Most challenging classes to interpret

[ayala920]

Endymion asked this question in a completely unrelated thread, and I found it intriguing, so I wanted to ask it here: What classes do you find are most difficult to interpret? Or if you don't interpret in the school system, which settings do you find are most difficult to interpret?

For those of you who are deaf/hoh... Which classes/settings do you feel are the most difficult to obtain quality interpreters?

Personally, I very much dislike interpreting English classes (this is high school level). Teachers who like to read passages from the book after he's told students to put their books away should be kicked very hard in the shins.

 

[me_punctured]

It would be frightfully difficult to obtain quality and competent interpreters for widely publicized and popular speakers, especially if they are affiliated with the academia or politics. Or the presentations themselves happen to be specialized. This can be a huge problem, because most interpreters are not familiar with the issues brought up, or do not have the sufficient vocabulary to match the speaker's language in ASL. (I would imagine that some listeners in the audience get lost or frustrated just from tryiing to understand the speeches.) I'll drop a few names here: Noam Chomsky, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward Said, Steven Pinker, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, George Lakoff, Harold Bloom, John Searle.

Once I heard Janet Reno speak at a university graduation ceremony in a huge Greek theater, and one of my classmates was part of the graduating class, so she arranged to have her top interpreters to accommodate her (and me from afar). That went very well, despite the scattered appalause and gloomy silence at her mentioning the Elian Gonzalez ordeal.

 

[me_punctured]

Personally, I very much dislike interpreting English classes (this is high school level). Teachers who like to read passages from the book after he's told students to put their books away should be kicked very hard in the shins.

You can rip off the teacher's book too.

Why do teachers do that? It doesn't make any logical sense, if the students cannot follow the passages by ear. They're... what, deaf?

 

[VamPyroX]

According to the interpreters that I've had, it isn't really the classes that are challenging. It's the teachers that are challenging. What's often most difficult is the accent that some teachers have as well as how fast they talk, how often they talk, how many long words they use, and how long they talk. I've seen some teachers who talk with a weird Hindu/British accent and really fast.

 

[ayala920]

According to the interpreters that I've had, it isn't really the classes that are challenging. It's the teachers that are challenging. What's often most difficult is the accent that some teachers have as well as how fast they talk, how often they talk, how many long words they use, and how long they talk. I've seen some teachers who talk with a weird Hindu/British accent and really fast.

You make a good point. I find right now the hardest class I'm interpreting is college algebra; not because of the material, because I'm actually pretty good at algebra, but because the teacher speaks at an abnormally fast pace. She asks questions and answer them herself before students even have a chance to raise their hands. It's a little bit unnerving, but I'm getting used to it.

 

[Interpretrator]

According to the interpreters that I've had, it isn't really the classes that are challenging. It's the teachers that are challenging.

Yeah, that is true. What can be easy with one teacher can be impossible with another.

Personally I have trouble with biology and chemistry classes. Not because of the material itself, but because of all the technical jargon. I've learned lots of signs for scientific terms but, like computer terms, it seems every student has their own way of signing this stuff, so it can be like learning a whole new vocabulary every class sometimes.

Art classes can be logistically difficult because the teachers like to demonstrate while facing their paper or a blackboard and lecturing, and sometimes this requires a lot of running around to make sure the student can see me and the teacher at the same time.

ESL classes are rough because most of them MUST be signed into exact English; for example, if they are learning the past perfect progressive tense ("he had been going"), you can't just sign it conceptually, you have to get every word across. If the student knows SEE it makes things a lot easier, but even so there is TONS of fingerspelling. English just doesn't fit neatly into ASL.

 

[ayala920]

You can rip off the teacher's book too.

Why do teachers do that? It doesn't make any logical sense, if the students cannot follow the passages by ear. They're... what, deaf?

I sort of thought that the teacher meeting with me at the beginning of the semester to find out what works and doesn't work would have made it clear that it's hard to interpret passages from books, but I guess not.

