Oregon RID State Conference Recap & Applications

I had the pleasure of participating in the Oregon RID State Conference yesterday. The theme was "Taking Care of Us." It was great! The topics shared during the sessions were most definitely topics that tend to be lacking from most professional development opportunities and yet critical to our success as professionals.

I attended sessions on acupuncture, ergonomics, and breathing.

The session, "Poke in Time" with Robin Marcinkiewicz went through the principles of acupuncture medicine and the ways in which the body is all interconnected and that injuries in one part of the body can affect and be treated in other, connected, parts of the body. Good foundational knowledge on a topic I wasn't familiar with.

 The second session I went to was, "An Ergonomic Approach to Painless in Interpreting" by chiropractor Dr. Colleen McDonough.  This session focused on appropriate body mechanics, stretches, and proper ways to take care of our bodies between interpreting assignments. Great tips on how to ensure our bodies will keep working long into our careers.

During the lunch session there was a professional panel entitled, "Where are we going? What do we want to be?" This was a great session in which the Oregon RID Vice President, Tyler Reisnaur, shared data from a survey that was conducted of interpreters in Oregon. They have a lot of great data on the needs, concerns, and wishes of the Oregon interpreting community. They will be sharing this data on their website at the link above in the next week or so.

The third session I attended was, "Your Authentic Voice," and it was fabulous. The instructor, Linda Brice, shared ideas about breathing and using one's voice effectively and health-fully. She also shared ideas about how to incorporate appropriate breathing into our English to ASL work - how to breathe with our signing. It was also great!

Overall, this conference was not your typical professional development opportunity but it was exactly what I needed in my professional development right now. I'm appreciative for these lessons.

Now, as an interpreter educator I am thinking of ways to incorporate these lessons in our curriculum more fully. We do have Dr. McDonough guest speak in one of our classes to give ergonomic tips to our aspiring interpreters. I think that is a good start but I am quite intrigued by the idea of incorporating a voice training class into our programs. (Please understand I don't mean a "voicing" or ASL to English class, I mean a class focused on learning how to use our voice in an effective way). Really, I think that our students could benefit from a full term in voice training and breathing with an instructor like Ms. Brice who incorporates the concepts of breathing for "speaking" (regardless of spoken or signed languages).

Did your interpreter education include classes on ergonomics/body mechanics and voice training? If not, how did you learn these skills (or did you?)? If so, how long were the lessons? Did you recognize them as beneficial during your program or did you recognize their value later or not at all? 

The face of the new generation of interpreters

As I have had the opportunity to work with aspiring interpreters as they learn and grow into emerging professional interpreters, I have gleaned a few things from them along the way. As much as we may have a bad impression of "recent graduates" who have not gone through all of the traditional passages we deem necessary of becoming a professional, we have much to learn from their experience as well. 

Being such a young profession, we have gone through various stages of educating interpreters as we have learned more and more about this great and wonderful profession of interpreting. Many of us have had to learn via the "school of hard knocks" and have developed from the community, which is great! Sometimes we need to take a look at what other paths have to offer as well, here are just a few of the things I've seen in our students/recent grads that I think I can learn from - 

• Because we know more about what we do - thanks to researchers and practitioners who have mindfully considered the task and shared their knowledge - they are better equipped for the real world of interpreting having had the opportunity to study the theory behind interpreting, they have a better sense of what they are getting into as professionals.
• Because we know more they are better equipped upon entry into the field, ready for certification, and ready for work with a shortened time "on the job training" required. 
• They are far less isolated in their practice and they are exiting their programs prepared to seek supervision around work that does happen in isolation. They are more prepared to consider the impact of their professional decision without as much trial and error (thanks to the trial and error of their predecessors)   

So, as much as they still have to learn from the seasoned professionals in the field, I look forward to all I have to learn from them as they share with me their fresh perspective on this amazing profession! 

What have you learned from your colleagues both more experienced and more inexperienced?!

Models

We have been studying models from a theoretical perspective for juniors and working to apply the models to the interpreting work with the seniors. Our question for you is  - How do you employ models in your practice as an interpreter? 

Models could include socio-linguistic models such as Dennis Cokeley's, meaning-based models like Debra Russell's, Gile's Effort Model, or Betty Colonomos' model. These models help us to conceptualize the work we do as interpreters - taking in a message in one language, processing it to distill meaning, and then reproducing that meaning into another language. There are obviously many, many more models that could be listed - models developed by spoken and signed language interpreting researchers/practitioners. 

Students have asked about how working, experienced interpreters apply models in analyzing their work. Again, How do you employ models in your practice as an interpreter? If you are not familiar with any "models," how do you conceptualize your work and analyze to improve your work?