Angel decided to study sign language
while in college, when he experienced a class with a team of two translators
working in pairs, each for a 20 minutes time slot followed by an interval,
when the other one was translating. They were both happy, as it was giving
them an opportunity for companionship, rest, and collaborative learning. He
was among 25 % self employed, certified interpreters, so he often worked part
time. He was a sensitive, good-hearted man with good cross-cultural communication
skills, motivated, organized, and fluent in two languages. His sense of humor
helped him communicate well with practically anyone. Now, he came back to school
to study toward a new online degree and was learning two new languages at the
same time. It was not hard for him: he always read at least two books at a
time. He could do signing, finger spelling, and used body language well. He
knew the rules beyond the structures of the sentences, idioms, the grammatical
rules, historical content, and cultural references, as well as cultural differences.
He set a goal of watching one international film per night. He could talk when
signing, for those who read lips. His possessed great memory, and good research
skills. It supported his familiarity with topics, words, phrases, and acronyms
related to the subject matter, to be explained and discussed. His ability to
comprehend, to understand and to benefit from any type of experience was also
exceptional. He’d be sending words, notions, any discipline specific
symbols and notations, metaphors, concepts and ideas from the source language
to a target language or, as some would put it, from a native, active to the
second one, passive even when under pressure and with tight deadlines. He was
able to do simultaneous and consecutive interpretations. If note taking was
required, he knew his shorthand system. This was important, as he had to be
ready for any type of translation. He had a suitcase ready to go anyplace he’d
be needed. His laptop was loaded with various dictionaries, glossaries, and
a set of images and photographs. His job demanded staying straight for a long
period of time. He’d train using games and Wii workouts at his home.
This way nobody would detect the unusual pattern of his daily exercises. He
developed communication skills reaching any size of the audience. He got a
piano, took lessons and kept training his fingers for better flexibility, thus
enriching his spelling abilities. He was a good businessman too, able to manage
his accounts, finances, do the promotion and marketing, write receipts, record
invoices, and do all the advertising, to keep his clients happy and to keep
them coming back for a long time. His work was unpredictable, tense, stressful
and exhausting. Quite often there was no opportunity on the horizon and he’d
have to take the time to look for a job. He was often longsome, but never worked
in pairs. Nobody was as precise as he was.
A. Ursyn
Orchestra: Sign-Language Interpreter Angel |