One more thing I must share about NAOBI— something that moved me and touched my heart. Now, I know it sounds funny to talk about “black people” and point out the differences between their culture and mine— black people’s and white people’s. It seems “politically correct” to be hush-hush about the differences between black people and white people, but I want to tell you some positive things about what’s different about black culture! And this is so neat. It seems — now, I interpreted for a full week last year at the NBDA (National Black Deaf Advocates, a deaf association) conference, and at the end of the week, we danced!— It seems to me that black people cannot get together and not dance. It seems that every conference I’ve been to — and that’s only two, but still — in my experience, when black people gather for a conference, they’ve got to dance together. And it’s so much fun! They had a DJ playing music loud, and everyone danced together— deaf people, interpreters, everyone. And they line up facing each other while people dance down the aisle, you know, like Soul Train. That’s where everyone lines up in two lines facing each other, forming an aisle, and as people move up to the front of the line, they dance down the aisle and do their own thing, show their personality, express what they’re feeling. Everyone on the sidelines cheers them on, goads them on, and roots for them. You strut down that aisle, you dance, you swing, you move your body, and you do your thing, you express yourself. Oh, it’s fun! And people are fiercely supportive.
Hi. I’m Daniel Greene, and this vlog is about my experience at NAOBI, a conference for the National Alliance of Black Interpreters. It was a really great experience. I had gone to the RID Region V conference in Salt Lake City the week before, and now I was teaching workshops at NAOBI here in Phoenix. (Last time I did a video about this I accidentally said, “Here in San Diego.” That’s crazy, but it’s because I lived in San Diego for such a long time — twenty-seven years altogether — and I moved to Phoenix five-and-a-half years ago at the end of 2004. Funny. I still sometimes say, “Here in San Diego.”)
So, anyway, here in Phoenix, I taught two workshops. I was actually scheduled to teach three, but oddly enough, the first morning of the conference, there were so few people and so many concurrent workshops — eight workshops at the same time! And I don’t know how many attendees there were at the conference that first morning. I do know that some of the other workshops only had a handful of attendees as well. One person showed up to my workshop, and I told her I would be happy to teach her all the workshop content even though she was the only one, that we could work it out between the two of us. But if she wanted to join another workshop, she should feel free to do so, and I would take no offense. So she went to another workshop, which was fine with me.
Reflections on my recent experience at the RID Region V conference, the benefits of the policy of using ASL at all times during the conference (except in a few of the workshops that were interpreted), and the great contribution of deaf interpreters to the field. I also discuss my experience as a workshop presenter and my thoughts on how to make my discussions of interpreting less hearing-interpreter-centric, and more inclusive of all interpreters, especially deaf interpreters.
I presented my workshop "Knowing What They’re Going to Say Before They Say It: Using Genre Recognition to Improve Your Predictive Skills" at the Arizona RID (Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf) State Conference on Saturday, March 28, 2009 from 1-4:30 PM. It was the first time I’d ever presented at a state conference, and they put me in the smallest meeting room (the Palo Verde room) at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.
Can you believe that a total of 27 attendees filled this room beyond capacity? I was astounded at the turnout. I was too busy during my workshop to even think about taking pictures, but as I was leaving the space after packing up all my things, I paused to say a prayer of thanks; then I took this photo to commemorate the moment. I am hopeful to teach workshops at other conferences throughout the rest of my life. It may sound corny, Continue reading →
I crave excitement and I have a need to achieve. Sometimes, though, it seems that all my projects overlap and the pressure feels crushing. One way that I handle the pressure is to avoid it, which in turn makes the pressure even worse by the time I get back to work on what I’ve been procrastinating.
So, what are all the things I’m doing (and/or avoiding doing) right now? Well, there is the matter of taxes. My husband’s employer somehow forgot to take out any taxes for him in 2008, and he somehow never noticed this. So I have to pay his tax debt with my tax refund. But to get my tax refund, my tax accountant needs to return my phone calls and e-mails, which so far he hasn’t. The sooner I get my taxes filed, the sooner I get my return, and the sooner we can file my husband’s taxes along with the money he owes. I would be nice if filing jointly were an option for same-sex couples.
Then there is the Arizona RID State Conference this weekend. I am presenting a workshop on Saturday afternoon titled “Knowing What They’re Going to Say Before They Say It: Using Genre Recognition to Improve Your Predictive Skills.” I’m in a competing time slot with Ari-Asha Castalia, Sharon Neumann Solow, and Teddi Von Pingel, so no pressure there. Continue reading →
I’m such a nit-picking perfectionist it’s killing me! I’m working on tweaking my slideshow presentation for a workshop I’m teaching at the Arizona RID State Conference, and I’m creating a Venn diagram because it was suggested by a few of the participants when I first taught this workshop last November. Problem is I’ve never created a Venn diagram before. I’m trying to represent how Genre Recognition is a skill that develops at the intersection of Discourse Analysis, Predictive Skills*, and Genre Theory.
Is this diagram readable? Does anyone have any suggestions for improving it? Can you believe I’ve been working on this for an hour? Urgh! I hate being a perfectionist!
