Star Wars Interpreting

For my Interpreting for the Deaf class, the Final Project was to find a picture, any picture, and build an interpreting situation around it.  Immediately I knew it had to be Star Wars!  So, just for fun, here's the picture and interpreting assignment that I made up for it, including potential problems (demands) and solutions (controls).

Scenario
Darth Vader, the hearing consumer, is talking to Princess Leia, the Deaf consumer.  Army guy is the interpreter.  Darth Vader is describing to Leia the reasons for her arrest, the seizure of her spaceship, and her lack of rights as a prisoner.  He is also going into some detail about the technical aspects of a new weapons system that he has helped create, the Death Star.  

Leia is defiant and uncooperative, but she keeps her cool.  Clearly she doesn’t like Vader, and tension is high.  

Army guy works for Vader as an interpreter, but he also ranks as an officer in Vader’s army.  Deep down he sympathizes with Leia and the Rebel Alliance, but he keeps that hidden because he knows that he will be killed if Vader ever found out.  Army guy is not quite up-to-speed on the technical lingo associated with the Death Star, though in all other ways he is prepared for the communication aspects of this assignment.  He is nervous about failing – Vader is not a kind boss and has been known to kill interpreters who have stumbled along the way.

There are several things that the interpreter is doing right in this situation.  He’s smartly dressed in a solid contrasting color and very professional.  He’s standing in a position that allows Leia to see both him and Vader at the same time.

Demands

1.     There is quite a bit of tension between Leia and Vader, and lies are being told on both sides.  Army guy is aware of that, but has no control over it.  Vader has been known to react violently to interpreters, who merely convey the message.

2.      It’s impossible to read Vader’s expression through the mask, which makes it harder for Leia to communicate effectively with him.  The last interpreter who brought this up with Vader was killed on the spot.

3.      The technical lingo on the Death Star is difficult not only to convey to Deaf consumers, but also to learn.   Most of the information is top secret.  Vader often starts feeling braggy, and inserts it into his speeches, leaving interpreters in a sticky situation.

4.      Army guy knows that Leia is being held illegally as a prisoner.  He sympathizes with her plight but doesn’t feel like he can fight for her rights.

Controls

1.      Army guy can have a short conversation with Vader, pre-assignment, reminding Vader of the role of an interpreter. 
Pros:  If Vader is in a good mood, he will listen and hopefully be a little softer towards Army guy during the meeting, remembering that Army guy isn’t responsible for the words being communicated – Leia is.
Cons:  If Vader isn’t in a good mood, Army guy could be fired, demoted, or killed.  It will still go poorly for the next interpreter called in to replace Army guy.

2.      Army guy could ask for a few moments before the meeting starts to speak to Leia about Vader’s mask and how hard it is to convince Vader to take it off. 
Pros:  Leia may be a little less frustrated about not being able to read Vader’s expressions.  Also, Army guy won’t be killed for bringing it up with Vader.

Cons:  This doesn’t solve any problems in terms of making sure there is adequate communication and full comprehension for the Deaf consumer.  However, Army guy can feel better, knowing he’s tried to help ease tensions a little.

3.      Army guy could attempt to find some information about the Death Star, learning some of the technical lingo.  However, he’d be killed if he were caught, and most Deaf consumers wouldn’t understand the lingo, even if he learned it.  The best thing to do would be to have a short conversation with Vader, pre-assignment, explaining that most Deaf consumers will be unfamiliar with the technical aspects of his speech.  Cater to his ego, explaining that the Deaf consumers will be more impressed with Vader’s accomplishments if the interpreter is given more time to convey the ideas.  Also, Army guy could suggest a media presentation to assist with Deaf consumers’ understanding of the topic.
Pros:  If Vader is in a good mood, he will listen and give the interpreter more time to explain the technical details of the Death Star.  The spaceship is also equipped with some awesome technology, and if Vader chooses to utilize the media equipment that the ship offers, then Leia will have an easier time understanding the concepts, the interpreter won’t carry such a heavy burden to make sure communication is clear, and Vader will be able to brag all he wants.
Cons:  If Vader isn’t in a good mood, Army guy could be fired, demoted, or killed.  It will still go poorly for the next interpreter called in to replace Army guy.

4.      If what is happening to Leia is illegal, the law overrules the Code of Professional Conduct’s call for confidentiality, so Army guy could choose to report it, post-assignment.  However, since Vader is the enforcer of the law, it wouldn’t do any good, and Army guy knows it.  There’s nothing to be done, then, except for Army guy to steel himself pre-assignment. 
Pros:  Army guy will be emotionally prepared to keep himself professional and do the job he is assigned.
Cons:  Leia’s rights are still being trampled on, Vader is still a jerk, and Army guy knows it.  Perhaps Army guy should refuse assignments of this type in the future.