In addition to it being hard, it bores the students to death. Like watching an interpreted movie.

 

[Gemtun]

As a consumer, I saw that interpreters struggled in my Philosophy courses. I thought of majoring in Philosophy until I realized that I wasnt getting quality interpreting from my several interpreters. I think that most terps struggle with translating English into ASL during my Philosophy courses so I switched my major.

 

[ayala920]

As a consumer, I saw that interpreters struggled in my Philosophy courses. I thought of majoring in Philosophy until I realized that I wasnt getting quality interpreting from my several interpreters. I think that most terps struggle with translating English into ASL during my Philosophy courses so I switched my major.

I would imagine so. A friend of mine majored in philosophy, and I know his interpreters struggled.

However, there were also humourous moments, like when one of his interpreters signed "Play-doh" instead of "Plato." The interpreter quickly realized his mistake and corrected himself.

 

[ayala920]

It would be frightfully difficult to obtain quality and competent interpreters for widely publicized and popular speakers, especially if they are affiliated with the academia or politics. Or the presentations themselves happen to be specialized. This can be a huge problem, because most interpreters are not familiar with the issues brought up, or do not have the sufficient vocabulary to match the speaker's language in ASL. (I would imagine that some listeners in the audience get lost or frustrated just from tryiing to understand the speeches.) I'll drop a few names here: Noam Chomsky, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward Said, Steven Pinker, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, George Lakoff, Harold Bloom, John Searle.

Once I heard Janet Reno speak at a university graduation ceremony in a huge Greek theater, and one of my classmates was part of the graduating class, so she arranged to have her top interpreters to accommodate her (and me from afar). That went very well, despite the scattered appalause and gloomy silence at her mentioning the Elian Gonzalez ordeal.

I'll make sure I let you know how the interpreting for David Shipler goes.

 

[Gemtun]

I would imagine so. A friend of mine majored in philosophy, and I know his interpreters struggled.

However, there were also humourous moments, like when one of his interpreters signed "Play-doh" instead of "Plato." The interpreter quickly realized his mistake and corrected himself.

Exactly thats my point - its happened to me.

As a professional, I do struggle with finding a quality interpreter who can terp for me during meetings, etc.

I struggle most with medical terps these days - they dont get it so I end up writing notes or sending emails to my doctor these days because the medical terps I used made so many errors. Being a health professional, I recognized their mistakes quickly so I dont want my life to be in hands of terps who could screw it up for me period. It is my life, afterall.

 

[Interpretrator]

However, there were also humourous moments, like when one of his interpreters signed "Play-doh" instead of "Plato."

It's those moments that make me thank the powers that be for my patient and understanding clients. One time I was subbing in a chemistry class and the teacher was referring to some piece of equipment I can't remember now, but it was called a "bong (whatever)". So I immediately started making the sign for a BONG (as in something to smoke with) when suddenly I realized...probably not the same idea! I switched to fingerspelling but the student and my team were already laughing.

I struggle most with medical terps these days - they dont get it so I end up writing notes or sending emails to my doctor these days because the medical terps I used made so many errors. Being a health professional, I recognized their mistakes quickly so I dont want my life to be in hands of terps who could screw it up for me period. It is my life, afterall.

I doubt I will ever go into medical interpreting for that reason. I've had jobs previously that were a matter of life and death, and I just don't think I want to do it again. Unfortunately I don't think enough people who do medical interpreting see it that way.

 

[Etoile]

Yeah, medical interpreting is pretty high on my not-a-favorite list. Ditto mental health interpreting, which I have had the misfortune to do only a small handful of times, and hope to never do again. And I actually don't like doing educational much at all really.

I think if I had to pick a favorite it would be the IT interpreting I do now. I'm so familiar with the subject matter that it makes things much more comfortable for me.

 

[VamPyroX]

Yeah, that is true. What can be easy with one teacher can be impossible with another.

