I have been raised in churches, and one specific church, since I was young. Now, my home church has a member here training people to interpret for the Deaf, in the hopes that we will be able to start a Deaf Ministry. When they started this, I was in Chattanooga, away from home. I come in a year later and start sitting in where they do the training during the service. They train by having the person standing and interpreting the service in the back of the balcony (there is a speaker in the balcony, making it loud enough to be easily understood). The lady with the most experience (about 15 years as a certified interpreter) corrects mistakes as they go along.
Not that I have any issue with this, as it is the best they can do right now. My issue came in earlier today. I was interested in inviting a friend I had made recently to our church, so I talked to my pastor to see if I could bring him in and interpret the Sunday School class for him (the aforementioned lady has to interpret for our HoH member, so I am next up). I have had a years classroom training, about three years of immersion in Deaf culture, and a years actual interpreting experience in various situations, including church services, religious household gatherings, gatherings using another language, but which provided an English translation of those on paper (music is not easy to translate in voice from one spoken language to another), and even conversations involving 4 or more hearing and 1 or 2 Deaf people.
I spoke to my pastor, and he said that it had to go through Ryan Young, the person that, while in training, by our church bylaws, is technically considered ministry head. Again, I have no problem with that. My problem is that when I said that I understood that he had to know that I had picked up the dialect of signing used here, so that I could show that I was capable of interpreting here, he said "ASL is ASL", and went on about how there is no difference, regionally or for people of different ages, in signing outside from slang.
Now, with experience with Deaf people from three different regions (TN, FL, and GA), I have found that there are differences all the way across the board. My question is, how do I explain in a tactful manner how that, just like English, ASL evolves as a language?
Obviously, I don't want to debate with him, or argue, or make him think I am angry; however, I want to make it clear that he was wrong in his assumption. Anyone got any ideas?
Not that I have any issue with this, as it is the best they can do right now. My issue came in earlier today. I was interested in inviting a friend I had made recently to our church, so I talked to my pastor to see if I could bring him in and interpret the Sunday School class for him (the aforementioned lady has to interpret for our HoH member, so I am next up). I have had a years classroom training, about three years of immersion in Deaf culture, and a years actual interpreting experience in various situations, including church services, religious household gatherings, gatherings using another language, but which provided an English translation of those on paper (music is not easy to translate in voice from one spoken language to another), and even conversations involving 4 or more hearing and 1 or 2 Deaf people.
I spoke to my pastor, and he said that it had to go through Ryan Young, the person that, while in training, by our church bylaws, is technically considered ministry head. Again, I have no problem with that. My problem is that when I said that I understood that he had to know that I had picked up the dialect of signing used here, so that I could show that I was capable of interpreting here, he said "ASL is ASL", and went on about how there is no difference, regionally or for people of different ages, in signing outside from slang.
Now, with experience with Deaf people from three different regions (TN, FL, and GA), I have found that there are differences all the way across the board. My question is, how do I explain in a tactful manner how that, just like English, ASL evolves as a language?
Obviously, I don't want to debate with him, or argue, or make him think I am angry; however, I want to make it clear that he was wrong in his assumption. Anyone got any ideas?