Interpreters and Voicing

I think it is the lack of ability to translate from language #2 that's not your native language back to your language #1 which is your native language.
It is not for the hearing interpreters only-- it applies to all other people who attempt to interpret between two languages.

For example, the Deaf people who use ASL as their language #1 have a great difficulty to express into language #2 (e.g. English)...

I have learned this as I attended a CDI-Hearing Interpreter Relay Team workshop and it was a HELL for me to ... interpret to the hearing interpreter in PSE/SEE order from the Deaf client who was signing pure ASL. Why? Because PSE/English is not my first language yet I was praised for being "beautifully fluent" when I interpreted PSE to pure ASL to the deaf client which is my language.

So it is all about our flaw to rearrange the language #2 into language #1... simple as that. Prehaps there should be training or more courses to flex our brain to get accustomed switching between language #1 and #2.

Eek, hope I do make sense.
While y'all figure out what point I am making, I will ask my husband his reason to believe what is the problem at question in regards the unskilled interpreter in the area of Sign-To-Voice.


[EDITED:]
Etiole has already discussed about this issue I mentioned. D'oh me for not reading the whole thread.
 
Well I think that interpreters probably are not used to or not trained-well or probably felt pressure from all audience. Sometimes I signed too quickly for interpreters to read me. I remembered one time when I want to ask Professor a question, I would tell my interpreter what I was about to ask him/her. So the interpreter will be prepared.

Most all interpreters used to have students looking directly at him/her while signing, but when I'm referring that question to teachers. I would like to have eye contact with teacher, not interpreter. Sometimes it's hard. I had to look at interpreter to make sure that he/she understands me. I don't want to make Professor feel that he/she can't get close or ask me because of interpreter.
 
Demise said:
I remembered one time when I want to ask Professor a question, I would tell my interpreter what I was about to ask him/her. So the interpreter will be prepared.
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That's always nice when a student goes to that much trouble. It makes it a lot easier if I have to clarify the question before voicing it so that I'm not having to manage all of that while voicing at the same time. Of course I don't expect students to do that but I bet your interpreter appreciated it.

Demise said:
Most all interpreters used to have students looking directly at him/her while signing, but when I'm referring that question to teachers. I would like to have eye contact with teacher, not interpreter.
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Actually, I personally prefer it your way. It makes it so much easier for me to know if the student is asking me, the interpreter, something, or if it's being directed at the teacher. You're right, mostly the students do look at me when asking a question and I almost always have to ask whether they are directing their question to the teacher. I had one student who would always raise her hand and look right at the teacher when asking questions and look at me when asking for interpreting clarification, and it was very helpful. Plus, as you say, it's a good clue to the teacher that she should talk back to the student, not the interpreter, and make that connection with the student. I don't think the teacher in that class ever made the mistake of talking to me or saying "Tell her..."
 
Ugh... Voicing. I'm an uncertified terp right now (although, I passed the new RID-NAD Written Test of Knowledge 1 yr ago... YAY!). I've been working as a provisional interpreter for the past year through a local agency. Now, to answer your question...

Many d/Deaf clients that I have had the pleasure of interpreting for use their voices. So, I normally only sign during an assignment.

During my interpreting training program, we only have 1 SIgn-to-Voice class. Definitely not enough practice before getting out into the "Real World".

Stage Fright. Yes, yes, and yes. It is difficult (for me at least) to continuously speak over a client's signs. Processing their information and putting it out in voice, while STILL taking in the message from the Deaf consumer is difficult.

As my dad always tells me when I feel like I did a bad job, "If interpreting were easy, everyone would be an interpreter."

So true.
 
Great to hear from another terp, Miabeth! You're absolutely right that there is nowhere near enough training for voicing in most ITP's. Like all skills related to interpreting, it is best learned by doing, but if one doesn't get enough practice before being thrown into the "real world" it can be very difficult gaining the necessary confidence.

In fact, I think that's a lot of what's involved with voicing - self-confidence. We must sound comfortable when voicing, and even if we're understanding perfectly, if we're not sure of our skills it will be very difficult to put it out there with the appropriate register.
 
In the field of interpreting (not just sign language), interpreters usually work from their SECOND language into their NATIVE language. The reason being that one has a larger vocabulary file in their native language than their second, making it easier to produce an equivalent message.

There are a lot of factors that go into ASL-to-English interpreting ("voicing" is interpreter jargon that doesn't really mean anything to non-interpreters).

