Interpreter's Workshop with Tim Curry

IW 136: Interview Sharon N-Solow Part 3: Balance - Domestic Goddess AND International Jet-Setter

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Life balance? First, we need to find the center of gravity to put the fulcrum.

Sharon Neumann Solow shares more about how her new book Powerful Interpreting: Build Your Skills in 5 Steps, can develop the skills we need to strengthen. From students to experienced interpreters can be supported in their practice by just trying to focus on the 5 areas laid out in Sharon's book.

But more importantly, she shares her personal story throughout the 60 years of her professional career. Let's take a few lessons from her happy example.

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IW 136: Interview Sharon N-Solow Part 3: Balance - Domestic Goddess AND International Jet-Setter

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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]

00:00:34 Tim

And now the quotes of the day, the first by Audrey Hepburn, British actress, “The most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy. It's all that matters.”

00:00:48 Tim

And the second by Mother Teresa, “Be happy in the moment. That's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”

00:00:58 Tim

Today's episode we finish our interview with Sharon Neumann Solow talking a little more about her book Powerful Interpreting: Build Your Skills in 5 Steps and how practical it is for those of us in the sign language interpreting practice profession.

00:01:17 Tim

She shares the personal side of her life story.

00:01:20 Tim

How this practice profession and life itself makes her happy and sharing that happiness with us.

00:01:29 Tim

Sharing the passion for the profession, helping us take that extra step forward.

00:01:35 Tim

In fact, those five steps, according to her book, to improve our practice, is one of the joys we have by knowing Sharon Neumann Solow, let's get started.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:01:51 Tim

Yes, off topic.

00:01:52 Tim

It's interesting that you say interactive interpreting. When I was writing the curriculum for this program here, I wanted to get away from people thinking that's the ultimate interpreting mode is simultaneous.

00:02:04 Tim

I wanted to consider the fact that we can go kind of on a spectrum of consecutive and simultaneous because we do.

00:02:12 Tim

So, I called it interactive interpreting.

00:02:14 Tim

I would be very curious to see how you created that model, because in my head it was this spectrum going from a longer processing time to a shorter processing time because you have to work with how the discourse is moving.

00:02:29 Sharon

Our definition of interactive interpreting is more simple.

00:02:34 Sharon

And it's about the fact that people are talking both parties or more than one party is interacting, whereas in monologic interpreting we tend to have a speaker in front of the room one way.

00:02:49 Sharon

But I can see how that would be a different form of interaction. [slight laugh]

[SHORT TRANISITION MUSIC]

00:02:57 Tim

So, this book called…?

00:02:59 Sharon

Powerful Interpreting: Build Your Skills in Five Steps.

00:03:04 Tim

This would be more for those who are practicing interpreters or for students as well.

00:03:11 Sharon

It's for students as well as people who are already interpreters.

00:03:15 Sharon

I developed it for working interpreters to up their skills to increase their skills, [Tim: mm-hmm] but…

00:03:23 Sharon

These kind people who were reading my chapters were saying no, no, this is this is very useful for students as well.

00:03:32 Sharon

Obviously, you would have to have some understanding of the interpreting process.

00:03:38 Sharon

I’m imagining that would be…

00:03:40 Sharon

I don't know if it would be requisite, but it would probably be appropriate to use the book a little later in their education, not when they're just starting to learn what interpreting is. But, but I suspect it might set them on the, on a healthy path.

00:03:55 Sharon

So, maybe it would be OK.

00:03:57 Sharon

I haven't given that piece enough thought. I will though, because that's sort of a new thought when, when my colleagues said it would be good for students…

00:04:08 Sharon

More than one of them said it would be good for students. I thought, well, OK, I'm going to take your word for it. 'cause you teach in programs with actual interpreting students.

00:04:18 Sharon

I teach workshops, so of course that's how I envisioned it. I haven't taught university coursework for decades. I did for many, for a long, long time.

00:04:27 Sharon

But I haven't done it for decades.

