The gauntlet thrown down when I entered graduate studies to try and earn a phd was the need to find conversations already underway in the academic literature and add my perspective. I’ve written many smallish pieces that have been published by journals and newsletters for sign-language practitioners in the U.S., England, and Germany. My first substantive contribution at the theoretical level came out this summer in the Benjamins Translation Library: The Critical Link 4: Professionalisation of interpreting in the community (see blurb). My article, “Why bother?” Institutionalization, interpreter decisions, and power relations is in Part V: Professional ideology: Food for thought (see abstract).
My submission for the next Critical Link volume presents a theme from the discourse of spoken language interpreters at the European Parliament, and engages a paradigm debate over conceptions of “interpreting”: particularly where we locate meaning. These ideas are a foundational part of the dissertation I hope to write if the European Parliament will let me back for more research. I’m making the paper available for feedback and input. Please, if you read it, would you let me know what you think? The more conversations (input, feedback, critique) I
Interpreting Studies: Joining the conversation
by Steph • August 12th, 2007
updated references (EP)
by Steph • July 20th, 2007
What I had found before: European Parliament Procedural Rule 138.
Now, TITLE I : MEMBERS, PARLIAMENT BODIES AND POLITICAL GROUPS; CHAPTER 3 : BODIES AND DUTIES
Rule 22 : Duties of the Bureau
“8. The Bureau shall be the authority responsible for authorising meetings of committees away from the usual places of work, hearings and study and fact-finding journeys by rapporteurs.
Where such meetings are authorised, the language arrangements shall be determined on the basis of the official languages used and requested by the members and substitutes of the committee concerned.”
TITLE VI : SESSIONS
CHAPTER 3 : GENERAL RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF SITTINGS
Rule 138 : Languages
1. All documents of Parliament shall be drawn up in the official languages.
2. All Members shall have the right to speak in Parliament in the official language of their choice. Speeches delivered in one of the official languages shall be simultaneously interpreted into the other official languages and into any other language the Bureau may consider necessary.
3. Interpretation shall be provided in committee and delegation meetings from and into the official languages used and requested by the members and substitutes of that committee or delegation.
4.
my point, precisely!
by Steph • July 19th, 2007
Not the main one I want to make, but a corollary: what is a lingua franca?
“The term lingua franca comes from an Italian phrase for “Frankish language”. The term harkens back to the traditional role of French as the “language of diplomacy”. The underlying idea was that no matter what languages two diplomats might speak at home, they could always communicate if both had a command of French. Indeed, at one time it was not unusual for aristocrats and royalty in the courts of eastern Europe to speak French in lieu of the native tongues of their subjects. The term is something of an anachronism. At one time Latin and Greek played this role among scholars. These days, English has assumed the role of the lingua franca in many parts of the world, and is the language of choice for discourse among scientists and aviators.”
Brian Foote and Don Roberts, Paper presented at Fifth Conference on Patterns Languages of Programs (PLoP ’98)
Brian Foote foote@cs.uiuc.edu
Last Modified: 23 April 2004
What’s up with the Lorenz Attractor?! 🙂
a “trans moment in world history”
by Steph • July 17th, 2007
Seriously. Todd Hasak-Lowy.
Every short story in this collection is graduate school hilarious. This guy speaks the language, knows the culture, and is an astute social commentator in an-understated-while-laughing-at-himself way. I have laughed out loud several times. In this title story, The Task of This Translator” (a play on Walter Benjamin), Ted hires “our hero”, Ben (151), to work for the translation business he establishes after a course on “‘Transnationalism and Borders’ or something like that” (150), because “Ted concluded that … the future was about transnationalism, or something to that effect – and that a business, one day a giant corporation, was waiting to sprout from this trans moment in world history” (150-151).
Some of his phrases are sheer elegance:
“…the sheer beauty of the language, wanting to learn it in order to better understand the unrest that speaks this language…” (152)
“…the unrest that speaks this language…”
In this phrase is all of postmodernism, eh?