One difficult piece is that ASL is a spatial language and English is linear. Meaning that ASL can take advantage of space and convey more than one concept at a time. English can only express one concept at a time, thus it takes more time to say something in English than it does ASL. On the other hand, ASL is a high-context langauge and English is a low-context language. This means that sometimes an interpreter has to be more narrative in ASL than English and sometimes THAT takes longer.

Also I think many interpreters are not TRULY bilingual. Some, I think, are even more like parrots. They can mimic ASL and copy what they've seen, but don't have an adequate understanding of ASL to really be able to interpret bidrectionally.
 
That is a perfect response, HoHGuyOhio. It's a catch-22. Many interpreters are not TRULY bilingual, but to become truly bilingual AND be a proficiant interpreter, it takes years of study, AND experience in the "real" world. We must to do actual interpreting (in my opinion) in order to better ourselves, learn and improve, but while we are "learning on the job", our 'continued education' is affecting more people then just ourselves. Whew. There's much work to be done!

:)
 
HoHGuyOhio said:
In the field of interpreting (not just sign language), interpreters usually work from their SECOND language into their NATIVE language. The reason being that one has a larger vocabulary file in their native language than their second, making it easier to produce an equivalent message.
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Slightly OT here considering we are talking about terps and voicing, but realize that most ASL/English terps do most of their terping into ASL, which is most terps second language! This produces lower quality interpretations than if people are translating into their native language generally. Really, from what I have been taught and is logically true--- non-native signers that are interpreters actually voice better than they sign! (Scary thought)... For those who don't believe that, this about this, we can hear ourselves voicing and get immediate feedback, but with signing we can't- many times new interpreters end up signing "all the words" but the meaning doesn't get conveyed...
 
HoHGuyOhio said:
One difficult piece is that ASL is a spatial language and English is linear. Meaning that ASL can take advantage of space and convey more than one concept at a time. English can only express one concept at a time, thus it takes more time to say something in English than it does ASL. On the other hand, ASL is a high-context langauge and English is a low-context language. This means that sometimes an interpreter has to be more narrative in ASL than English and sometimes THAT takes longer.
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TOTALLY...Two words...Processing time (a kind word for lag time)...Many times we allow ourselves the lag time when interpreting from English to ASL--- this comes with experience, and also, to be blunt, the idea that we need to process and make sure we put the ideas into terms we think the particular deaf client can understand. Sometimes extra explanations are needed, or just extra expansions or visual explanations to make the signing look like more natural ASL...
With voicing, many terps have this need to be right on top of the speaker, they are so worried about missing something on the receiving end that they often don't think about what they are putting out. HohGuyOhio said most of it, but also remember there are things that a deaf person may talk about not understood in hearing culture. Think about signs like "institute" or "oral school." Really though, the biggest thing most terps need to do is relax and allow the lag time, and it should come.

HoHGuyOhio said:
Also I think many interpreters are not TRULY bilingual. Some, I think, are even more like parrots. They can mimic ASL and copy what they've seen, but don't have an adequate understanding of ASL to really be able to interpret bidrectionally.
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Hohguy, I think you are giving interpreters the benefit of the doubt by saying that most interpreters can mimic ASL. Many interpreters don't have the ability to accurately sign ASL. The best thing for that though, of course, is just involvement with the deaf community. Nobody can truly be a good terp without fluency in the both languages involved in communication, and no terp can be truly fluent in a language without exposure to that language from native speakers!
 
Reading the signs

i too have seen the problem abt interpreters with the voicing. I leanred signs by the deaf and all my asl is all learned from the deaf. The deaf dont have english words for everything they sign (im sure we as interpreters have noticed this) The deaf when they explain the meaning of a sign they use examples. This is too what i have faced is that finding the english for their asl. i think it just comes with practice and time. I have gotten better at it and have learned more of the english. But still have problems
 
Wow!! This is such a neat discussion. I am an amateur at ASL maybe ASL III now. I have been involved with ASL for 6 months now. I am proficient in PSE however but really love ASL so much better. Well my receptive skills are getting pretty decent which prior to joining my ASL deaf Group since February, my receptive skills sucked. I learned how to interpret Voice to Sign but never associated with deaf enough to brush up my receptive. When I watch my ASL videos, I think in my head each concept so the words in my head are in ASL syntax I haven't quite learned how to put ASL into english grammatical order while someone is signing. For example:" Your car true biz old. Still run? Wow surprise. My first car continue run 10 years happen head gasket broke." That is as far as I can voice. I need to be able to transliterate it into english. "Wow I can't believe your car still runs it's so old. My first car only ran for 10 years because it blew a head gasket." Well what does one expect I am a newbie at ASL. But plan to work very hard and in a few years I will laugh at what I just wrote. :)
 
timmie said:
I have read that normal progression is that sign production develops sooner that sign reception. But, in the real world, if you understand the client, you should be able to put that into the English language without standing there open mouthed. Is it perhaps they take a little longer to process the message than you are used to?