Personally I have trouble with biology and chemistry classes. Not because of the material itself, but because of all the technical jargon. I've learned lots of signs for scientific terms but, like computer terms, it seems every student has their own way of signing this stuff, so it can be like learning a whole new vocabulary every class sometimes.

Art classes can be logistically difficult because the teachers like to demonstrate while facing their paper or a blackboard and lecturing, and sometimes this requires a lot of running around to make sure the student can see me and the teacher at the same time.

ESL classes are rough because most of them MUST be signed into exact English; for example, if they are learning the past perfect progressive tense ("he had been going"), you can't just sign it conceptually, you have to get every word across. If the student knows SEE it makes things a lot easier, but even so there is TONS of fingerspelling. English just doesn't fit neatly into ASL.

There are some words that are signed differently in different classes. One good example would be words used in liberal arts courses and computer science courses.

 

[Nesmuth]

That'd be my Philosophy 100 class (Introduction to Logic) in Golden West College in 1982 with Mr. Hyde as the instructor. He talked very very fast and 5 interpreters quit because they couldnt keep up with Hyde's fast speaking. It came to the point that no interpreter wanted to do the class with Mr. Hyde in it. I had to drop the class. I re took the class at Cal State Fullerton in 1984 with Dr. Verges as the instructor and he was a very slow and comical speaker and got that class done with.

Richard

 

[me_punctured]

I'll make sure I let you know how the interpreting for David Shipler goes.

I think it'll be just fine! His book was an accessible and easy read, not an academically condensing headache.

 

[me_punctured]

Yeah, medical interpreting is pretty high on my not-a-favorite list. Ditto mental health interpreting, which I have had the misfortune to do only a small handful of times, and hope to never do again. And I actually don't like doing educational much at all really.

I think if I had to pick a favorite it would be the IT interpreting I do now. I'm so familiar with the subject matter that it makes things much more comfortable for me.

Medical interpreting seems to be a rather specialized field. I would imagine that interpreters are comfortable with general physicians, but may find it more challenging to work with... a gynecologist who'll perform a biospy on the patient! Is medical interpreting part of a certified interpreter's training, or does one have to take additional training for it, like court interpreting?

Color me ignorant. I actually have limited knowledge about interpreter training, or interpreters in general! :stupid:

 

[Endymion]

If I was an interpreter, I'd go nuts over my first-year Economics professor from years ago, Dr. Kulkarni. "This is a klahs, you do not drink beer in this klahsroom."

Then he would make up stories about his wife and daughter and relate them to economics. The guy had an unrivaled sense of humor, except nobody could understand him.

 

[Endymion]

I'll drop a few names here: Noam Chomsky, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward Said, Steven Pinker, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, George Lakoff, Harold Bloom, John Searle.

What are you trying to do, strike terror in the hearts of interpreters everywhere??? I mean, yea, I know it's hard enough to have to interpret an academic lecture on some esoteric, jargon loaded subject involving colorectostomies, the lattice theory of quark confinement, or solipsistic and decadent tendencies of postmodernism in "See Spot. See Spot Run. Run Spot, Run."

But you suggest they interpret a lecture from the deceased, like Stephen Jay Gould? Oh my, it's Night of the Interpreted Dead! I wonder how the creepiness of the "braaaaaaaains" moans are translated into ASL.

You heartless, cruel interpreter tormenter, you.

 

[ayala920]

What are you trying to do, strike terror in the hearts of interpreters everywhere??? I mean, yea, I know it's hard enough to have to interpret an academic lecture on some esoteric, jargon loaded subject involving colorectostomies, the lattice theory of quark confinement, or solipsistic and decadent tendencies of postmodernism in "See Spot. See Spot Run. Run Spot, Run."

But you suggest they interpret a lecture from the deceased, like Stephen Jay Gould? Oh my, it's Night of the Interpreted Dead! I wonder how the creepiness of the "braaaaaaaains" moans are translated into ASL.

You heartless, cruel interpreter tormenter, you.

Wow, Endy. Thank g-d I'll never have to interpret for you.