Bengals or Steelers? - What Flags are You Flying?

(No, this isn't a post about football.  Though if you must know, the Bengals are lousy and I think that Cincinnatians are seriously out of touch with reality.  Moving on.)

Yesterday I saw a car on the road in front of me with those flags on the sides of the car.  You know, the funny ones that stick out the tops of the windows and blow in the wind.  (It's a car fashion that I don't understand.)  The flags showed the Pittsburgh Steelers' name and logo.  And I thought, "Wow.  He's brave."

Cincinnatians hate the Steelers.  I think it's a Cincinnati Rule:  To live here you must irrationally worship the Bengals and unquestioningly despise the Steelers.  The history on this is fascinating, and dates back over 700 years.  Which means that the younger set doesn't really get it.  Still, even I know that you don't drive around Cicinnati with Steelers flags hanging on your car.

Sure enough, at the next stop light, some college-age kids were crossing the street and took the opportunity to tell the driver of the Steelers Car exactly what they thought of his Steeler Pride.

I kinda chuckled about it all and then thought about the profession that I'm aspiring towards (ASL interpreter, in case you forgot).  Interpreting requires not only competence but several other things that I am not especially great at, among them:


Tact, Professionalism, and Impartiality

1 - Tact.  That's something like a joke, right?  Tact is CLEARLY something I lack.  However, I'm getting better at it, and I'm noticing that as I get older, people tend to think that I DO have tact.  That's a neat trick, right?  Turns out it's something that I'm gaining, almost despite myself, as I age.

2 - Professionalism.  Let's just take how I dress.  ...  Yep.  What else is there to say?
Okay, okay, a little more.  I normally dress in jeans and a T-shirt / sweat shirt combo.  Not exactly professional, but changed easily enough.  The hardest part of this, though, is that the standard interpreter get-up is a dark, solid-colored top, no writing or patterns.  So: black, dark navy, maroon, olive green.  Guess which colors I actually own?  None of those.  Guess which colors I LIKE to wear?  None of those.

3 - Impartiality.  I'm actively working on this one.  It's easier for me in sign language to keep my opinions to myself.  For instance, I listened quietly and respectfully yesterday as someone told me that the dinosaurs were killed off by Noah's flood.  I was impressed with my response, but more than that I was amazed at how easy it was to just accept what he was saying instead of feeling the need to tell him that such theories are bogus.

These changes have really made me re-think who I am, what I believe, and crucially, what I then say and do about who I am and what I believe.  In other words, what are my flags?  And I've realized some pretty amazing things about myself that I never knew before:
1 - Tact isn't that hard.  It requires saying less quantitatively, but more qualitatively.  Be genuine.  Care about people.  The end.
2 - There's probably more than one reason I was supposed to wait a decade before finding this profession.  I wouldn't have been able to stand the dress code when I was 20.  Now, at 30, it seems like a teeny tiny obstacle.  Do I want to do this?  Yes?  Then boring black shirts it is.
3 - Being as impartial as possible is liberating, and I like it a lot.  Not in a "I'm trying to hide who I am" kind of way.  ... Well, here.  Back to the Steelers flag.

The man with the Steelers flag was shouting a message to everyone he passed on the street.  "I AM A STEELERS FAN!"  But you don't have to have a flag to send a message.  The car itself sends a message.  Our clothes send a message.  Our house.  Our facial expressions certainly do.  Our attitude.  We're a big, complicated ball of intertwined messages.  The most important messages we send, though, are the ones that have nothing to do with anything physical.  They're about what's inside of us.

With this interpreting gig, I've started wondering about what flags I have, which I can get rid of, and which I should hold on to.  All I'll be left with, when I can't state my personal opinion, I can't dress how I want, and I need to be professional even if I want to scream, are those internal flags.  Those 3 things all go against what Hippie Tamra previously preached, you know?  "Be who you are, no matter what."  But take those things away and I'm left with ... what?

Some flags were easy to lay aside.  Soccer - fun, but not crucial.  Being lazy - also fun, but not always practical.  Some were harder, like I talked about.  I want to be TAMRA.  Tamra dresses in bright clothes.  Tamra shows how she feels, even if she's feeling lousy.  No need to put on a show for anyone.  But I won't be able to do that as an interpreter.  I have to be a chameleon of sorts.  How can I still be Tamra without all those things I've been relying on?  And who is Tamra, anyway, without those flags?

