certification – Uncle Dale's Rules for Interpreters

Rule 688

When asking for feedback, ask for feedback.

When asking for assurance you didn’t screw up, ask for assurance.

If you ask for feedback when all you want is your team to assure you that you didn’t screw up, no matter how accurate the feedback is all you will hear is that you screwed up!

Rule 676

Do you ever feel like you are interpreting for someone talking in their sleep, but being held to the standard of what they would have said if they were awake?

Rule 658

Oh! Ok! Seriously! Today I saw the coolest thing that I can never tell you about.

Rule 654

Some companies have their “new hire orientation” down to a science. For others it’s more like alchemy.

Another Milestone.

Another moment of gratitude for everyone. When I was not looking this happened:

That is the same number of visits and more visitors than the whole of last year.

To put it in perspective.

This is the total since I started the blog:

The blog is roughly 19 months old.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your support when I needed it.

Thank you for your feedback and critique.

Thank you for adding your wit and wisdom to this blog.

Mostly though, thank you for stopping by and enjoying with me the terrors and pleasures of what we do everyday!

I’m working on the book everyday. I would like to think it will be finished soon, but I will soon be entering the editing process-which I hear can feel like it NEVER ENDS.

Wish me luck!

Freelance Interpreters! There are certain “frozen texts” you just want to put in your toolbox now, so you don’t sweat when you inevitably have to interpret them (and you will, sooner or later, you will):

a) Rights a defendant waives when pleading guilty;

b) Common risks of surgery contained within an Informed Consent wavier;

c) K-12 educational disclosure forms; and,

d) “Modern Major General” from Pirates of Penzance…

Sooner or later friend, sooner or later.