Blog 22: Final Lesson Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project and why?
        In my final presentation, I am most proud that I was able to demonstrate how interpretation works by having the actual equipment (headphones and receiver) at each student's place and using the microphone and transmitter myself. I was so excited to have the equipment because I didn't know if I would be able to rent it for my presentation (and not an actual interpreting event) or how much it would cost. But when I emailed the company my mentor, Anne, had recommended, Continental Interpreting, they responded saying that since I was a student they would be able to provide me with equipment for the day of my presentation at no cost! Yay! Even though I felt that having the equipment there was somewhat underappreciated by the students, I was very happy to have it. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?
        AE

3. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project?
        AE

4. What worked for you in your senior project?
        Something that worked really well for me was being able to use the Cal Poly Pomona library databases to access scholarly articles on interpreting. I got almost all of my research for my I-Search paper and final presentation from journal articles that were available online to students with a Cal Poly login. It was so helpful to be able to go on there and find a wealth of reliable, free sources instead of just doing a regular Google search. Being able to use these expert resources really enhanced the quality and credibility of my project. 

5. If you had a time machine, what would you go back and do differently to improve your senior project?

        I would not choose to go back in time and change anything about my project. I know there are always ways to improve and there are have been many throughout the course of this year. I could have done a better job at keeping up on research notes despite limited accountability, for example. However, I did my very best in every component and am proud of all my work. I don't regret any of the decisions I made regarding missing school for mentorship, using technical and timeconsuming sources, etc. So although my project is not perfect, I am confident in it, I love it, and would not change anything about it. 

6. How has your senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?

        Completing my project to the best of my ability has given me a great head start in becoming an interpreter myself. I have all of the knowledge, now I just have to put it into action. All the work I did for my project and everything I learned have left me with not only a great base of research and knowledge as I continue pursuing my goal, but also even more excitement and inspiration than I started with. 
        The connections I made with professional interpreters is another aspect of my project that has been helpful to me as I think about the future. Through interacting with my three mentors, I learned some of the more practical and logistical aspects of the field, such as different opportunities of settings to interpret in, what certifications are beneficial to obtain, and what interpreter training programs are in the area (such as the one at Cal State Fullerton). I was also added to an interpreter/translator Facebook group. My senior project has been a diving board from which I am now jumping off into the proverbial pool of continued study in the field of interpretation.

I'm done!!! :D

Blog 21: Mentorship

Literal

• My log has been updated.
• I completed my mentorship component with Anne Guzman, Guzman Translation and Interpreting

Interpretive

        The most important thing I gained from my mentorship is that after watching and talking to professional interpreters, I still want to be one. Before my mentorship, I had never seen a professional interpreter work before. Even though I had read extensively on the topic and seen videos, I didn't know if actually experiencing it would change my mind. But observing my mentor at her meetings, interviewing her, and watching her translate a couple of times caused me to fall more in love with the field of interpreting and translation and brought me joy and excitement, both of which were invaluable to me kept me going in my project this year.

Applied

        My mentorship helped me answer my essential question by allowing me to see how my research applied to real life situations. After finding an EQ answer by reading a scholarly article, I was able to see what I had been reading about play out in the "real world" of my project. I saw each of my three of my answers (fluency, cultural knowledge, and strategy) all utilized by my mentor at one time or another throughout the course of completing my hours, which confirmed to me that my answers were all relevant and correct ways of ensuring understanding between people, the focus of my essential question and overall project.

Blog 20: Exit Interview

1. What is your essential question and answers? What is your best answer and why?
        My essential question is How can an interpreter best ensure understanding between people who do not speak the same language? My three answers are that an interpreter can best ensure understanding by possessing a high level of fluency in both the source and target languages, by possessing a thorough knowledge of the culture behind both the source and target languages, and by using a combination of different interpreting strategies.
        My best answer is that an interpreter can best ensure understanding between people who do not speak the same language by possessing a high level of fluency of both the source and target languages. Even though there is a sound argument for any of my answers being the best one, I chose this answer because as I have researched and watched interpreters in action, I have seen how fluency is both what enables interpreters to do their job in the first place and then also allows them to transfer meaning with the most accuracy so that people understand.

2. What process did you go through to arrive at your best answer?
        I had a hard time choosing a best answer because I believe all my answers must be present in an interpreting situation in order for the listeners to understand. The absence of any of these three elements is detrimental to a person's ability to understand someone who does not speak their language. To decide on my best answer, I thought about each one and how they impact the effectiveness of an interpreter. After thinking and going back and forth for a while, I felt that even though cultural knowledge and strategy are critical to one's success as an interpreter, it is possible to interpret without them and people may still have an understanding, albeit a limited one, if the interpreter does not posses these two skills at the level they should. However, it is impossible for listeners to understand if the interpreter is not highly fluent in both languages. A person's understanding would be severely hindered by an interpreter's lack of fluency, so I picked that answer as my best one.

3. What problems have you faced throughout your senior project? How did you resolve them?
        The greatest problem I have faced over the course of my project has been getting mentorship hours. Fortunately, I did end up finding a mentor, but it has still been difficult to shadow her sometimes because she does not work very much right now. But I have been able to do some hours with one of my mentor's colleagues as well as my mentor, which has been helpful. I resolved the mentorship hours problem by supplementing shadowing my actual mentor with other interpreting/translation activities such as a translation reading group at Cal Poly, a translation event that was also at Cal Poly, and working with a translator/interpreter at the LACOE office in Downey, and other Spanish-related activities that I counted for mentorship. In the end I have been able to get all my hours, but it has been a stressful situation this year.

4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why were they significant?
        My two most significant sources were the Cal Poly Library database, from which I got all my research articles and without which I would have had an extremely difficult time researching and finding material to back up my essential question answers. My answers came from a combination of many different articles, which all were pointing to my answers as the best way to ensure understanding when interpreting. My second source was three interpreters who helped me significantly with my project, Anne Guzman (my mentor), Edna Santizo, and Daniel Tamayo. In talking to them about the field, interviewing each them for my project, and watching Anne and Edna interpret, all my eq answers were supported by their experience and I was able to learn so much more about interpreting than I would have by just reading articles.