Which is your child?

You are at your son's football practice and because you can't leave practice, you are chasing your baby daughter around, trying to keep her out of trouble. At the end of practice you notice a group of parents signing with each other. This is your opportunity to introduce yourself.

Do you grab your baby, walk up to the group and introduce yourself saying your son is #12 and asking who their children are?
Do you introduce yourself as a working interpreter?
Do you walk the other direction because you don't want to get involved?
Do you feel awkward because you don't want to be the person who is like, "hi! I can sign too!"

You are interpreting at a job training center.  You are shadowing your client while another student teachers her a job.  Your client works extremely slow.  The other student is doing 3/4 of the work.  Do you have any responsibility to say something like, "if you want to continue with this training, you need to pick it up a bit."

Weekly roundup

Here are ethical dilemmas that happened this week:
Re-interpretation

Eye-roll!!!


Workshops
Long Island RID is hosting "So to Speak... Interpreting Figurative Language" on September 8.
http://lirid.org/

Deaf-Blind Training is hosting a webinar starting Monday, September 4th on Common Eye Diseases in the Deaf Community.

If you are interested in listing your workshop, contact me at ethicalterp@gmail.com.

Happy Terping!

Re-interpretation

Your client is preparing to take a hands on test. The instructor explains what needs to be done for prep then walks off. The Deaf client asks you to repeat what was said. So you re-interpret from memory what the instructor said. The instructor walks back and gives you a look that says, "what?" you realize it looks like you are assisting the Deaf client, perhaps helping them cheat.

--what would you do next time to avoid the appearance of cheating?
--if you weren't done with your initial interpretation--perhaps the client needed a lot of expansion--how could you keep the instructor there?
--what are your options?

Eye roll!!

Every time your client turns his back the instructor gives you a huge eye roll. The instructor makes, when your client isn't with you, about your client. You feel that, best case scenario, the instructor doesn't like your client. And worst case scenario, the instructor is deliberately sabotaging your client's chance at success.

-what are your options in this situation?
-are you to tell your client what the instructor says when the client is not around?

The Weekly Round Up

Here is what you may have missed this week. Please, share your thoughts!!!

Can we be friends?

Can I see your pictures?

Look who is sleeping!

I have a problem

Can we be friends?

You heart your client. You and her hit it off right away and chat about things you both love. You ask to Facebook friend her.

Yes? You love her!
No? Doesn't matter. She is a client.

Can I see your pictures

Just to follow up on the last post, should you even be looking at a client's pictures? Is it ok to show then your pictures?

Look who is sleeping

You are on break and looking through a client's pictures on their smart phone. Your client snapped a picture of your team sleeping on the job. What is your responsibly in this situation?

I have a problem

You are interpreting at a job training center. Your Deaf client starts chatting with you about her personal life. It's not her break and you assume she will get reprimanded for taking a break at an unauthorized time. (not to mention you don't want to know about her personal problems.)

Do you
-chat. Or at least pay attention. If she gets in trouble that is in her.
-advise her to get back to work.

The boss walls by, looks at her and you and asks what is going on. What do you do?

Weekly Round Up

Last week we had two posts.  In case you missed them, here they are again. 


You're here! Want to work?

Let Me Show You

Are you looking for workshops?

Classifiers: Make English Tangible

Logical Reasoning for ASL Court Interpreters

Happy Terping!

You're here! Great! Want to work?

Today you have to go into your agency's office to take care of paperwork.  You expect waiting time, disorganization, and frustration.  In the end--not your fault--you can't even finish the paperwork and have to come in the next day.  But, your agency offers you a week of work.  Its as if every person who came in to take care of paperwork is rewarded with a plum job.

Certainly its not unethical to accept work your agency offers you.  But you feel like the agency held these jobs for people who put in face time.

Let me show you

You are interpreting in English class. Your kids are to silently read a poem on birch trees. The poem is set up in one tall skinny stanza with words close together and tiny font.

Your student signs, "I can't read this. I don't get it.".

You ask, "have you ever seen a bitch tree before?"

Your student replies no. You look around and the teacher is busy with other students so you google on your smart phone: birch tree images. You show your student a few pictures of birch tree forests. Your student signs, "now I get it."

Were you right to search for clarifying images? Is that part of getting the message across or is it over stepping your role?

Can you find me a job?

You interpret a job interview. The deaf client turns out not to be qualified for the job. As you are walking out, she asks if you know of any jobs available and if you'd ask around.

--on one hand, you admire her resourcefulness. Of course you'll help.
--on the other hand, you've just met this person and only spoken with her for 15 minutes. How can you possibly help her find a job.