea from Germany.

00:17:01 Tim

Wonderful.

00:17:01 David Wolfenden

Thank you very much. [Still being silly]

00:17:02 Tim

Bye. Thank you. Dave. Go back to your… chair. [being silly back to David]

00:17:06 Tim

Tabea wonderful. So how many times have you been to an eff-li, effly,, ef ef, bluh, bluh, buh buh? [Having trouble speaking] How many times have you been to an efsli conference?

00:17:15 Tabea

About 12 times.

00:17:17 Tim

Wonderful. And how do you feel it is this year compared to the experiences you've had in the past?

00:17:24 Tabea

It is very valuable because the topic is more applicable than another year, so I've really enjoyed being here and taking something back about improving the sustainability of our profession and gaining more information about that that was very, very valuable. More, more hands on than other years.

00:17:42 Tim

I agree. Thank you.

00:17:44 Tabea

Pleasure to be here. [giggles]

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC STARTS]

00:17:50 Tim

Efsli, this year was a lot of laughs, a lot of fun, a lot of talking, a lot of camaraderie. It's great to hear from each of these friends and colleagues To see perspectives of those who have come regularly to efsli and those who have only seen efsli once or twice.

00:18:10 Tim

What do we get from all of these short little interviews?

00:18:14 Tim

I heard colleagues excited about the profession, excited to learn, to share, and to feel that connection of community, the interpreting community, not individuals stuck in their own work, but coming together, mutually understanding what we all need to work and strive for.

00:18:35 Tim

And it was wonderful to hear the professor tell about her perspective as a non-sign language interpreter, how she saw us committed and driven to work together, not worrying about each person's status, but knowing that we are all working together as a community, striving for improving the practice of our profession. For me, that's encouraging. And it's encouraging to see others coming together, communicating as one.

00:19:09 Tim

So next week, we'll hear a little bit more from efsli, a few more laughs, a little bit of research and a lot of fun. Until then, keep calm, keep the interpreting excitement growing, blossoming, blooming. I'll see you next week. Take care now.

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC ENDS AT 00:20:04]