I agree about the lack of socialization. I have learned a lot from being exposed to different people with their different and localized signing.

In my humble opinion, if the terp (myself included) doesnt understand, then should ask the client to clarify or repeat. Its sometimes embarassing but has to be done, thats what I do.....

Still Learning..............
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I totally agree with this, I always feel silly and just really ignorant when I sign around other deaf people other than my girlfriend. I feel like for somereason they wont understnd what I am saying. Its so much easier for me to sign, rather than to understand whats being signed. Also I dont speak when I sign so I can see where that would be a problem.
 
I would say that it has a lot to do with the fact that one language is visual and the other is auditory/oral, and their syntax, concept, and often pragmatics are different. I find that I can communicate in ASL on a didactic level and never put anything into a voiced English order much easier than I can communicate in ASL, and then interpret into English. I understand sign on a different cognitive level than English, and the process of converting from one cognitive process to another takes a minute or two. Also, because ASL is not word for word sign translation of English, it may nature requires a delay before voicing what has been signed. You must watch the sign long enough to get the concept, then start interpreting, and in the meantime, you are attempting to hold onto what is continuing to be signed. If you start to voice too soon, you will often need to back up and correct a mistake in concept. That appears to be a dysfluency in the voicing.
 
hmmm....

Reba said:
2. lack of exposure to a variety of Deaf signers (people sign differently; young and old, black and white, male and female, Yankee and Southerner, residential and mainstreamed, lazy and precise, etc.); this is where socialization is important
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Speaking as one still learning with the possibility of becoming certified, reception was very difficult for me to learn. I could speak ASL fine but understanding it was difficult. Now, when I am occassionally asked to voice for my husband or a friend, not only do I have to understand their "dialect" (as Reba pointed out above) but then I have to turn that back into a full english sentance and I have found that English translates to ASL a lot more easily than ASL translates into English. When you translate English to ASL you are (generally speaking) condensing. When you translate ASL back to English ( and again remember this is my elementary view) you have to search for the words to "fill in." Add to that that you have to convey the proper emotion. In my opinion, ASL-English is much more difficult.
 
hearing_wife said:
When you translate English to ASL you are (generally speaking) condensing. When you translate ASL back to English ( and again remember this is my elementary view) you have to search for the words to "fill in."
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It's interesting that you say this. ASL is actually considered a high-context language, while English is a low-context language. People speaking ASL tell a lot more detail than people speaking English do. If you've read the book So You Want to Be an Interpreter I am pretty sure this is covered in there; it's fascinating if you are interested in linguistics. Japanese is another high-context language.
 
I know alot of interpreters in my area have trouble with the receptive portion of interpreting. From what I've gathered in watching them they seem to try and interpret "sign to sign". Especially with ASL I try to tell them to get the "big picture" and make sure they understand what is being thrown their way. For many, receptive is way more difficult than interpretive.
 
ayala920 said:
I discussed this topic very briefly with some fellow interpreters (one nationally certified, the other regionally certified, and myself, not certified), and we couldn't come up with an answer. So I propose this question to you brilliant folks here at AD, in the hopes that someone can come up with a semi-intellectual rationale:

Why is it that many interpreters seem to have such an incredibly hard time voicing for their deaf clients/consumers/students? Is it lack of training? Are interpreters taught to be more expressive than receptive? Perhaps it's lack of socialization within the Deaf community? I'm very curious as to why it is so many interpreters produce beautiful ASL, but stand open-mouthed when it comes time to voice what someone has signed.

I'd be curious to hear responses from the consumer side as well. I only ask that you refrain from turning this into an, "Interpreters suck at life, that's why many can't voice well" argument.
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I have read some of the other replies to this question and I think there might be a misunderstanding. I understand this question to be a challenge that interpreters encounter when working from ASL to English. Am I understanding this correctly? If so, I believe that not a lot of emphasis is placed on voicing in the training programs, obviously there is some also, depending on the settings one typically works, there may not be a lot of opportunities to voice (education, religion...)
 
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