Last year, working on the Spring musical and a show at the Boston Children’s Museum taught me all about interpreting for theater. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can check out the About page or the Photo page for more on my interpreting journey. Because I am not a certified interpreter (yet), theater is the only place I can get the full hands-up experience. As I’ve spent most of my internship days sitting, watching and taking notes on interpreters in the classroom, you can imagine how good it feels to get up and really interpret. Theater interpreting is different than in education in a few ways. From what I’ve noticed, theater interpreting is a) a one-sided presentation, so the only consumer is the Deaf audience, b) typically divided among pairs/teams of interpreters, c) more storytelling and poetry than literal/direct translation, and d) can be fully prepared for in advanced. The last one is not very common for professional interpreters, but since I can’t rely on live-interpreting skills, I need to translate my lines and memorize them in advance. To give you a sense of what the full process looks like, check out this visual: The first step is to divide the characters among the interpreters. Then you read the script to understand the story, translate your lines from English to ASL, practice in front of a mirror, troubleshoot with your teammates and get feedback, mark up your script even more, and memorize your lines through practice practice practice. Then you go to rehearsals and practice timing what you hear on stage to what you’re doing with your hands, and then finally perform! Then you do it all again. Seriously, I’m doing it all again. Right now. We just started to work on Twelfth Night, and Shakespeare has already presented its own set of challenges, so stay tuned!
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If EDCO didn’t exist or were to somehow disappear, there would a major problem.
EDCO provides an assisted education, offering classes taught in ASL, interpreters in mainstream classes, time to meet with a speech language pathologist, etc. In addition to these resources and accomodations, EDCO creates a community of Deaf and hard of hearing students who can relate to each other. There is a wide range of communication methods among the students, but being able to communicate and socialize with people who have a similar high school experience as you is important. Additionally, many EDCO students don’t live in Newton, and are at NNHS because the high schools in their district can’t accommodate their needs. So if EDCO didn’t exist, and there were no other programs like it, many of the students would be mainstreamed without interpreters or go to a Deaf school. The first option would isolate the student, and there would be a communication barrier, which would affect how they learn in class. The second option might not work as well for the students who don’t know much ASL or were raised speaking and relying on their limited hearing. Though deciding how to educate Deaf and hard of hearing children has been highly disputed, it seems as though EDCO is a middle ground where students with varying levels of signing and hearing abilities can be accommodated well throughout high school. At the EDCO dance I got to reconnect with a good friend who graduated a couple of years ago. I was struck by how much my singing had improved since we first met.
Our conversations used to be about how we were feeling that day, our hobbies and which high school classes we liked. There was a lot of texting and tedious fingerspelling. My vocabulary was pretty limited at the time, so there were many miscommunications, and we had to stop often to clarify what we were trying to say. Additionally, I compensated for my lack of vocab with expression, gestures and behavior. This resulted in a lot of joking around and laughing. I had just begun to learn ASL, and this was the best I could do. Thankfully, he was very patient and an excellent teacher. We were having a blast! Last night, everything was better. We talked about diversity of the student body on different college campuses, how religious we are compared to our parents, what majors and professions interest us, how high school cafeteria food compares to that of college dining halls, and reminiscing about the New Orleans trip when we first met, and he started to teach me ASL. We still made jokes here and there, because that’s just how we roll, but most of the conversation was deeper. We signed faster and more smoothly. If there was a word I didn’t know, I would ask what that specific sign meant, he would fingerspell it, I would understand it the first time (usually), and then we would easily continue the conversation. If I ever looked stuck, he would help me articulate how I was feeling without me even having to ask. I’ve found that in addition to taking ASL 1 and ASL 2 at school, so much of my learning and growth has been from interacting with EDCO students. Having conversations in ASL, whether it is a complicated as politics or as simple as your favorite color, is extremely beneficial. It has strengthened my visual attention, made me more comfortable with social norms, and helped me recognize words on the hands of people with a wide variety of singing styles. I can’t thank EDCO enough for letting me in and helping me become the signer I am today. This week I went to Rochester, NY to visit RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) as an accepted student. What makes RIT special is one of their nine colleges, NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), which is filled with Deaf and hard of hearing students, as well as interpreting students (me!).
