Page 173 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

158 Reading Between the Signs

lation and Interpretation, students are required to hold a B.A. or
the equivalent and must demonstrate near perfect fluency in En-
glish and one or two foreign languages. They are expected to have
lived for at least six months in a country where their foreign
language(s) is (are) spoken. Compare this with the requirements
for entering interpreter preparation programs for sign language
interpreters. Although most are becoming more stringent, some
programs only require the completion of four or five classes in
ASL. And others do not even test the potential interpreter’s flu-
ency in ASL.
Graduates from the Monterey Institute can hope to interpret
for the United Nations, the State Department, international trade
negotiations, and conferences. Their course work in the Graduate
School of Translation and Interpretation reflects this emphasis.
Because much of their work after graduating with a master’s de-
gree will be at high-level conferences, students take classes in eco-
nomics, international trade, technical terminology, and political
oratory. There are separate courses in simultaneous interpreting
and consecutive interpreting (in which the students practice spe-
cial note-taking techniques in order to render from memory sig-
nificant lengths of discourse). They also learn about register, dip-
lomatic etiquette, and certain exercises to train their memory.
Those students who also plan to work as translators of written
documents receive in-depth training dealing with journal articles,
contracts, books, and scientific texts. In addition, both interpreta-
tion and translation courses include substantial practice in sight
translation.
As sign language interpreters, most of us do not have the op-
portunity to work at the level of international conferences. Most
of what we do is referred to by spoken language interpreters as
community interpreting, a designation that includes court, medi-
cal, educational, and social service settings. The Monterey
Institute’s catalogue describes community interpreting as “still in
its infancy as a profession.” Even though training programs for
spoken language interpreters have not focused on community
interpreting in the past, the situation seems to be changing. (We
will examine the community interpreter training program at the
University of Minnesota after this discussion.) The necessity of
using trained spoken language professionals is becoming more
accepted, since the interpretation can have such a direct and sig-
nificant impact on people’s lives. One of the problems has been

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