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Old 04-07-2008, 05:04 PM   #14 (permalink)
HoHGuyOhio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Interpretrator View Post
Now, in that situation, here's how I would probably handle it. I would probably fingerspell the word and see if the client nodded or showed any sign of understanding. If not, I would segue into sign-supported fingerspelling and do an expansion on "colonoscopy." If at that point the client clearly doesn't understand, unless it's due to my signing, that is not my responsibility. At that point I agree it's up to the client to ask the doctor what it means. Then I can hopefully interpret the doctor's explanation in more depth.

Remember, interpreters don't get much of a chance normally to know all about your linguistic and other knowledge, unless we've worked with you before. So don't take expansion as an insult; it's something we're trained to do when we run up against things like technical jargon.
Good insight; that's how I typically handle those situations.

And expansion should never be looked upon as an insult to the deaf/hoh consumer's intelligence or linguistic competencies. It's a function of interpreting from between English and ASL (not so much English to a signed form of English). The problem is transliterating is usually (incorrectly) called interpreting, so not many people understand the distinction.
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