Page 150 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Impact of Cultural Differences on Interpreting Situations 135

Deaf Student: Well....
There are many possible reasons why the student did
not promptly bring his or her confusion to the teacher’s
attention, including feeling uncertain or embarrassed
about admitting that he or she did not understand some-
thing, having a different time frame for needing or de-
siring to obtain clarity, feeling less uncomfortable with
ambiguity, or pursuing other avenues to resolve confu-
sion. Perhaps Deaf people are more accustomed to not
understanding everything because of the many linguis-
tically inaccessible situations in which they find them-
selves. They also may have different ways of clearing
up confusion: waiting to see if the information becomes
clear over time, getting notes from another student,
checking with a tutor, learning on their own through
printed materials, or asking a friend for clarification.

Scenario 5
Hearing Professor: I am glad you came in to discuss your pa-
per. Hmmm...your choice of topic is fine, you have a few good
examples...but I do have some concerns about your thesis....
I’m not sure it is strong enough to support a paper of this
length.
The professor will organize his or her comments in this
feedback session using the common American “sand-
wich approach.” In this technique, one introduces and
concludes one’s critical remarks with positive state-
ments that are supposed to make the negative com-
ments sandwiched between them easier for the recipi-
ent to swallow. In this first comment, the professor, af-
ter making a couple of positive comments, pinpoints a
major fault of the paper: if the thesis is not strong enough
to support the rest of the paper, the entire essay will
fail. The professor assumes that the student will easily
detect the “meat” of his crucial criticism underneath
the faint praise in his opening “slice.”
Deaf Student: You mean, make the thesis statement longer?
The student is unsure of where he or she stands. Deaf
culture is more direct and one may very well start off a

06 MINDESS PMKR 135 10/18/04, 12:01 PM