*While Googling "predictive skills" (a term used a lot in ASL interpreter training), I could not find a single page that defined the term. Hm… interesting.
The “attitude” of an interpreter toward ASL and Deaf Culture is highly valued by the deaf consumers we serve. Hence, an ASL ITP should teach the attitudes and cultural values that are desired by deaf consumers. Some say that one way to weed out “unsuitable types” from ITP’s and from the interpreting field is to pre-screen candidates to ITP’s to check for suitability. I disagree with this. I believe it is prejudiced and discriminating to disallow students to enter an ITP based on some personality inventory delivered and interpreted by people who are not licensed psychologists. For that matter, even if one brought in licensed psychologists to “pre-screen” candidates, I would be offended.
Some people claim that deaf consumers “used to” naturally select interpreters who were suitable and weed out those who are not, but “so much has changed in the last several years” that the deaf culture is no longer fulfilling this function and that it now must be taken up by college faculty. For one thing, where is the evidence that the deaf community no longer weeds out unsuitable interpreters? There are still many processes by which deaf consumers can assert control over who interprets for them. If enough deaf consumers refuse to work with an interpreter, that interpreter will not work. There are grievance processes in place. I would bet that most ITP’s don’t even have the luxury of turning away students because not that many people are clamoring to become ASL interpreters. If you teach in a community that really has that many people who want to become ASL interpreters, why not allow them into the program, teach them what they need to know, send them on their way, and let the free market sort them out? Continue reading →
Here are some of the things I learned, was reminded of, or thought about during the CIT conference I attended this past week:
I was reminded that people remember most what they learn first and last (primacy and recency). In the future, when I teach a class or a workshop, I will begin and end with exercises that engage students in active learning that is content-focused. Also, I was taught that nothing shuts down a student more than fear and anxiety. Hmm… Note to self: in the future, do not begin a class by giving out graded homework that for several students is copiously red-penned and graded lower than they might have liked, and do not end class with a discussion of the next homework assignment! Instead, begin a class session with a lively, fun exercise that engages students in active learning that is tied directly into the content matter of the class. End with a summary of what I taught them in class that day, or — better yet! — with an active learning exercise in which the students take turns summarizing (teaching each other) what they learned in class that day. Don’t bother marking up their papers with all kinds of editorial marks. If their writing is very poor, give them a poor grade and have them come to you after class if they want to talk about it. Hand out homework on a paper to them as they leave the classroom. Take care of “housekeeping” during the middle of class. Save the first and last portions of the class for the meat of the lesson. (Inspiration: “Designing and Delivering Effective, Learner-Engaged Trainings” by Len Roberson and Shannon Simon — one of the only workshops I ever gave all fives to on the RID evaluation form)
A conference venue for attendees who communicate in sign language must have large common areas, wide corridors, non-distracting walls (e.g. floral patterns and huge mirrors), and lighting that is bright but not glaring. Unfortunately, the Red Lion Hanalei Hotel in San Diego was not an ideal conference venue for visual-gestural communication and traffic flow!
Discourse analysis and genre recognition are areas that I would like to do further learning and teaching on. Continue reading →
One of the first people I saw when I got to the CIT conference on Wednesday was Jared Evans of DeafRead. We went out to lunch together and discussed blogging, vlogs, captioned videos, and voice acting (voiceover) for ASL videos. He’s just as nice and smart a guy as I felt he was from his blogs and vlogs.
I’m here in San Diego for the Conference of Interpreter Trainers (CIT) conference. We’re all wearing this wristband (pic above) to remind us all to communicate in ASL out of respect for the language at the center of our work and for our deaf colleagues who taught it to us and continue to teach it with us. I came here to learn more about training ASL interpreters. The first night I was here, it was exciting to see some of the grand dames of ASL interpreting, including: Sharon Neumann Solow, Betty Colonomus, Anna Witter-Merithew and Theresa Smith. I also saw Dennis Cokely, co-author of the “green books” and theorist of the “Cokely Model.” I saw a couple of more recent famous workshop presenters: Julie Simon and Robyn Dean. Past President of RID, Ben Hall, was here. I had the pleasure of interpreting his address to the RID Western Regional Conference in Boise, Idaho back in 2000.
Of course I also saw many of my old San Diego intereting colleagues, including RID president Angela Jones and RID Region V Rep Rob Balaam (who moved to San Francicso in 1993 but used to work with me at San Diego Mesa College), Melissa Smith of Palomar College, who mentored me in theatrical interpreting back in 1994, and Jean Kelly, author of Show Me the English, who mentored me way back in 1993 and taught me how to “show ‘em the English” and helped me earn my Certificate of Transliteration (CT) in 1999.
It was a real treat to watch a magic show put on by kids from California State School for the Deaf, Riverside. They entertained us on Wednesday night. After that, it was a hoot to watch Rowdy Vision, a troupe of three deaf actors/comedians led by Jon Savage of lenois.com.
It’s an invigorating and stimulating time! More to come later.