00:04:30 Tim

Yeah, I can see this working definitely for students.

00:04:34 Tim

Students are always hungry for something, but what can I do right now?

00:04:38 Tim

I, I the theory or I understand the model, but how does that really apply?

00:04:43 Tim

I think this book sets them on that track to make more powerful interpreting work.

00:04:50 Sharon

My theory with this material…

00:04:53 Sharon

As in the workshop form and now in the book form I hope is similar is that it helps people work on whatever it is that they want to work on, but in a very practical, very immediate way.

00:05:07 Sharon

And so, it's not as step by step, even though the title is steps, but you know you don't have to have completed something to get to one of these five things you can get right to the one thing, the one step and move forward with that. You can develop your memory without having to work on everything else in interpreting.

00:05:28 Sharon

You can develop your memory. You can work on it.

00:05:32 Sharon

You can think about and focus on transitions, think about cohesion. Think about the markers that indicate cohesion or transitions. You know, that kind of thing.

00:05:45 Sharon

It's segmentable if that's the right word, you can break it apart, but at the same time it's, it's a very holistic approach to how we work.

00:05:55 Sharon

And, and over and over again, it has struck me that it is simply another path to conscious and deliberate work.

00:06:04 Sharon

The fact is, sometimes we get habituated, like my colleague that I was talking about who thought maybe she didn't have to do detail. We get habitual to certain ways of approaching the work, and hopefully these five steps help us wake up again to the fact that we have to think about everything we do every time we interpret.

00:06:29 Sharon

“There is no dialing it in.”

00:06:32 Sharon

There is no “phoning it in” or whatever they call it. You, you have to do the work.

00:06:38 Sharon

And it's delicious to do it.

00:06:39 Sharon

[It] keeps us alert and awake and engaged and excited and like I always brag that I think I'm the luckiest person because I've been doing this professionally, interpreting for 60 years.

00:06:53 Sharon

And I wake up excited every day.

00:06:55 Sharon

Every single day I wake up excited.

00:06:58 Sharon

I go to work excited; I finish working and I'm excited.

00:07:01 Sharon

I have notes. I have thoughts.

00:07:04 Sharon

And that's in great measure because I work deliberately and consciously because there was a time in my life when I didn’t, and I was bored.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:07:20 Tim

I would like to leave this interview with more personal note. You've been working and having a passion for this profession for 60 years, training and teaching us, working with us, and having the opportunity to see so many pioneers.

00:07:36 Tim

So many new pioneers as well.

00:07:38 Tim

What about your family?

00:07:40 Tim

How were they with you along the way?

00:07:43 Sharon

Oh wow. Well.

00:07:46 Sharon

It's funny because I don't know why this popped into my mind when you said that, but when my son's second grade teacher and I were chatting at school one day, so that was in this very busy time when I was traveling and…

00:08:01 Sharon

Also, being a mom and all that and I was helping with some school project and she looked at me and she said, “Oh, my Lord, you're either a Domestic Goddess or an international jet setter.” [both laughing]

00:08:17 Sharon

I laughed because I, I did really, really focus on my children and I wanted to be a good mom and I, I wanted to be a part of their, their lives.

00:08:31 Sharon

So, I spent a lot of time doing things, but now I have grandchildren and I, I, I'm with them a lot. But I also work a lot.

00:08:41 Sharon

I guess I don't sleep. [Tim chuckling]

00:08:43 Sharon

But my, my lifelong dream has always been to be the best mom I could be.

00:08:51 Sharon

The best grandma I can be.

00:08:52 Sharon

The best wife, best friend, best relative, whatever.

00:08:58 Sharon

But also, to be really the best professional human being I can be. And, and I don't know. You know, people talk about work-life balance and all that kind of stuff, and I don't understand it, but I feel like I've been blessed to have it somehow.

00:09:14 Sharon

On the other hand, I was telling someone just yesterday or the day before that my family will have conversations about some experience, like a family reunion with my husband, side of the family.

