For my last cultural artifact of the semester, I dug into how someone can become an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. As the child of two Korean immigrants, I’ve been around many interpreters, and even attempted to interpret for my parents, whether it was for a doctor’s appointment, school teacher conferences, or just general conversations. Because of this, I’ve appreciated all the interpreters and sat in on appointments just to learn from how they interacted with the people. From those short meetings, I learned a couple of important keys. First and foremost, I learned that interpreters must fully understand the meanings and intentions of both sides they are communicating for. They also have to do a good job in expressing the emotions. Lastly, they must be prepared for pretty much anything. When I “interpret” for my parents, I know exactly what situation they are referring to and can communicate easily. On the other hand, for interpreters, it is their job to help people communicate with others, but they also work with many different people and may not fully know the context of the situation for everyone. They have to be able to work quickly and efficiently to do this.
I also chose this topic because during one of our sessions, Reba told me that she was the sign language interpreter at her church! I thought it was really cool and asked her to someday share a story from the Bible (we did not do it this semester, but I still hope I get the chance in the future). After some research, I found that to become a sign language interpreter (SLI), many work towards receiving the Registry for the Interpreters of the Deaf (RID) certification and the National Interpreter Certification (NIC). Having a certification opens many great and challenging opportunities. If they feel passionate about a certain field or industry, SLIs can also obtain specialized certification in those areas to focus and broaden their skills on that topic.
Although there is an interpreter for many languages in the world, something that makes interpreting ASL unique is that the SLIs mainly use just their visual sense to obtain all of the information they need to interpret. While Korean-English interpreters listen for the information and read the person’s facial expression for the emotional aspect, SLIs must be able to complete the task all at once. This is one of the main things I found difficult when I first started because trying to match eye contact with the person while comprehending the signs was like an information overload. Just imagine, blinking too long or glancing away for a moment have the ability to break communication. SLIs actually do get tested on is their expressive and receptive signing, sign-to-voice, and their voice-to-sign skills.
I think SLIs and interpreters in general are such rewarding jobs because the results are immediate. They have the ability to relay a conversation between two sides despite the language barrier. Even though I probably won’t become an SLI anytime soon, it’s very interesting to think about!
https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/interpreting-american-sign-language/
Comments
Thank you for sharing! It is surprised to know that interpreters have to use gestures and body language to convey the emotions between the two parties. It definitely makes it a very tough yet rewarding jobs as it contains lots of difficulties during the process but also, as you said, the results are immediate.