The Written Test

As you can tell I am a terrible blogger. I am almost 4 months later on the next step to become an interpreter.

Just to recap: The first step is to learn and become fluent in ASL. To do that you must develop a passion for ASL, take classes, and interact with the Deaf community and other ASL users.

Now for the second step. Taking the written test. You need to pass the written test in order to take the performance test. I live in Utah so I will address both the Utah and the NIC test.

The written test really isn't that hard. You don't need to know much ASL, and if you study you'll do fine.

The books:

So You Want to be an Interpreter? by Humphries and Alcorn

This book explains the basic fundamentals of interpreting. It is really simply written and gets to the point. It explains the different models of interpreting, and how to apply the Code of Professional Conduct (CPC) to real life. Make sure you get the latest edition. Mine was a little outdated and didn't have the new CPC. I was able to read it in just under a week with frequent breaks for highlighting, note taking, and re reading.

Reading Between the Signs by Mindess

This was my favorite book on ASL interpreting. It discusses the differences between mainstream American Culture and Deaf Culture. Deaf culture is High Context which means they share a lot of information that Americans just don't include. It tells you how you should handle the differences and discusses the issue of cultural adjustments. She argues that the only way to convey the "spirit and intent" of the speaker is to include adjustments so that the other culture can understand. I took a class where this was the text book, so I read it over the course of a semester.

Those two books were the most important in helping me prepare for the test. A lot of questions came from them, and they were both helpful in building the foundation for my interpreting.

The classes:

ASL 3050: Interpreting 1

This was my very first class I took at UVU. I had an... interesting... teacher. It was sometimes hard to understand his signing, and I don't believe he organized his class very well. Don't get me wrong, he is a great person and a good interpreter, but not the best teacher. Most people at UVU know exactly who I am talking about, so I'm not going to slander his name online. I really do enjoy talking to the man outside of class. This class helped me understand the models I read about in more detail. It helped me memorize important dates, and get an introduction to the CPC.

ASL 3360: Cross Cultural Communications

This is the class that goes along with Mindess's book. It was very interesting, and I got a lot of insight from people who were already working interpreters. We applied cultural adjustments to real world situations and discussed what "spirit and intent" meant.

This is the second time I've mentioned "spirit and intent." That phrase comes from the CPC. It is something that a lot of interpreters fall back on when they are faced with a tough situation. The premise of it is that we are not to interject our own words into an interpretation. We must convey the spirit and intent of the speaker who said it. That means sometimes we must expand or compress a culturally laden topic to get at what the speaker was meaning.

CPC:

The Code of Professional Conduct is the most important thing to study. You don't need to have it memorized... yet. Make sure you understand the basic meaning and have the main tenants and guiding principles memorized.

Linguistics:

You need to understand basic ASL and English grammar. You don't need all the intricacies of directional pronouns found in ASL, but you need to know word order, and the types of verbs found in ASL. The tests don't cover the newest findings in ASL linguistics (which was frustrating for me because I love linguistics and so I like to study the new stuff). I mean they still call depicting verbs classifiers! *shakes head sadly* Even though they call them the wrong thing, you still need to know how to use and describe them.

Other things:

I invested in the NIC written practice exam. It is a selection of questions from the old test. A lot of the questions are still on the new one. Also take the Utah Practice test online. Just go to the rid.org and aslterpsutah.org for a more complete list of what to study.

So these are the things that helped me. I recommend taking both the NIC and Utah written exams in the same weekend because a lot of the information overlaps.

The biggest tip I can give about the Utah test is to ask Mitch. The Utah written exam is not very well written and there are a few questions where there are two right answers but they only want one of them. Mitch will tell you which one they want.

Like I said the tests weren't that hard. Just go in there prepared and you will do fine. I passed both on my first try with flying colors.

My Journey

This is the story of how I am becoming an ASL/English interpreter.

It all started really when my big sister learned ASL in college. I thought she was the coolest person ever, and I wanted to be just like her. I decided to learn ASL, so I learned a few signs like cookie and the alphabet. This was in 5th grade.

Fast forward... I moved to Northern Virginia. 8th grade. In my Civics class there was a Deaf boy. His name is Chris. No one interacted with him except his uncle who was also his interpreter. I thought he was cool so I decided to make friends with him and invited him to sit with us at lunch. It was hard to communicate, my friends and I mostly wrote notes to him, and he taught us a few signs and read our lips. It was fun. He was cute too. Then we went to High School and luckily my HS had ASL classes, but because of my end of the alphabet last name I didn't get in as a freshman. Chris disappeared, I think he probably went to the Gallaudet Prep school. Sophomore year I took ASL 1. Fell in love with the language.... and then we moved to MA where there were no ASL classes. Awful...

Fast forward... college BYU. I decided instead of taking higher math I would take ASL all the way through to the end. I took all the classes offered and learned the language pretty well. I went to ASL club when I could and a few ASL retreats. I interacted with the Deaf community at BYU as best I could. The ASL retreats were really what got me thinking about being an interpreter, but I was going for a Music Education major and didn't really consider it a possibility because BYU didn't offer interpreting courses. At my first UVU sponsored retreat, they had a lot of information about their program, and I got really excited. The next semester after much soul searching because the Music Program wasn't going to let me in, I decided to become an interpreter. Problem was, as I mentioned before, BYU didn't have any classes or even a minor in ASL. Next best thing was Linguistics where I emphasized in studying ASL. I finished my entire major in 3 semesters. Graduated and set my sights on UVU.

I "transferred" (I was already graduated I just didn't have money for a graduate tuition) to UVU. ASL Linguistics is awesome. It was the first ASL course I took that really helped me learn how ASL worked. Interpreting 1 not so much. I was terrified. UVU students had a lot more ASL courses than I did and signed a lot better than I did. I could understand just fine, but I'm sure a lot of little concepts just went over my head. I went to their retreat again, and I felt a little bit better. Just a few classes were helping me improve my signing skill 10 fold. I had more opportunities to interact with Deaf people at UVU. I think that is the most important part of learning ASL, or any language for that matter (that's the Linguistics major in me talking).

Now I feel a lot better about this career I've chosen. I have done enough to pass the written portion of my certification and every day I can see myself improving towards that goal of the performance test.

Now for this blog. I will describe what I learned in each class in detail to what I think is important. Because I have already passed the written portion, I know exactly what to say with that part. Remember I haven't passed the performance part yet so just bear with me as I am learning. I will also post some interpretations so you can see my progress. I will also post some papers that I have written for classes that I think are relevant.

If you are an interpreter, please feel free to comment on my interpretations or any information you may have to add to any of my posts. If you are Deaf, please feel free to leave comments about what I can do to improve, and things you like to see in an interpreter. If you are a student, welcome to the field, and also leave comments on what you would like to know. If you are family, now you know what this whole career is about.