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.
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