The Final Stretch!

        As April comes to a close I am realizing how close I am to finishing my project and graduating. This past month I finished up my second independent component and started working on my I-Search paper. My mentor, Anne, has not been doing much interpreting lately, but I was able to watch her translate on one occasion. This whole time I've been thinking that translation is not something I am interested in pursuing, but after watching and talking to Anne, I may consider trying it in addition to interpreting. I am going to a translation even at Cal Poly next week and it will be interesting to see what it's like and get more exposure to translation.
        May is going to speed by. I've started thinking about and planning my final presentation, which is on the 26th. My greatest challenge will be coming up with an acceptable activity, as I have found that the skills required for interpreting are rather difficult to apply to monolingual students in an engaging manner via said activity. As far as senior project is concerned, after turning in my paper and completing my exit interview, I'll be able to focus all my attention on my final presentation, and that will be all!

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal

• I, Claire Dix, affirm that I completed my independent component, which represents 47 hours and 15 minutes of work.
• The printed source I used to help me complete my independent component was Integrated Chinese Textbook Level 1. My other sources were my friend, Ching Chow and the city of Ensenada, Mexico.

My Chinese textbook, which I
worked through a bit with Ching

Ching and me

The border 

• My senior project hours log has been updated.
• My independent component had two main aspects. The first was continuing to learn Spanish and Mandarin by focusing on speaking. I did this by meeting with my Chinese friend Ching. We conversed in Chinese and she helped me with pronunciation and learning vocabulary, as well as useful grammar concepts in Chinese. On the Spanish side, I went to an orphanage in Mexico for a weekend and spoke a ton of Spanish there. The second aspect was gaining more knowledge about the culture of the people who speak languages. I did this by watching two movies in Chinese, talking to Ching and going to a Chinese bakery with her, and going to Mexico.

Interpretive
        I specifically honed in on two critical skills that are required for an interpreter to best ensure understanding between people: Fluency/linguistic ability, and cultural knowledge of the languages in use. To do this, I was intentional about practicing speaking Chinese and Spanish with my friend and in Mexico. Through talking to Ching, watching the movies, eating Chinese food, trying to read every Chinese character I saw, and being in Mexico, I gained more cultural knowledge that I can build upon as I learn and study more. This was significant to my project because I was able to go in depth on these two EQ answers and continue to prepare for becoming an interpreter myself as well. I'm not fluent yet, but the time and practice I put in during my component was helpful. It's pretty hard to fully learn a language and a culture without living in the country, so I hope to do that in college. The bulk of my hours came from my weekend trip to Mexico, and the rest were from meeting with Ching and watching the Chinese films, which were about two hours each. The principle things I achieved through this component were intangible, but here are some visuals describing what I did for my hours.

These are the Chinese films I watched

        

Went to 85 degrees and tried to decipher
the Chinese characters labeling the food.

Here is a link to another blog post, where I wrote in detail about my Mexico trip. And here are more pictures of my time that I did not include in the other post. I was taking most of the pictures for the group so I'm not in very many of them.

Applied
        My essential question is how can an interpreter best ensure understanding between people who do not speak the same language? I focused my independent component on my first and second EQ answers, which are achieving a high level of fluency in the languages and possessing an in depth knowledge of the culture of the languages, respectively. What I did helped me answer my EQ in that it gave me more support for my answers and allowed me to actually put them into practice myself. I improved in speaking both Chinese and Spanish, which I was very happy about. It makes me so excited to get better. Especially when I was in Mexico, I realized I was farther ahead than I thought in  how much Spanish I was able to understand and respond to. I really gained a lot of confidence from it that I had lacked before.
        The other aspect of my component, cultural study, also helped me answer my EQ because I was actively researching and learning about the cultures of both my languages, which, some experts say, is at the core of being a qualified and competent interpreter. By actually going to a country where Spanish is the dominant language, I was able to see how the people lived and get actual immersion experience. The Chinese movies that I watched were rich in Chinese culture, and I could hear the language at the same time. It was awesome that I was able to understand some of the Chinese spoken in the movie! Even if I didn't look at the English subtitles! (Sometimes).