Really, when it came down to it, the only flag that I had left was Christ.  Being Christian.  Being Mormon.  Those things mean a lot to me.  My family.  My outlook on life.  It's all under that one Christ banner.  Not that I'm not flying other flags, and I'm not perfect at the Christ flag, either.  But it was the only flag that didn't fail at some point.  The only flag that, in the end, really SHOULD be flying.  Tamra doesn't need her own flags.  Tamra would lay them all down for the honor of carrying His flag.

So go ahead.  Try it.  It's a great purging experience.  Strip it all away, layer by layer, putting aside the flags that you no longer need.  You don't have to reject those things (I still play soccer and I still love science), but find It.  At the very end, there's something there, that last Flag.  That's your anchor.  And then you can build your life around that Flag. 

It's a good perspective.

Who Needs Descriptive Words?

Maybe I've mentioned this before, but I really dislike descriptive words like adjectives.

Take that sentence I just wrote:  I really dislike descriptive words.  I could have come up with something else besides really dislike.  Despise, I suppose, or abhor.  That shows a lot of feeling.  Maybe it's not so strong a feeling, so I could say another series of words that means I only somewhat dislike descriptive words.  Alternatively, I could make a great analogy.  I could say that I really dislike descriptive words the way that ... the way that, uh, squirrels dislike being shot by BB guns.  Or the way that toddlers dislike naps.  Or the way that ... Alright, let's face it:  I'm horrible at those.

Turns out I'm horrible at the whole thing.  I don't have a great thesaurus of a mind that comes up with excellent and creative ways to describe things.  If I sit for a while and try to think of the best way to say that I really dislike descriptive words, then I'll just think, "Well, how about I really dislike descriptive words."  It's simple.  It's clear.  It's to the point.

Not that I don't enjoy reading good descriptive words.  My friends Sarah and Garrett are exceptionally good at them, and I enjoy that immensely.  I can still remember a blog post written years ago where Sarah described someone at the grocery store.  She described the woman's red face as looking like a welder's face if that welder had forgotten to wear a mask.  (See, I'm even bad at summing up someone ELSE'S analogies.)  "Genius!" I thought when I read that.  And then I promptly put all thoughts of ever being an author out of mind.  It struck me in that very moment that I don't have what it takes to write beautifully.

This doesn't bother me, though.  Who needs to write beautifully?  Sometimes beautiful prose for the sake of beautiful prose just annoys me.  Give me a Hemmingway who will talk about walking down by the river at sunset by saying something un-beautiful like, I was walking down by the river at sunset.  I don't need to walk through golden streams of glorious blah blah blah.  He was walking.  It was by the river.  And it was sunset.  Enough said.

This is why I appreciate American Sign Language.  You know how you turn the sign big into really big or gigantic or whatever else that means really big?  You sign it bigger and use facial expression.  Which means that you're expressing what you really want to say by showing it on your face and in the movement of your hands, and the only "word" you have to use is that one:  big.  Fantastic!

ASL was meant for descriptive-word-challenged people like me.

(I love ASL the way that ... apples love ... uh, trees?  Umm.  I love ASL the way that dogs love bones?  Hormonal women love chocolate?  Toddlers love their blankies?  Whatever.  I love ASL.)

Sign Language

I've been greatly enjoying my time with ASL.  Class is fun.  Signing is fun.  Trying to interpret is fun, even though I suck.  Making new friends is fun.

Class was interesting.  In no particular order, here are My Top 5 Favorite Things About Class:

1.  Finding out that being made fun of on a weekly basis for 5 weeks straight can make me insecure.  I thought I was beyond that.

2.  Watching the class size dwindle.  17 people signed up.  13 people showed up on the first day of class.  8 people were still with us by week 6.  And 5 people showed up for the Final.  Awesome.

3.  The week we had to practice fingerspelling.  We paired up.  We wrote down 10 city names.  Then we practiced fingerspelling those citiy names with our partner.  The girl I was partnered with had never heard of Topeka.  She also misspelled Atlanta (she left out the first 't') and included Florida on her city list.  Nice.

4.  Being required to get in practice hours outside of class.  It's like play time!  Required, "I have to go, Rob, cause I need hours," play time!

5.  People noticing that I'm pretty good at sign.  It's funny.  I hate being acknowledged, in general.  Awards and special attention are nasty, embarrassing things.  But I like it that people think I'm good and that they notice, and that they sometimes tell me.  (Historically, I've disliked being acknowledged in things academic.  What a joke.  However, being honored for soccer?  That's different.  ASL is like soccer, then, instead of like academia.)