00:09:27 Sharon

And they'll be like, remember, blah blah blah.

00:09:28 Sharon

I'll be like, “No, I don't remember.”

00:09:30 Sharon

And then my husband will go, “Well, you weren't there.”

00:09:34 Sharon

I, I did miss a lot of things. I don't feel like I missed. You know, I don't have a gap in my heart. Like something… It was important, but I, I went to everything I could, and I missed things, but I missed things for very good reasons.

00:09:50 Sharon

One of my biggest lifelong regrets has been that a friend of mine was nervous about giving her husband a big birthday party, and I said, “Oh, I'll be there. I'll help you.” And then I got this fabulous gig where I was going to go teach somewhere exciting.

00:10:05 Sharon

And I said, “Oh, I, I have to... I'm so sorry. I have to go. I have to take this gig. It's just too great.” [Tim: mm-hmm] And it was too. You couldn't move it around.

00:10:18 Sharon

Usually I can move things around, which is the glory of our work. [Tim: mm-hmm]

00:10:22 Sharon

But I couldn't move it and she understood.

00:10:24 Sharon

I felt that...

00:10:25 Sharon

I felt like… 

00:10:26 Sharon

I rarely go back on a promise, rarely.

00:10:29 Sharon

First of all, I don't promise very often because look at the life I live. I never have…

00:10:33 Sharon

I never know what I'm doing.

00:10:35 Sharon

We started this interview late because I was interpreting for something, and they didn't finish on time.

00:10:41 Sharon

Life is like that in my world and in our world.

00:10:45 Sharon

But I, I don't know exactly if I'm answering your question, but I think the bottom line is I love my life and loving my life is, in my opinion, a gift to my children. It is.

00:10:57 Sharon

You know, I, I think.

00:11:00 Sharon

When I, if I feel like I'm sacrificing and I feel like I can't be who I am, and this is who I am, I would be unhappy and then I wouldn't be a good parent, wouldn't be a good grandparent.

00:11:13 Sharon

I wouldn't be a good role model, so I, I dream…

00:11:17 Sharon

I hope that I will someday be the shining example that they can look at and say, oh, that's an OK way to be.

00:11:26 Sharon

And she loved me, you know.

00:11:28 Sharon

I'll tell you my one great skill in life. You want to hear it? [Tim: Oh, yeah.]

00:11:32 Sharon

I am a “lovey” kind of a gal.

00:11:35 Sharon

[chuckles] That's what my friend's daughter said. She goes, “That Sharon, she's a lovey kind of a person.” But I, I am. The one thing I, I feel so great about is that my parents modelled and gave me such loving, loving communication.

00:11:54 Sharon

They communicated such love, and I think I'm pretty good at that too. I just…

00:11:58 Sharon

First of all, I genuinely love people.

00:12:02 Sharon

I love people.

00:12:04 Sharon

And you know, don't get on my bad list because I'm also the other way as well. [chuckling]

00:12:09 Sharon

But in general, I love people. And I express it easily because it's something I genuinely feel, and I, and I love about myself.

00:12:20 Sharon

But as a person who's trying to do everything to be a professional and a personal success, I feel like… Oh! I know my other big power. You want to hear my other big power?

00:12:32 Tim

Of course.

00:12:34 Sharon

I, I am a happy imperfectionist.

00:12:37 Sharon

I do not try to be perfect.

00:12:41 Sharon

I try very hard to do my best, but I really accept imperfection. [both laughing]

00:12:48 Sharon

Love and imperfection.

00:12:50 Sharon

Those are the guiding lights in my life. [laughing]

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC STARTS]

00:12:55 Tim

Share the happiness. Share the passion.

00:12:58 Tim

Share a coffee or two to support this show.

00:13:01 Tim

Share the podcast. Sharing is caring.

00:13:04 Tim

Just click on the links in the show notes and you'll see where to share everything. Thank you.

00:13:10 Tim

Now let's go back.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC ENDS]

00:13:11 Tim

Where did your husband lie in your life during this professional and personal journey?

