Page 220 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

Techniques for Cultural Adjustments 205

quick rise to a supervisory position is a clear demonstration of my
aptitude in this field.”
Another strategy is to target your translation of the first ques-
tion into ASL by figuring out what the interviewer is really looking
for. You may decide that what the interviewer really wants to hear
is why this applicant is unique, what makes him or her different
and better than other applicants for this position. Or you could
conclude that the point of the question is to elicit the way the
applicant sees his or her skills as matching the requirements of
the job. The English question itself is rather vague, so it may take
some familiarity with job interviewing strategies on your part to
make it more specific.

Scenario 3
Hearing Interviewer: Do you have any experience with the XYZ
software?
Deaf Applicant: No. None at all.

This quick exchange does not seem to give the interpreter
much room to maneuver. If you have a lot of experience interpret-
ing job interviews, however, you may realize that this and many
other questions are really invitations to the applicant to describe
all his or her relevant skills. Therefore, you may safely broaden
the question to YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH XYZ SOFTWARE
OR OTHER SIMILAR? One option when presented with the an-
swer above is to emphasize the underlying function by interpret-
ing the response as, “To be totally honest, no I do not.” At least
the applicant may get points for candor.

I hope that you now feel you possess a cultural tool kit for
interpreting that contains an appreciation of cultural differences,
a set of questions to probe for their presence, and a range of tech-
niques to adjust for them. There is one more topic that we need to
address. Perhaps surprisingly, it concerns our cultural awareness
and sensitivity at times when we are not interpreting.

08 MINDESS PMKR 205 10/18/04, 12:02 PM