Interpreted mock conference at Macquarie Uni

Last Saturday, I drove all the way to the big smoke to watch three and a half hours of sign language at Macquarie University. It was a mock conference that some of the advanced interpreting students there were required to interpret as part of their course. Basically, it was like a real conference - in a lecture theatre with proper speakers giving proper presentations with proper powerpoint slides. The interpreting students worked in teams of two. Each student interpreted half a presentation from Auslan to English and then, later, half of another presentation from English to Auslan. It was amazing to see the range of styles that the interpreters had in Auslan. I guess it's the equivalent of voice quality, accent and general demeanor in English, but when they were speaking English, I didn't think about those things consciously - I guess you just process that information without noticing when it's your native language. In a non-native langugage, however, I notice all that stuff. Auslan is also a non-native language for some of the interpreters and I thought I could tell who was a native signer and who wasn't. Generally, the interpreters were wonderful. It's such a hard thing to do, but it was pretty rare that there was a panicky silence or pause during which time their team buddy would feed them what they missed.

All this focus on the interpreters is doing an injustice to the speakers themselves, however. I loved hearing about the experiences and views of the Deaf presenters who signed about the education system, using interpreters in a corporate training environment, deaf-blind services, and deaf relay interpreting. The four hearing presenters talked about being a parent of Deaf children, sign variation in New Zealand sign language and interpreter's attitudes when confronted with a choice of variant signs, how interpreters are judged using rating systems, and ONE OTHER TOPICS I HAVE FORGOTTEN - WILL LOOK UP WHEN I GET HOME AND FILL IN THIS BLANK LATER!

All in all, I learned a terrific amount from this day. I went home thinking that I would so love to one day be skilled enough to sign like these interpreters. At this point, I don't know if I have the ability to do this, but at least it has given me some renewed enthusiasm to keep practicing through the summer.