00:13:19 Sharon

Ah, well, I met my husband in college, and we met when he had already registered (but I didn't know it and he didn't know it) for the free class I was teaching for the free College in ASL, but he'd already signed up for it.

00:13:40 Sharon

Just met common pick up at lunch.

00:13:42 Sharon

And umm…

00:13:45 Sharon

He was learning sign lang-…

00:13:46 Sharon

My husband's an audiologist. [Tim: ahh] And he was learning sign language because he thought that would be important for his work.

00:13:54 Sharon

His professors disagreed.

00:13:56 Sharon

He persevered, but he was not supported in that decision by his professors. He was unique in his time to be an a fluent ASL signer who was an audiologist.

00:14:11 Sharon

But I was also, you know, just by my time, my age, my time was the women's Lib Era, women's liberation era, where suddenly women were viewed, were trying to be viewed as equal.

00:14:28 Sharon

And, and all that…

00:14:29 Sharon

And I was blessed to be married to a man who was very much in favor of women being, being viewed as equal.

00:14:39 Sharon

He had no problem sharing the light with me, you know, he, he wasn't one of those. And in my era and maybe even now when some men were very challenged by a wife who was doing productive things and getting some attention.

00:14:59 Sharon

My husband was the opposite.

00:15:00 Sharon

He was my cheerleader.

00:15:02 Sharon

He was very, he still is, very, very supportive.

00:15:07 Sharon

And his approach to life in general has always been this kind of, you know, supportive loving, you know, little bit nosy little bit nosy. He's always got an opinion about everything.

00:15:24 Sharon

But, but it’s delicious support.

00:15:26 Sharon

And he also was a very active involved parent which in our generation wasn't so common, so uncommon, that he was at an event with the kids and, and somebody said to him, oh, you're babysitting the children today. And he said, well, no, I'm their parent, I'm parenting. [Tim laughing]

00:15:51 Sharon

That's how uncommon it was that they called it babysitting when the dad did it.

00:15:57 Sharon

We also had this incredible gift, which was a woman who, umm, she was a little younger than we were.

00:16:05 Sharon

She was here from El Salvador.

00:16:08 Sharon

She spoke only Spanish and, umm, …

00:16:12 Sharon

My mother-in-law encouraged us to hire her to be our housekeeper-nanny, you know, to help. Because I was working full time and my husband was too.

00:16:23 Sharon

Well, he was working less than I was when the kids were really little.

00:16:26 Sharon

He was the more stay at home parent.

00:16:29 Sharon

But her name is Myriam. And Myriam has been with us since my daughter was three months old.

00:16:37 Sharon

On and off because she went off and had a life and then came back, you know, had her kids. And but her kids are like our grandkids or something. And our kids are like her children. And our grandchildren are like her grandchildren. So, she has been the gift that has allowed me to feel serene about being away.

00:16:59 Sharon

My parents…

00:17:00 Sharon

My parents were deaf.

00:17:02 Sharon

My parents, she didn't drive, for a long time.

00:17:06 Sharon

She does now, but she didn't and my parents would come out when I had a long trip.

00:17:12 Sharon

And they would be parental [Tim: mm-hmm] for my kids as well and driving and all that.

00:17:18 Sharon

So, my children had five adults [Tim: Oh!] in their lives pretty consistently.

00:17:24 Sharon

Parents, Larry, and I and then Myriam…

00:17:27 Sharon

So, they had five adults.

00:17:29 Sharon

Two little kids, they felt over parented. I felt very secure. [both laugh]

00:17:38 Sharon

Larry was never the kind of guy who would be resentful about taking on parental duties. You know, in fact, I said to him one day I just love the way we parent because we would fight over who got to change the diaper. [Tim chuckles]

00:17:51 Sharon

And I mean…

00:17:52 Sharon

We wanted to, you know, we wanted to be the one who fed the baby, who, who took the kid to school, who did the thing, you know, even to this day, we don't…

00:18:03 Sharon

We, we love our grandparenting jobs.

