A show of hands please

Your lag time is such that when the professor asks for a show of hands, your client will raise her hand at the wrong time. You tell your client to raise her hand even though she doesn't know why. After, you interpret why.

Because you are telling the client to raise her hand and not interpreting the, "raise your hand if..." question, you could misrepresent your client. Or have her misrepresent herself.

What are other options?

I get by with a little help from my terp

The class you are interpreting in is having a discussion about a short story they just read. The teacher asks a question and your client says to you, "tell me the answer. Please." you feed him a word, the answer. He raises his hand and the teacher calls on him.

-if every interpreter did this, what would our profession be?

A Devil's Bargain

Are we to blame? We certainly aren't innocent.

a devils bargain

Want some?

One of your clients tells you he has weed.
-seriously! Don't you have the where with all to keep that info to yourself

Your client is a minor in a high school. -do you have the responsibility to report him?

You tell your client not to tell you information like that and he says to go ahead and report him. He doesn't have it in him.
-what do you do?
-what are you obligated to do?
-ethically what should you do?
-legally what must you do?

Are you sure?

Your interpreting in a mainstream English class. Your students are participating in a small group book discussion. One of the hearing students summarizes the book--it was supposed to be done today but the kids are only half way through. You don't want your kids to get the wrong information, especially since they may believe the hearing student's summary over their own reading comprehension.

--do you do nothing. You are an interpreter, not a fact finder.
--do you change information in your interpretation?
--do you ask the hearing student if she is sure about her facts and offer an alternative to them?

And this is my team. CODA.

You are interpreting in a hospital. The Deaf patient's CODA son is also there. While you are interpreting, he will clarify a sign or a meaning. It happens naturally as if he is your interpreting team. You interpret a sentence about the pain the patient is going through then turn to her son to make sure you got it right.

-is it ok to use the CODA as a team?

Later the Deaf patient asks if you understood everything because you relied on her son. You explained yes, but because it's a hospital wanted to make sure you were right. She seemed comfortable with that answer.

-Is it alright to let your clients in on your process?
-Is it fine to converse with them when the dr is not around?

The other one sucked!

You are interpreting a discharge at a hospital. Your client confides in you they didn't trust the interpreter they had in the ER. Perhaps, your client feels, she was admitted erroneously because of miscommunication between the staff, the interpreter and the Deaf client.

- you don't know who the ER interpreter was or even if thru worked with your same agency. Do you email your agency to let them know the client complained?
- do you empathize but do nothing?
- what are your options?