Walking into the building and seeing everyone’s hands up, my heart skipped a beat. To be in an area with classrooms, cafes and lounges with a majority Deaf population was an incredible experience. I had gotten so used to life in the “hearing world” that I never considered a situation where I would be the minority. Previously, much of my signing experience has been with people my age in EDCO. At NTID it was cool to see the different singing styles of older students, younger siblings, and adult program directors. Interacting with each of them was a great learning experience, and seeing how the interpreters used different vocabulary to match the variety of signers was fascinating. Beyond NTID, there is a huge Deaf population in Rochester! When I was out to dinner I saw a big group of people sitting around a circle table signing. At the hotel I stayed in, many rooms were reserved for Deaf people, equipped with a doorbell that flashes lights instead of making noise. I only wish there was more accessibility for Deaf people in other parts of the country, but the hub in Rochester is an incredible start. I just got home from a service trip to Puerto Rico with a group of carpentry students from my school. There was an EDCO student and interpreter among us, and it was fascinating to see how everything got more complex outside of the classroom.
One major issue was that for a week-long trip, there was only one interpreter. That’s seven full days of interpreting morning announcements at home, instructions on the worksite, and many things in between. This is definitely more than a one person job. Looking at the bigger picture, even sending one of the four EDCO interpreters to Puerto Rico leaves a gap back at school. The other three interpreters have to cover for some classes, which shifts their whole schedule around. Either way, someone is being overworked. I noticed this trend, too, at Deaf Awareness Day recently. EDCO was hosting a day at school with presentations in the theater during three school blocks for teachers to take their classes. For each of these blocks, some EDCO students were at Deaf Awareness Day presenting or watching, and therefore needed an interpreter in the theater. My ASL teacher was presenting, and he needed an additional interpreter to voice for him and some of the students. The interpreter voicing needed another interpreter next to them to fill in if they got lost. Additionally, the EDCO students who chose to stay in their class instead of getting excused to go to Deaf Awareness Day needed interpreters in their classes. This was nearly impossible. With all hands on deck and a whole lot of organization by Jody and Rhys, Deaf Awareness Day was a success! Though figuring out how to have enough interpreters in each place was quite stressful, it certainly paid off in the end. There is no endpoint to learning for interpreters at EDCO. I witness them constantly thinking of clearer ways to interpret certain phrases, and there never seems to be one perfect answer in the end. There are always more signs to learn and more room for improvement, so it keeps interpreters on their toes.
More importantly, each year new students join the EDCO program, and it is all about the STUDENTS! Each has their own past experience with hearing loss, ASL and education, so the interpreters need to work to meet each of these student’s learning styles and needs. I am the kind of person who needs variety. I can’t go to work and sit at a desk doing the same thing everyday. I think interpreting will be a good fit, because it involves a wide variety of consumers and scenes which require a variety of adaptations to the signing and interpreting. One of the interpreters was recently interpreting a drag show one night, a physics class the next day and a show that included Korean Sign Language the following weekend. The combinations and possibilities are endless, and I can’t wait to see what kind of interpreting I will be doing in the future beyond education. There is a fine line between work and play when it comes to EDCO. With only a short lunch break to eat and talk with their coworkers before racing off to their next class, it would seem that the interpreters are working constantly.
However, they are interpreting for high school students who they have come to know well over the years. This means that, like high school teachers, the interpreters are able to be professional while also engaging with their students. Sometimes before class, the EDCO students chat with the interpreters and joke around. This isn’t fully "playing," rather a more relaxed part of working. The closest they get to playing is probably during EDCO events. There are some field trips throughout the year for all EDCO students and faculty. This year there was also a game night and a Spring dance, which are open to all of EDCO and similar programs from a couple other schools. Despite being on staff at their workplace well after hours on a Friday night, it seems like the interpreters are able to enjoy themselves at these events! According to their website, EDCO’s goal is to “offer specially designed instruction using a variety of communication modalities, including American Sign Language (ASL), audition and spoken English” and provide “meaningful learning opportunities that foster academic and social excellence.” Therefore, it seems the goal of interpreting in education is to provide a clearer path of communication between Deaf students and the hearing teachers and students in general education classes, so that they can excel academically and socially.
