The Interpreter

       For my December post I have decided to share one of my favorite movies, The Interpreter. Even before I decided I wanted to be an interpreter myself, I thought this movie was super cool because of the UN interpreting scenes. Here is a lovely YouTube video combining them (as well as throwing in some random scenes. Just ignore those)

        So in the very first part of this clip, we see an excellent example of simultaneous interpreting, which is used most often in large, conference type gatherings where many languages are required, like at the UN general assembly. Also, Sylvia (the main character of the movie) is interpreting INTO English, which is her first language. This is a common practice of conference interpreters. The source language (what they listen to) is usually their second or third language, while the target language (what they speak) is their mother tongue. This is then very first scene of the movie and it is one of my favorite parts of the whole thing because you can see all the interpreters high up in their booths in the UN and everyone listening to his or her own language in their headphones. I think it's really cool. 

        In this second part of the video, we see a combination of simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. It's in a smaller setting which would more commonly use consecutive, and Sylvia is also taking notes, which is also used in consecutive. However, unlike consecutive, she interprets at the same time that the speaker is talking throughout the scene, making it not purely consecutive. 

        Well that's all for this post. If you haven't watched this movie, you should, because it's pretty good and now you know all about the interpreting in it!

Happy New Year!

Little Chinese Lesson! (小中文教训)

        This semester I have been taking a beginning Chinese class at Citrus College. Mandarin is one of the language I want to focus on as an interpreter, so this class has been very important to my project.

        If you are anything like me, then you have probably heard Chinese being spoken at some point in your life or have seen it written somewhere and said to yourself, "How in the world do people speak and understand this?!" Well lucky for you, this post will shed some light on the mystery that is the Chinese language.

        The first thing you have to know is that Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the way a word is accented affects its meaning. There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese. Almost every Chinese word is said with one or more of the four tones. (I say almost every word because some have no tone at all). This is a picture of how you say each of the four tones.

And here is a video of what each tone sounds like! You can hear how each tone matches the above picture and how each tone mark corresponds to the sound. The official way to write Chinese with Arabic letters is called Pinyin, which is what is used in the video. That is why there are English letters instead of characters.

        These is no such thing as "tense" in Chinese like there is in English and other languages. Instead, a specific time is usually specified, and the verb does not change form. Word order is pretty simple: Subject+Time+Verb+Object. So "I will watch a movie this weekend" is "Wǒ(I) zhè(this) zhōumò(weekend) kàn(watch) diànyǐng(movie)∘" In characters, this sentence is 我这周末看电影。Chinese also does not have any articles  such as "a", "an", or "the". An interesting (and difficult) thing about Chinese is that if you have not memorized what word matches with what character, there is no way to read the sentence. You cannot "sound out" words like English and know what they mean. For me this has been the hardest part of learning Chinese - character memorization. 

        

        Well that's all for this mini Chinese lesson! To quote my Chinese professor, "See! Chinese is easy!"

Blog 10: EQ (Essential Question)

1. Confirm that you reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.
        I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2. Review the following EQs. Tell whether they do or do not fit the rule of three, and why.

• What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?

                   This question does not fit the rule of three, because it does not allows for depth of research. The answer to this question is a google search away. Although it is specific (healthy weight loss), it is the sort of question that can be answered by a list of facts off the top of one's head.

• What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?

                   This question does fit the rule of three, because it is worded in such a way that deeper research is needed in order to come up with answers for it. The topic is not to broad but not to specific, the wording makes sense, and it does allow someone to argue a point to answer the questions, because securing a conviction is a huge process that includes a ton of moving parts and many influencing factors.

• What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?

                   This question does not fit the rule of three. A point cannot be argued nor can it be well-researched because every customer is different in their tastes, preferences, and styles. The answers to this question are going to end up being a list of possible factors in customer satisfaction, but really you cannot have one most important thing like the question is asking for, because it depends on the customer.

• How can an anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?

                  This question does fit the rule of three. It has breadth (anesthesiology) and depth (treatment of chronic pain), a point can be argued to answer it, because pain treatment has measurable results in the reduction of pain. The question is also specific, as it deals with chronic pain, not just pain in general.

3. Write another draft of your Senior Project EQ.

        What is the best way for an interpreter to ensure understanding between people who do not speak the same language?

Blog 9: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. Positive statement

• What aspect of your Lesson 1 Presentation are you most proud of and why?

                   I am most proud of the fact that I was able to hook my audience from the start and keep them engaged for all of my presentation. Today was our third day of presentations, and I'm one of the last people to present. Listening to presentation after presentation after presentation pretty has much made everyone in the class really bored and sleepy. My hook activity was fun and completely different from every other presenter's and required the entire class to participate. I am an upbeat presenter and I love my topic, and I felt like this also contributed to my classmates not "checking out" while I presented. I'm proud of this because I know what it feels like to listen to boring and irrelevant (to me) presentations and the fact that the audience was interested and paying attention to what I had to say makes me feel like I succeeded at my lesson.

2. Questions to consider

• What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 1 Presentation?

                   AE

• Explain why you deserve this grade using evidence from the Lesson 1 Component Contract.

