So I am trying this blogspot page as a discussion forum. Here are the questions from my email:
How it went for you, both positives and challenges.
What do you think would have assisted in working out those challenges?
Did you think it was beneficial? If so, why? If not, why?
Did your Deaf participants provide useful feedback?
What was your overall take away (for you) that experience provided?
Would you be interested in these types of events again?
5 comments:
Arriving earlier provided the benefit to take in all the booths and talk with the vendors one on one to learn about the products and their "sales pitch". It helped that the event had not started so it was easy to meet with everyone for a brief time.
The challenge for me while stage interpreting was not having enough knowledge of the 1st presentation. The terminology and deep rooted issues related to sustainability, as well as the presenters pace is what effected my interpretation production. Working with a team for feeds, as well as a time to switch out is what helped me take a moment to reframe my thought process. Although the first presentation I did not think was successful, I kept challenging myself to continue to try different speakers and presentation styles and I think I improved by the end of the day.
Working one on one with the Deaf participants, I learned when asking for feedback, instead of "How'd I do?" and getting vague feedback of "It was good", I am going to ask for more specific feedback: "Was my fingerspelling clear enough?" "Was my signing space big enough from your seat?".
I do think it was successful event. I learned different aspects about myself as an individual interpreter, and also what I need from my team, and what I can provide to my team. I liked working this event and having an opportunity to interpret, as well as participate and learn a few things as an attendee.
Coming in to catch your last stage work, I was impressed. You looked at ease up there. But of course, you arrived much earlier so you were able to loosen up a little bit. The topic that you interpreted was interesting. It was about self journey and urging people to live a healthier lifestyle. Did it help you that you knew his goal and direction?
I think arriving early definitely was a plus. It was a chance to experience some of the tables and get a sense of the layout. The challenge was mostly based on the spontaneity of the event but at the same time that's what made it exciting for me. We didn't know what to expect from the presenters as well as the Deaf participants, whatever caught their eye is what we ended up going towards.
The movie was especially challenging because there were no captions. The "short" Doc felt like it went on forever. Factor in noise from the crowd, seating position in relation to the speaker the content and accents, I found myself getting lost at times but the assistance from my team, Pepper and Jenn helped keep me grounded and focused.
Ideally it helps to gather as much information as possible before hand but there was so much online that I got overwhelmed and didn't know where to narrow my focus.
I didn't receive specific feedback from the Deaf participants only that they really enjoy themselves and appreciated us being there. They wanted to keep going and going. I myself had a good experience with them as well as working with Sergio. I think I was caught up in the energy of the moment and was willing to keep going too. I didn't feel the fatigue until I got home then BOOM, I knocked out.
I would definitely do this type of event again. I agree with Kevin, there is always some incidental learning that occurs each time we are thrown into situations. We learn things about ourselves, how we handle stress, how we recover from being overwhelmed or stuck or afraid/embarrassed. I think the last ones may be the most important because fear/embarrassment usually is what affects everything else.
I arrived around the time Johnny and Marissa were interpreting a documentary. I came in to relieve Johnny. At first I was totally clueless as to what the documentary was about however, Marissa gave me a brief summary which helped a lot. One of the challenges I experienced was trying to understand and hear the speaker due to the speakers itself, accents and the seating arrangement. At this time, my team was in a better position to hear and understand the documentary, which helped when I needed to be fed.
One experience I felt was very beneficial was the cooking show that ran for approximately 30 minutes. The cooking show itself was very visual (pots, pans, vegetables etc.). I feel that I sometimes forget that I don't need to interpret every single word I hear especially, if there are visual props. For this particular setting, I did my best to throw focus onto the presenter and the visual props that he was utilizing. My goal was to allow the Deaf participant to see what the presenter was doing as much as possible. Nevertheless, it was quite challenging interpreting the presenter's jokes, idioms and puns but it was a good learning experience.
I didn't really receive any feedback from the participants perhaps, I should have asked how the participant felt about my interpretation of the jokes, idioms and puns. This is one thing I could keep in mind for the next group internship. Overall, this was a good experience. All of the vendors had a goal and it was interesting to try to include that in my interpretation.
I think that the event was a major learning experience for me. The first time I interpreted for a presenter, it was not good. I was unprepared. I was not familiar with the content. I did not even know what the topic was before I made the decision to put my hands up and start interpreting. It was simply put the perfect interpreting storm for me. I did not feel good about my work. The lessons we are taught in class regarding preparation was made glaringly clear during this experience and boy did I learn my lesson. Had I been faced with the decision to interpret this again I would have turned it down until I knew more information and felt comfortable with the content.
The positive experience for me was the booth hopping with the Deaf visitors as well as my interpretation of the second presenter. Booth hopping with the deaf visitors was made easy from my preparation of walking around that morning and getting an idea of all the different vendors that were present at the expo. I felt prepared for a good majority of the questions that might pop up as well as prepared for what an answer might look like. It was more relaxed and interactional making it easy to interpret more consecutively. The second presentation that I interpreted also felt much more effective in comparison to the first presentation. I was prepared for the topic and was very familiar with the content (making a green smoothie). I enjoy cooking and make my own version of a green smoothie at home from time to time so my ability to predict how he would move forward throughout his presentation to the group. My team briefly spoke with the presenter and then shared the information with me on what to expect.
I don't recall receiving particular feedback from any of the Deaf participants who came to the event, although to be fair I did not explicitly ask. I think Sergio did give me some brief feedback so I need to reach out to him to see if he can give expanded insight on what he thought of my interpretation of the first presentation.
I would most definitely be interested in events like this in the future.
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