Student evaluations of college professors are biased and worthless.
Tag: feedback
My thesis on vague language (VL) is almost finished!
After many months of work, I am going to send the penultimate draft of my master’s thesis to my thesis committee. I will await their feedback, make changes, and hope to defend before the end of February.
Looking forward to meeting people at my poster session at CIT
I recorded this video as a response to a researcher and interpreter trainer I met at the last Conference of Interpreter Trainers, but I’m posting it here because it applies to anyone who attends the conference next week in Charlotte, NC. I welcome everyone to come by my poster, ask me anything, challenge my research, give me feedback, etc. I will have about a month to make adjustments to my thesis before I defend at the end of November, so your feedback on my thesis-in-progress is most welcome!
Interpreting teams being blunt with each other for the sake of consumers
They did not seem to find a need to soften the statements with qualifiers or with the use of questions. As indicated earlier, this may be due to their comfort level with each other.
–Shaw, 1995 p. 265
I read the above statement in an article by Risa Shaw called “A conversation: Written feedback while team interpreting” and it summarized the many examples of respectfully blunt notes the interpreting team wrote to each other. I envy their rapport, that they were able to be so blunt with each other for the sake of their consumers! I felt the same envy when I read the article in the Views last spring by the husband-wife interpreting team and the notes they wrote to each other while teaming (Snyder & Snyder, 2011). I have not had many experiences with no-nonsense, helpful, “just-say-it” note-taking; yes, I have done notes, and it has been helpful, but I don’t think the notes between me and my partners have ever been as dedicated to excellence as these examples are.
Have you had the pleasure of such note-taking with your team interpreters? I would love to read some examples of notes you have written to each other that have had positive affects on the work at hand. Consumers: Have you even been aware of the feedback your interpreting teams are giving each other that is positively or negatively affecting the service you receive? Please leave comments.
References
Shaw, R. (1995). A conversation: Written feedback while team interpreting. In Elizabeth W. (Ed.) Mapping Our Course: A Collaborative Venture, pp. 245-276. Charlotte, NC: Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Retrieved from http://www.cit-asl.org/members/PDF/Proceedings/CIT%201994.pdf
Snyder, C. & Snyder, N. (2011). Let’s go team! Views 28(2). Alexandria, VA: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.
Re: Interpreters receiving feedback even when it’s mean or vague
A video response to Mikey Krajnak’s video about ways that interpreters accept and deal with feedback. I relate my experience in the MA in Interpreting Studies program at WOU and what I’m learning about effective and nonjudgmental ways interpreters can give each other feedback, including Demand-Control Schema, Observation-Supervision, and Case Conferencing. I also ask Mikey what he thinks about whether “the customer is always right” and how to give good customer service as an interpreting professional.
Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies & interpreter feedback
My reflections after the first week of our two-week face-to-face session (or colloquium). I learned a lot, and I share what I learned about feedback as a follow-up to the video I posted about receiving unsolicited feedback last week. Topics include Demand-Control Schema, Talking about “The Work,” practitioner-centered approach, professional discussion, case conferencing, listening, observation/supervision, nonjudgmental inquiry, guided self-discovery, etc.
Creators & haters, and why sharing doesn’t equal soliciting criticism
In this signed language video, I talk about my experience of sharing a sample of my interpreting and transliterating work and receiving unsolicited criticism on it. Haters tend to be people with no real names and no creative works of their own. All they do is shoot down others’ work and give nothing to YouTube. As an interpreter, I am courageous enough to share my work–imperfect though it may be–with the world so that people may see it, but I am not thick skinned enough to take criticism about it. I think there are things a person creates and is willing to share with the world but doesn’t want to allow responses on because they don’t want the criticism and they don’t need the praise. This is how I feel about the sample I posted yesterday.