                  I deserve an AE because I either went above and beyond or performed exceptionally on all areas of the component contract. In the First category, professionalism, I believe I performed above the P requirement on all three areas, volume/enunciation, body language/eye contact, and audience engagement/content clarity. For the first two areas, I spoke clearly and had flawless volume and eye contact. For the third area, I went above and beyond in audience engagement with my hook activity (see above), and by having not only a clear delivery, but an energetic one. It was evident that interpreting is something I care a lot about. For the second contract category, Justification and Foundation, I also feel that I did more than the P requirement in each of the three areas. For the first, "application of research made evident by referencing specific examples", I made my research evident in everything I said throughout my presentation, not just with multiple specific examples but by backing up all my facts with the research I've done. The second area requirement was "at least one published research source cited". I cited five different published articles (all of which had passed the CRAP test) throughout my presentation, one of which was a study that I used to back up something I asserted in my lesson. Finally, for the last area, "mentorship and/or interview referenced", I went above and beyond by referencing both my mentorships and my second interview, including two quotes from my mentor that I tied in directly with my lesson content. I also brought two props, not just one.

3. What worked for you in Lesson 1?

       I felt that the two props that I brought worked well. Each represented one of the two different types of interpretation, simultaneous and consecutive. For simultaneous, I had really wanted to bring actual interpreting equipment, but that was not possible. I had to come up with a way to still easily display the equipment close-up for people to see. So I set the lock screen wallpaper of my iPad to be a picture of the equipment, locked the iPad with a passcode, and passed it around the room. It worked well because the class was able to see the equipment close up, and I didn't have to print anything out. My second prop was a little notepad with symbols consecutive interpreters might use. This doubled as both a prop, because consecutive interpreters really do use notepads, and a research source, since I got the symbols from one of my articles.  

4. If you had a time machine, what would you go back and do differently to improve your Lesson 1?

        Overall I am very happy with how my lesson presentation turned out, but there are two things that I forgot to say when I was presenting that would have improved it. The first is that I was planning to explain the point of my activity/how it tied into my topic later in my presentation, but I forgot to. I don't think omitting this changed the effectiveness of my hook activity, but saying something about it would have been good. The second thing is that I could have gone more in depth on the settings in which each type of interpretation is used. I brushed over it briefly, but it's information that is relevant to the real world and interesting to hear about. Other than that everything was pretty great. I had a lot of fun sharing my topic with the class.

I HAVE FOUND A MENTOR!!! :D

        At long last and almost at the last possible second, I have found a mentor, thank God. Her name is Anne Guzman and she owns her own company, Guzman Translation and Interpreting. I met her for the first time last Wednesday at a community budget meeting she was interpreting for in Long Beach. These types of community meetings are the events she interprets at most often. I'm happy that it will work out for me to shadow her when she has events come up.
        This past Saturday was my first official day of mentorship (yay!). I went to a Building Healthy Communities event at Stevenson Elementary School in Long Beach. My mentor, Anne, interpreted for an info session that was part of the event. I listened to both the English presenter and the Spanish interpretation by my mentor. It turned out that she had to do both simultaneous AND consecutive, which was really cool to see.

Stevenson Elementary School

This is the equipment that is used for simultaneous interpreting, which I helped set up. We put it on a table near the door so anyone who needed Spanish interpretation could pick one up. Each pair of headphones is plugged into a receiver (the little boxes), which gets a signal from the transmitter plugged into the interpreter's microphone. Both the transmitter and receiver have to be turned to the same channel, so it's a little like a one-way walkie talkie.

This was the presentation stage in the school auditorium. There were a couple of videos throughout, which had to be interpreted as well. 

Here is my mentor interpreting for the person speaking on the stage. You can see her microphone in the picture. The people wearing headphones, like me, hear everything she says. I lowered the volume on my receiver because I wanted to hear both English and Spanish.

It was really cool that I got to see two different types of interpretation! The lady on the right wanted to give her portion of the presentation in Spanish, and since the English speakers in the audience didn't have headphones, Anne had to interpret using the consecutive method. First the presenter spoke for a little bit while Anne took notes (left picture), and then Anne interpreted what had been said by the speaker into English using the notes she had taken to help her (right picture).

I loved shadowing Anne on Saturday and I'm super excited to continue my mentorship with her and learn more about interpreting! All my waiting and hoping for a mentorship has paid off and I'm ready to take on the rest of my senior project. :D

Blog 6: Second Interview Preparation (Finally!)

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work?
        My mentor is Anne Guzman. She is a English/Spanish interpreter and owns Guzman Translation and Interpreting.

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What first inspired you to become an interpreter?
• How long have you been interpreting professionally?
• What type of interpretation do you focus on?
• How many languages do you interpret in? How did you learn them?
• In what different settings/fields have you worked and what have you learned from each?
• What interpreter training, if any, have you received? Where did you receive it?
• What is the history of your company? 

Blog 8: Research and Working Essential Question

1. What is your working EQ?
        What is the best way for an interpreter to facilitate understanding between two people who do not speak the same language?
        
2. What is a possible answer to your working EQ? (In thesis format)
        An interpreter must have a clear understanding of how both languages being spoken relate to their respective cultures in order to best facilitate understanding.

3. What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ?
        The source that has most helped me come up with this answer to my essential question is titled "Plain Language for Interpreting in Consulting Rooms". This article was written by a language professor at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. A large portion of it focuses on the relationship between language and culture because South Africa has an extremely culturally diverse population and 11 official languages. Although this article only uses the example of interpretation in a healthcare setting, I believe that the points it bring up about the importance of understanding how language is part of a culture and not a separate entity are relevant to all areas in which interpretation is used.

4. Who is your mentor or where are you doing your mentorship, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ?
        I do not yet have a mentor.