Besides making sure they’re keeping their language skills up to par while dealing with workload, here are 4 major challenges top interpreters may encounter.
This article lists just a few challenges that interpreters make throughout their career, including that of trying to interpret jokes, not having a lot of preparation for an assignment, not being able to hear the speaker, and cultural knowledge. I can attest to some of these from my own experiences throughout my internship this semester. For instance, I had my first medical appointment today and I have never had any prior experience with medical, no mock practices, or any sort of preparation. However, I did take the time to reach out to the certified interpreter whom was a great help and gave me some suggestions on how to prepare myself for this situation. Although her advice was helpful, I still didn’t quite feel I was prepared enough and I am sure that this is something that many new interpreters feel when they get out into the field. You’re still gaining your skills, still connecting with the Deaf community and building up your receptive skills and understanding and maybe still focusing on the English words a little too much and then you’re put in an assignment that you’ve never been before and you’re uncomfortable. Everything is awkward, the client feels awkward because you look it and feel it too and communication is happening but awkward as well. So how do you fix it?? The advice given to me today was to find mock doctor’s appointments or find mock situations and start practicing interpreting them. Get familiar with them and try to adjust. But the point of this all is, this is something all interpreters struggle with. Specifically when they are new interpreters. They’re fresh out of an ITP (Interpreter Training Program) or some sort of Bachelors degree and trying to build their skills and reputation within the interpreting and Deaf community, don’t have a lot of experience, and they’re all just trying to make it and make sure nobody dies and nobody goes to jail. I think it really is just an adjustment period that everyone goes through and it would be better if we talked about it more often and thus why I thought this article was so beneficial to this blog. It shows that all interpreters struggle one way or another and it takes time to improve.