I just bought tickets for Zumanity for Feb 16th. But really I’m posting to list my grades from high school, the transcript for which I received today. It’s kind of messy but I’ll try to make it make sense.
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I know all I’ve been talking about lately is my car and college. Well, the car is pretty much taken care of. I got my registration and title yesterday, and today I went to the Pass & ID Office and got the new DOD decals that make my car truly official again. Tonight I will put on my new plates. The bumper sticker I ordered still hasn’t arrived (shipped on 11/2/06) but I happened upon a whole bag of other stickers I might decide to use.

My college application is sent. *falls over* It’s hard for me to describe how scary it is to be applying to college 10 years after the first time. I hope I get in. I heard back about the SAT scores; apparently you need to have 12 credit hours and some of those might have to be Math and English in order to avoid needing the SAT scores. I can’t tell from the fee table if the $17.50 “retrieval fee for archived scores” is just for them to find it, and I’d have to pay the additional $9.50 to have it sent out, or…I dunno. I am going to wait until Gallaudet tells me if they need those scores or not. I took the AP English test when I was in high school so I “tested out” of English 101, and I got a low grade in English 102, but I took it…I don’t remember what my math situation was. But anyway, the application has been sent, transcripts have been requested from high school, college, and the ITP program I was in for fall 2003 - I got a 4.0 so hopefully that will be attractive to Gallaudet. One of the recommendation forms has been sent to the person who’s filling it out for me, and I’ll be handing the other forms to my supervisor at my annual review on Friday.

My annual review is on Friday?! I need to focus on that for a while.

Looking for friends from high school or college?

I made the mistake of signing up for a 7-day free trial at Classmates.com and forgetting to cancel it. So I’m in for a year, to the tune of $39. Please let me know if you want me to look anyone up and contact them; I’ll need your e-mail address so they can get back in touch with you. (And I’ll be manually munging your address, so feel free to give it to me already munged; Classmates.com strips un-munged e-mail addresses from messages.)

I had been told the evaluations from the class I taught this weekend were good, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to read them. Fortunately one of the students posted some thoughts - thanks, Kit!

The first class I attended was the ASL class. I was very impressed with this class, because the presenter didn’t show, and they asked the interpreter to do the class - and out of no where, she managed to pull together a rather sucessful class (in my opinion it was pretty sucessful - especially for having been told that morning she was doing the class). I really enjoyed this class - we learned a couple of kink-related signs, as well as a couple basic signs I already knew. The presenter also talked a bit about the deaf community, and the difference between ASL and signed English. One thing I think is really interesting is how the sign for cochlear implant is the same as for vampire, it’s just behind the ear instead of on the neck (I think that might say something about someone’s opinion of cochlear implants…). Anyway, I enjoyed the class, and despite the presenter not showing up, still managed to get a lot out of it. The one thing that sucked was about half-way through the class, one of the deaf attendees at LLC came into the presentation looking for the interpreter - there was a class he wanted to see, and there wasn’t any other interpreters. Luckily, he was very gracious, and sat down in the class with us and shared some of his experiences with us. It was mildly confusing to have a voice interpreter, but he signed far too fast for me to understand most of what he was signing - I did get a couple words here and there. But he did say this was one example of the hardships he faced - and that kinda sucked.

I found myself giving a big chunk of advice to a person who wants to be an interpreter but can’t find an ITP near enough to home, so I figured I’d share it here.

It is possible to get certified without attending an ITP. As ayala920 said, I’ve done it. The main goal of most ITPs is to get you ready to take a state-level certification test. Those tests are mostly used in educational interpreting - business work and other types of interpreting usually focuses more on national certification.

However I don’t think it’s possible to get certified without:

• experience
• feedback
• investment

Experience - In many locations it is possible to work as a “pre-certified” interpreter. I know Utah does NOT permit this, but individual state chapters of RID could give you more information. IMHO, experience is absolutely necessary before taking the test, whether you’ve been through an ITP or not. Experience will teach you about handling situations on the fly - things you can’t learn from a book. This includes ethical decisions, “oh my god how do I sign that” decisions, “the client is falling asleep now what do I do” decisions, etc. Experience is absolutely crucial. If you go through an ITP, they will sometimes help you get an internship or some practical experience somewhere. If you don’t go through an ITP, you might still be able to find “pre-certified” work with an interpreting agency. The only way to know if you’re good enough to interpret for them is to go and interview with them.

Feedback - You absolutely must hear from others, you can’t just interpret on your own and assume you’re a good terp. You want to hear from deaf clients, hearing clients, and fellow interpreters. This is a main concern with online ITPs - they cannot provide immediate feedback about all aspects of the interpreting session. Even if you are able to film yourself interpreting a live job, you won’t be able to capture all the environmental aspects. The person viewing the video won’t know the microphone wasn’t working, or that the room was really cold, etc. There’s no way to know you’re doing a good job without somebody qualified to tell you.

Investment - This is an important part of getting certified without attending an ITP. There are a few things to invest in, and the most important is probably the So You Want To Be An Interpreter book (I believe it’s about $60). This book was the bible for anyone taking the old written and CI/CT tests. It’s still very valid for the new NIC test. It tells you not only the history, ethics, placement, and other textbook stuff that will be on the written, but it also explains process models and the actual job of interpreting - that is, what your brain does. We always say “a signer is not an interpreter” - that is, just because someone is fluent in ASL does not mean they are qualified to interpret. Your brain has to work a certain way in order to interpret well (I actually consider my ADHD an asset in interpreting!), and the book goes into that. Another thing to invest in could be test prep courses. I took a $100 online course with Signs of Development to help prepare with the written test, and it was definitely a big help.

I don’t have a college degree or an ITP certificate, and I’m nationally certified. So it is definitely possible. One word of caution is to keep an eye on the education requirements - check the italicized part at the bottom of this page for info on when you will need a degree in order to sit for RID certification. Another good page on the RID website is the Terp FAQ. Check it out.

Harvard University has been around longer than the United States - a lot longer. Only sixteen years after the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, they established an institute of higher learning that has lasted for more than 350 years.
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In recent times, deafness has not been regarded as a barrier to learning, and deaf children attend mainstreamed schools and deaf schools across the country. But this was not always the case. In fact, prior to the early 19th century, deaf children received virtually no formal education. Certainly some were taught to read and write by family members, but many worked in jobs that valued physical skills over mental ones. The person who was instrumental in changing this situation would later lend his name to the world’s first liberal arts university for the deaf.
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My mom sent me a link to this article from my hometown newspaper, which is about the possibility of the school system adopting ASL as a foreign language. Currently there’s only one high school that offers a sign language class, and it’s only given as an elective credit. Here’s what I wrote to the editor, cc’d to the article’s author and the teacher mentioned in the article.
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