In addition to having interpreters, EDCO offers “sponsored activities to promote academic excellence, community involvement and leadership skills, particularly within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.” This allows Deaf students to, along with all the activities offered at NNHS, engage in activities with many other Deaf students beyond their school who may share their primary language, culture and experiences. For example, EDCO students are currently participating in the Academic Bowl and will soon be heading to Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. for the finals. I believe these experiences with Deaf peers in a majority Deaf environment, like Gallaudet, are crucial. The worst thing you can do to a student is isolate them. There are far too many accounts of Deaf children, born to hearing parents, put through a mainstream education system with no accommodations for, or acknowledgement, of their Deafness, forced into the auditory-oral method of communication. EDCO's goal is to provide a variety of services to meet each Deaf student’s preferred means of communication, which fosters a better learning environment and therefore, a greater development of academic and social success. The English class I observe is currently reading The Scottish Play. I had to type the real name into a Google search bar to figure out what the other acceptable name for it is, so does that mean I’m cursed or does it not count? Anyway… I’ve been talking with Jody and Krystal a lot recently about the complexities of interpreting Shakespeare. Most students reading Shakespeare, myself included, have no clue what he is saying! It takes time and effort to decode his beautifully complex use of old English, so when someone is reading a scene out loud for the first time, the other students will not immediately understand the text’s meaning even if they follow along in the book. When I watch Jody interpreting these passages, I understand what Shakespeare means as his words are being read. Not after a few minutes of breaking down the meaning of each individual word. AS HIS WORDS ARE BEING READ. This makes me feel superhuman! I soon discovered a major ethical question of interpreting. Is it right to interpret Shakespeare for a Deaf student as it is being read out loud? Some would argue that it gives the Deaf student an unfair advantage over the hearing students. The Deaf student receives a clearer “reading” of Shakespeare than the hearing students trying to decode the old English words. Others would argue that the Deaf student is already at a disadvantage, because they haven’t had the same exposure to English and have to work harder to keep up in class as everything is being relayed through an interpreter. In that case, some would say turning the confusing Shakespeare into clear, understandable ASL is simply leveling the playing field for the Deaf student. It is important to remember that interpreting Shakespeare is difficult. It is not just “garbage in, garbage out.” The interpreter has to already understand Shakespeare’s style, understand the meaning of what he is saying, and then output clear, accurate ASL. But if you could interpret Shakespeare well, like Jody can, would you? Is that ethical? I was reminded that at the end of the day, the goal is to help students become independent. So maybe the interpreter would explain what Shakespeare means in 9th grade, expand on sections to clarify as needed in 10th grade, only add information about English words that a Deaf student might not have previously been exposed to in 11th grade, and push them to ask the teacher for clarification and advocate for themselves in 12th grade to prepare for straight-up interpreting in college. There is no clear marking of these lines in an interpreter’s job description, so I would like to hear more opinions on the ethics of interpreting Shakespeare in high school to see if there are any unspoken rules to turn to. Last Friday, both EDCO students in the classes I observe were out on a field trip. The interpreters’ schedules were adjusted, and I planned to observe them in whatever classes they got moved to cover. In the end, our schedules didn’t line up and during the blocks of my day designated to my internship, I read an article they shared with me, edited my website and began to work on an upcoming IIP. Though I was able to be productive during that time, I was disappointed that I hadn’t had very much observation and time with the interpreters that week. Last Monday was a snow day, so there was no school. Thursday I only had one class. Friday I had none. I was only able to eat lunch with the interpreters once.
This Monday I was eager get to back in the swing of things, but the students were out again, on the same trip I assume. I contacted the interpreters to see if there was another class I could observe, but our schedules didn’t line up. Because my internship takes place at school, my internship observation blocks are scattered among my regular class blocks. This initially worked well, because it gave me more options in choosing which classes to observe.However, when it comes to a change in plans, my schedule is not very flexible. For example, when the EDCO student is out and the interpreter gets moved to work at the middle school for the day, even though I am available during my internship blocks, I can’t join them. I can’t have Calc and then run to the middle school and back before English! So, unfortunately, I have not had as much observation time as usual. That being said, I have spent these recent internship blocks working on my ASL vlog, which might be ready to debut this week. Since the vlog is all signed, I have spent hours each day reworking and practicing to make sure my signing is clear, accurate and expressive. I also finished and sent a survey to the teachers at my school who have EDCO students in their classes this year, to learn their view on interpreters in the classrooms. I realize now that working at any industry involves adapting when plans change, and since the CAPS interns are still students taking high school classes for parts of the day, matching up with an adjusted schedule on the spot isn’t always possible. I will continue to remember that this internship is an exploration, and that even if I have a reduced amount of hours of observation, working on my website, creating and sending surveys, and responding to the IIPs are all equally important to rounding out my internship experience. |
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