Daniel Greene

Blog

  • I Found Some Other ASL Interpreter Blogs

    It wouldn’t be the first time I was the first one on the Internet to do something (see my Style Sheets Demo Page and HyperHaiku), but thankfully, I am not the first ASL interpreter to have a blog. I did some more searching this morning on DeafBlogs and found some other interpreter blogs. Here they are:

    • certified_terps, a LiveJournal community
    • anti_bad_terps, a LiveJournal community
    • OakHomey— I don’t see much there about interpreting, except that he feels he can’t blog about his personal life because it would damage his relationship with his clients. Hm…
    • Shanni’s Blog— I don’t see much about interpreting there, but there are some posts that mention her experiences as an interpreter, and there are lots of beautiful photos.

  • What I Love about VRS

    In a recent post, I bemoaned the lack of interpreter-client relationship that comes of the anonymity imposed upon video interpreters. When I first wrote that, about a month before I published it on my blog, my morale about video relay interpreting was in a bit of a slump. Getting out and doing more interpreting in the community, i.e. face-to-face, has revitalized me, I guess. Lately, I really enjoy going in to work, and I’d like to share here some of what I think is great about VRS (in no particular order).

    1. I love going to the call center and working 4–6 hours in one place without having to drive all over the county to several shorter jobs.
    2. I love using technology to improve the lives of deaf people and their hearing family members, friends, and co-workers.
    3. I love being on TV in homes all over the country. It’s what I always wanted! 😉
    4. I love it when I interpret a call and the hearing and/or deaf people say to their interlocutor, “Wow! I finally understand you!
    5. I love meeting deaf people from all different regions of the U.S. and learning all their different regional signs.
    6. I love the “cross-pollenation” that is happening with deaf people and interpreters in various regions talking to each other in ASL, and I believe this might help to standardize ASL a bit more and make it easier for people to understand each other wherever they’re from.
    7. I love how my voice interpreting (ASL-to-English interpreting) has improved since I began doing VRS interpreting!
    8. I love exploring the unique challenges that come with VRS interpreting such as: register variation (from intimate to frozen, sometimes in the same call), unfamiliarity with topic, personnel, and specialized vocabulary.
    9. I love the fact that, since I got a regular job doing VRS interpreting, I’ve been able to buy a home and begin saving for my retirement!
    10. Oh! And I love seeing people’s adorable pets on camera! Brightens my day!

    There are others things I love, but that’s all I can think of for now. 🙂

  • Where Are The ASL Interpreter Blogs?

    Is it possible that mine is the first ASL interpreter blog? I have searched the Internet for other ASL interpreter blogs, and I can’t find any. There are hordes of Deaf Blogs and Vlogs out there—hooray for deaf people!—but where in the blogosphere are my interpreting colleagues?

    I wonder if there are no ASL interpreter blogs because we have to keep our mouths shut about our work to protect client confidentiality. Yes, we need to protect our consumers, but we can talk about our work publicly! I believe it will benefit our profession and our consumers, too, if we talk about our work in a way that is illuminating without betraying any confidential information.

    That is my goal here—to talk about ASL signing and interpreting in such a way as to inform and stimulate discussion while maintaining a sense of professionalism and respect for my colleagues and our hearing and deaf consumers. I look forward to the time when this blog is full of comments from deaf and hearing readers engaged in meaningful dialogues that have a profound and positive effect on the work we do and the people we serve. I look forward to adding other ASL interpreter blogs to my blogroll and being added to theirs.

    Blog on, ‘terps!

    Related posts:

  • Deaf Guy Touts Top Ten WordPress Plugins

    This guy subscribed to my videos on YouTube (thank-you-very-much!) so I checked him out. He has several ASL videos, and one in particular caught my eye because my new blog is “powered by WordPress.” In this video, he describes his 10 favorite WordPress plugins. I’m glad I watched, because several of the plugins he described could improve the functionality of my blog.

    While watching his video, I felt so happy to understand ASL! Ah, the benefits of knowing a second language! 😀

  • My Experience in the Performing Arts

    The performing artist side of me

    Background

    I was born into a family that appreciated the arts, and I got an early start at singing. My first role was Jerome in South Pacific at Camp Saskatchewan in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York when I was eight years old. When my family moved from New York to San Diego when I was ten, I was fortunate that the San Diego School of Creative & Performing Arts opened its doors only months later. I attended SCPA from sixth grade through high school graduation. From there, I went to UCLA to study Theatre Arts. I learned a lot about theater but wasn’t ready for college, I guess, so I worked in LA for a while before moving back to San Diego. Then I realized I wanted to learn ASL, so I went to Mesa College, lived with a deaf man, and in a couple of years I became an interpreter.

    ASL interpreting has been my day job since 1990, but I have continued to involve myself in the performing arts. I have performed in straight plays, musicals, operettas, and even opera. I have trained in voice acting (a.k.a. voiceover) and on-camera acting and have some voiceover and student film credits to my name, including one voiceover/camera commercial. I have studied singing under several singing teachers including Dianna Ruggiero, Stephen Crawford, and Dan Hooper. My most recent performing arts experience was singing in the opera chorus of Aïda with the Phoenix Opera in February 2009.

    When not performing on stage, I use my YouTube channels azsingersigner and danieljamesgreene as an outlet for singing and a do a lot of photography that I share on Flickr.

    Voiceover

    In 2003, I began an earnest study of voice acting with The Commercial Clinic in San Diego, CA. I have a Commercial, Corporate, and Audiobook voiceover demo. If you would like to hear it, please contact me.

    I first explored voiceover work when I played the title character in The Invisible Man radio drama at the San Diego School of Creative & Performing Arts when I was 11.

    Some of the voiceover jobs I have done include:

    • On-camera/voiceover 60-second promo spot for a Makeover Madness show on Community View
    • Gambler in a radio ad for Golden Acorn Casino
    • Ring Announcer in a soundtrack for a multi-media performance art piece called Chela
    • Reader of short stories, poems, and pronunciation drills for the companion CD to a textbook called Monthly Integrated Method ESL for a Mexican company called Advanced Methods Company
    • A radio ad to promote a play I was in with The Alternative Theatre Company on Energy Arizona FM

    One of my voiceover mentors, Penny Abshire, wrote a lovely testimonial of my work. Thanks, Penny!