Expect the Unexpected
April 9, 2021
Happy April, everyone! Wow. We are one quarter of the way through 2021. It always amazes me how time just keeps on dashing by. I do love this time of year. Even Montreal is starting to wake up from its
The Perils of Telephonic Interpreting
March 12, 2021
“Excuse me, speaking as the interpreter, could you please move the phone closer to the patient? The interpreter is struggling to hear everybody.” That was me, a week ago, attempting to provide telephonic medical interpreting services. The nurse complied, and
The Fine Art of Making Mistakes
February 12, 2021
“Oh, that was terrible! I can’t believe how bad that looks,” said my 8-year-old niece the other day. She was referring to her own drawing, which was actually a very nice depiction of a butterfly. My niece would never speak
How to Shamelessly Steal Language Skills from our Friends and Colleagues
January 22, 2021
January is the month of the year when most of us want to start fresh with a clean slate. I recently learned that some people, especially in Europe, call the third Monday in January Blue Monday because it’s supposedly the
A Year Like Any Other
December 18, 2020
Well, folks, it’s December. And looking back, 2020 was just another boring year, right? Nothing momentous happened. Nothing eventful—just a year like any other. Same old, same old. With the exception, of, well, you know. EVERYTHING. The interesting thing about
Lessons from Grace
November 13, 2020
On a sunny fall day in 2013, I received a phone call from Grace. Who is Grace, you ask? It is hard to say who Grace is to me. She is a colleague, certainly. A mentor. A friend. My personal
An Honest Conversation with Fear
October 8, 2020
The terror of performing never goes away. Instead, you get very, very comfortable being terrified.” ~Eric Whitacre I like that quote. It speaks to me. I think you could replace the word “performing” with “interpreting” and paste it on the
Interrupting Without Intruding
September 11, 2020
“One moment, the interpreter needs a repetition,” I said in English, followed by “Excuse me, could you repeat that for the interpreter?” in rapid-fire Spanish. It was about fifteen minutes into the interpretation, and the fourth time I had interrupted.
Hard Doesn’t Mean Impossible!
July 31, 2020
Another trip back in time. Athena Matilsky’s 2018 article seems very apropos. Enjoy. This week it was my turn to post on the NAJIT blog, and I asked some of my colleagues what I should write about. I was told,
No Pressure or Anything
July 3, 2020
7:30am I wake up with a quick, optimistic check to my inbox. No email. Oh well, I sigh. I wasn’t really expecting the results to come in that early. I roll over in bed. Thirty seconds go by. I check
Self-love in the Time of Corona
April 10, 2020
Dear Colleagues, Well, goodness me. It would appear that since my last blog post, the world has spun a teensy bit sideways. All of my own carefully made plans have been turned upside down, along with the plans of…every single
Language Skills-Building for Interpreters
March 6, 2020
Interpreters face somewhat of a conundrum upon entering the profession. That is, we are expected to have “native-level” discourse and comprehension skills in all of our languages. Advertisements boast “perfect fluency,” and respectable interpreting courses necessarily steer their content away
Interpreting for Crimes Against Humanity: Giving Victims a Voice
February 7, 2020
On March 14, 2012, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo became the first person to be found guilty through a trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Among the war crimes this Congolese warlord oversaw were enlisting and conscripting children under the age
Court and Conference Interpreting: So close, yet so far apart!
December 6, 2019
Well, I made it! One more semester to go. As I write, the train wheels rumble underneath my seat. We are somewhere between Toronto and Montreal. When I made this journey in reverse three months ago, the leaves still adorned
A Week in the Life of an MCI-Master’s in Conference Interpreting Candidate
October 4, 2019
Greetings from the Glendon campus in Toronto! I’m currently waiting for my News Class to begin. Winter is fast approaching over here and each sunny day could be the last. So I’m taking advantage of the unseasonably gorgeous weather, sitting
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