00:18:06 Sharon

And we share them, but we also are very happy to take it on.

00:18:11 Sharon

So, I think that's a piece of why it all worked for me so beautifully.

00:18:16 Tim

You talked about work and life balance, but when you have a balanced relationship, it seems to work out.

00:18:23 Sharon

Oh.

00:18:24 Tim

At least it did for you.

00:18:25 Sharon

Huge. Huge.

00:18:26 Tim

Yeah, yeah.

00:18:28 Sharon

He also, you know, he knows about the work because he took sign language courses and interpreting courses, because that's all there was back then.

00:18:35 Sharon

You took ASL1, ASL2, Interpreting 1, Interpreting 2, that's, that was how sign language in the old days. [chuckles]

00:18:44 Sharon

But he understands so much of what we do.

00:18:47 Sharon

And then he always says, well, I had parents-in-law who are deaf. You know.

00:18:50 Sharon

And so, he had that [Tim: mm-hmm] his whole adult life. My parents were a big part of our lives.

00:18:56 Sharon

They lived with us on and off all year long until their deaths. And so, the kids had that. Larry had that.

00:19:05 Sharon

I had that.

00:19:05 Sharon

It was yummy.

00:19:07 Tim

Well, and now we listening, all have that too.

00:19:11 Tim

A little part, thank you for sharing and giving us so much. And thank you for giving us another book, hopefully more and more people will hear this and learn about the story behind the books.

00:19:23 Tim

Thank you.

00:19:25 Sharon

Thank you.

00:19:25 Sharon

What a treat to talk to you again.

00:19:27 Sharon

It's always a delight.

00:19:29 Tim

We will do again, I'm sure have to meet in Italy.

00:19:33 Sharon

That's right.

00:19:34 Sharon

That's right.

00:19:35 Sharon

Or in Prague. [chuckling]

00:19:37 Tim

Or in Prague!

00:19:37 Tim

Yeah, I think there might be an occasion for that to happen.

00:19:43 Tim

Thank you so much.

00:19:45 Sharon

Thank you, very, very much.

00:19:47 Sharon

It's been a delight.

00:19:48 Sharon

Talk to you soon, I hope.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC STARTS]

00:19:54 Tim

Another wonderful conversation with Sharon Neumann Solow.

00:19:59 Tim

I didn't realize we were going to learn about a new interpreting model, but now we have a new one and it's inside her new book, Powerful Interpreting: Build Your Skills in Five Steps.

00:20:09 Tim

But in order to know what this new interpreting model is, the interactive interpreting model, you need, Sharon's new book Powerful Interpreting: Build Your Skills in Five Steps.

00:20:25 Tim

This book is for someone who is starting the journey of interpreting, who understands what interpreting is but hasn't quite mastered it, which means it also goes for those of us who are experienced and need to work on some of the habits that we have.

00:20:42 Tim

The five steps are not chronological building on each other, but rather working together. A practical resource for our practice.

00:20:54 Tim

What a great thing.

00:20:55 Tim

We have heard a wonderful personal story of her life. 60 years of interpreting and she's still going strong. Some of the lessons we can take from that is to be happy, to share the happiness.

00:21:10 Tim

Be passionate about what you do and share that passion with others.

00:21:15 Tim

Enjoy the intrigue, the mystery behind what we do.

00:21:20 Tim

Smile and be happy that we are given a gift to do what we do.

00:21:26 Tim

And when we give the happiness to others, the happiness in us just grows even more.

00:21:33 Tim

So, live in the moment.

00:21:34 Tim

Share the happiness and share the moment with those around you.

00:21:40 Tim

Thank you again Sharon for sharing with us.

00:21:43 Tim

Until next time…

00:21:45 Tim

Well, until next year, keep calm.

00:21:50 Tim

Keep happily interpreting.

00:21:53 Tim

I'll see you next week. Take care now.

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC ENDS AT 00:22:32]

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