Page 164 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Impact of Cultural Differences on Interpreting Situations 149

1997 volume of the RID monthly newsletter entitled “Free Enter-
prise: A Euphemism for Greed?” was written by a Deaf regional
RID representative who also works as a relay interpreter. In it the
author criticizes the view of interpreting services as a “commod-
ity subject to the rules of economics.” He cautions interpreters to
stay in touch with the humanistic roots of the profession and states
that there are two important elements necessary for quality ser-
vice: “linguistic/translating skills and personal relationship (or ‘at-
titude’ as some deaf consumers call it)” (Teuber 1997, 31).
In a GLAD (Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness) newslet-
ter article, its outspoken executive director, Marcella Meyer, ex-
pressed her belief “that many of the interpreters twenty years ago
were much better than the present ones. They seemed so much
more flexible and sensitive to what WE had to say and were our
friends.” In contrast, Meyer sees most interpreters today as “over-
educated, overtrained and overpolished and misguided profes-
sional robots....” Several of her criticisms regard “interpreters who
pull a ‘Houdini Act’ after an assignment” by leaving at their sched-
uled time, before an event is actually over, interpreters who “price
their services through the roof,” and those who are “taking con-
trol of our communication away from us.” She laments the fact
that “interpreters rarely befriend deaf persons” nowadays (Meyer
1994, 5).
In an article which appeared in the Silent News, a Deaf publi-
cation, the author reports that some members of the Deaf com-
munity have been expressing anger against interpreters. The is-
sue appears to be that these Deaf people feel it is unfair that inter-
preters should be privy to so many details regarding their lives
without sharing intimate information from their own lives in re-
turn (Schwartz 1996).
Taking a different tone, a newsletter article written by the ex-
ecutive director of the NorCal Center on Deafness in Sacramento,
California, is entitled “Sign Language Interpreters: Something Posi-
tive.” The author reports, “When you ask deaf people what it is
they cherish or admire in an interpreter, the response generally
points to the willingness of some interpreters to stay and help out
in times of crisis without worrying who is going to pay them.” She
also expresses gratitude “to interpreters for encouraging and re-
specting the need for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons to be in
control in deafness-related situations…” (Mutti 1996, 13–15).

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