Enough Already!
by Steph • June 19th, 2007
As a teacher myself, I loved interpreting another professor today.
Professor: “Since class began, I have received over 100 emails and have answered almost every single one individually. You have told me about your personal life – going to weddings, car breakdowns, your commute time, how many hours that you work, that you have to get up too early in the morning, how late you go to bed. I know so much about you.”
“Let me tell you a little about myself.” (At which point my team interpreter looked me in the eye and signed OMG, “Oh my god”, and I thought, “Yep, here we go!”)
The professor continued: “I work sixty-five hours a week on payroll: time counted by the clock. I commute fourteen hours a week. I work another sixteen hours a week grading homework, this is not on the clock. I get up at five a.m.; I go to bed at one in the morning.”
He did not say, “Stop whining!” but really, after that, was it necessary? 🙂
Life is demanding.
Education asks much.
Many students go through the motions – to get a job, to earn the credit, for a grade – but how many
dynamics (physics and Interpersonal Communication)
by Steph • June 6th, 2007
Online teaching began Monday, as did interpreting for Physics 101. Ha! (I’m in heaven.) 🙂
The physics definition of dynamics is “the effect that forces have on motion.”
I have been wrangling some “force” onto my students use of the online discussion technology (an asynchronous “bulletin board” type of software). Of course I am curious what “motions” will be effected by my language-based exertions. In which “direction” will the students move? Compliance? Competition? Resistance? OH the JOYS of HUMAN INTERACTION!
The first “lecture” was made available to them yesterday morning. I’m going to post them here, too, to see what (if anything) gets sparked in and/or out of the class.
Introduction and Immersion
~ “Lecture” One ~
What is “interpersonal communication”? Can we communicate, interpersonally, through written text coded into bits of electronic data and spirited across cyberspace? Is writing to each other, and reading each other’s words, substantially different than speaking and listening to one another? If you are deaf: is it different to watch someone signing than it is to read letters on a computer screen? How much does it matter to type on a keyboard instead of moving your face and hands
anti-honoraria
by Steph • May 27th, 2007
My stance vis-a-vis the UMass Amherst administration’s decision to grant an honorary degree to President Bush’s ex-chief-of-staff, Andrew Card, was pre-established before the event was known. I was hired to interpret the graduate commencement ceremony at least a month before the decision about Card was announced.
I witnessed the swell of protest activity from a distance, observing. I did sign the petition, but my active participation was constrained by my paid role, by my work. Of course, I could have done many things, and probably could have “gotten away” with many things – but to do so would have compromised the deep commitment of professional interpreters to provide linguistic accessibility in the most impartial way possible.
Still – the challenge of how consumed some quality planning time between my teammate and me. We were fortunate to be aware of the scope of the planned protest and thus were able to strategize effectively. It so transpired, therefore, that my partner interpreted what she could make out of speech concerning Card, and I interpreted the protesters chanting. A satisfactory, ethical, and impartial arrangement. In fact, the protest was so loud and persistent that audience members watching the
Interpret This!
by Steph • May 11th, 2007
“Plans are now beginning laid out to increase project collaborations, where appropriate, between the ICDP and the IODP.”
Details are at the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. Note:
“The evaluation of the relative importance of anthropogenic versus natural forces in controlling climatic and environmental change.”
Just remember:
No road is too long with good company.
…..Turkish proverb
“the end of Ordibehesht 1386”
by Steph • April 25th, 2007
I had to ask my partner in crime about this. Strong Minor Bridge The Brilliant explains:
“Ordibehesht is a month in the Persian calendar, and 1386 is the current year (2007 in our Gregorian era). And Ordibehesht overlaps parts of our April and May. Ordibehesht ends on May 21 – so that’s “the end of Ordibehesht 1386.”
Yes, I’m still trying to get to Iran and isn’t it cool they use a solar calendar? 🙂
Research in Interpreting Studies
by Steph • April 19th, 2007
Olivier set up an online forum for Research in Interpreting Studies: Resources for researchers working in the field of interpreting studies. Let’s see if it goes anywhere – feel free to join!
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