Interpreters only need to know two things:
- Sign Language; and,
- Everything Else.
Rule 759
Have you ever wondered why for so many years hearing educators for children who are Deaf refused to learn ASL? Isn’t that like saying:
“I’m a pilot but I refuse to learn any flying language! Don’t say variometer to me! Just call it the thing that shows how fast the ‘staying on the ground impaired travel thing’ goes up and down. Don’t even get me started on the Attitude Indicator– call it the wings in the right place doohickey…”
Rule 758
Dear family, friends or other interested persons:
About your plan to learn ASL while quarantined? Please don’t argue with the interpreter or (sigh) the person who is Deaf that you saw it signed differently on YouTube.
Random Thoughts by Uncle Dale: Love and Libel on a T-shirt.
Several years ago I was giving a final. My desk was in the back of the classroom and so I was looking at my students backs. I was busy correcting final essays when I got a text.
The text just said “look up.”
When I looked up I saw that while my mind was on essays every student in the class had put on the same t-shirt.
It was one of the best moments I ever had as a professor.
Someone asked me, “isn’t that insulting?”
No.
Now, if they had written it on the bathroom wall then maybe. But they took the time and the effort to silkscreen it on the t-shirt. I saw it for what it was immediately; a love note.
I love my students. There are many things about teaching that I do not miss. I do not miss correcting papers at midnight. I do not miss getting placed on yet another committee that adds to my work without adding to my pay. I do not miss faculty meetings.
But I miss my students.
I can see every one of their faces. I follow them as they grow and develop as working interpreters. I love to see when they get a new job, or have a baby or get married or reach any milestone in their lives outside the classroom.
And I love that they would take the time and effort to zing me on a t-shirt.
I have now gone back to my roots. I am working full time as an attorney at a law firm. The other day the student who originally made these shirts asked me if I wanted another batch.
Um. Yes!
They just arrived and they are beautiful.
The staff at Ascent Law has snatched many of them up, but I have some left. A lot of smalls and mediums. A few larges (they tend to run a little large).
If you want one send me an email to dale.boam@ascentlaw.com. $25 plus shipping. I can accept Venmo and PayPal.
The proceeds will be donated to a worthy cause and I am accepting suggestions as to which cause. Make your suggestion when you order.
I promise these will go fast, especially the larger sizes so I would jump on these sooner rather than later.
And I mean come on. Who doesn’t want to have a shirt that says what almost everyone who meets me is thinking within ten minutes.
Damn you Dale Boam.
Damn me indeed!
Rule 757
Wear a mask or interpret over VRI. Don’t do both at the same time.
Rule 756
If you are willing to learn there is always something you can learn (Even in quarantine).
Story Crossroads
Rule 755
Let’s play “Ok/Not Ok”
Investing in an opportunity you heard about interpreting.
Not ok.
Learning CPR while interpreting for a Red Cross course and later performing CPR on a person having a heart attack.
That is Ok.
You see the obvious difference, right?
Rule 754
Interpreting: where you can legitimately say, “they do not pay me enough to do this,” and, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this!” on the very same day!
Rule 753
Stuff Uncle Dale Always Says, Explained:
Don’t be so easily impressed, I picked this video.
I have used this video to teach this principle for over 14 years. So, if I sound good interpreting it from ASL to Spoken Hearing, hint, I’ve seen it before…
However, that doesn’t mean I’m perfect. Back in the mid-1990s I helped collect videos of native Deaf ASL users telling stories and jokes for an ASL preservation library. I use some of the videos I collected in my classes to this day.
One of the stories is a man telling the Deaf King Kong joke. Remember I filmed this man telling this joke myself. I saw it live while it was recorded and have watched and used the video literally hundreds of times over the years since the day I collected it.
In 2017 a student in ASL to Spoken English suddenly said that the woman Deaf King Kong took up the building with him was named Jennifer. I dinged her for an addition error. She challenged me and… HOLY COW she was right! King Kong does say her name is Jennifer!
Not once, from the day I collected the video to that day, despite literally hundreds of viewings, had I ever noticed that detail. “A” for the day for that student!
Rule 752
Stuff Uncle Dale Always Says, Explained:
You are looking for underwear in your sock drawer, no matter how many times you dig through it you will only find socks. Time to look in other drawers.
When a student keeps making the same error over and over because they are stuck in the same habits instead of incorporating the new skill being taught.
