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
The Final Frontier
September 7, 2018
I kind of feel like my fall should be entitled, Conference Interpreting: The Final Frontier. Because (that’s right, drum roll!) on September 10th I begin classes at Glendon College, York University, for the Master’s in Conference Interpreting (MCI) program. The
The Real Life of Interpreters
June 1, 2018
My identity crisis started almost exactly two years ago when I left my job as a staff interpreter in New Jersey and headed into the Great Unknown (Montreal, Canada, to be exact). My plan was to work on my French so
Hard Doesn’t Mean Impossible
April 6, 2018
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, “Don’t teach. Tell your story.” So here it is.
One (Word) Picture is Worth 1,000 Words
March 2, 2018
Have you ever heard the term, word picture? If you are a trained interpreter, chances are you have. Often, it is explained as a remedy; a way to describe a term that has no equivalent in the target language. However,
The Art of Faking It ‘Til You Make It
July 28, 2017
There are few things more off-putting than to hear an interpreter fill their delivery with um and uh, to second-guess themselves, and to interject side commentary. In real-life situations, this sort of delivery makes the listener tune out. On a test,
The Trouble With Memory
April 28, 2017
…or, How To Forget About Interpreting and Just Listen You know how the saying goes: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I’m sure you have heard it; we all have. But have you heard the saying
Acrobatics: A Metaphor for Interpreting with Confidence and Humility
November 21, 2014
Those who know me outside of interpreting know that acrobatics (specifically partnered “Acroyoga”) is my not-so-secret other love. I am tempted to wax enthusiastic and convert you all to Acroyoga right here and now, but I will limit myself to
Zen and the Art of Interpreting
July 15, 2014
During a presentence interview with a man who had pled guilty to stabbing a stranger to death “by accident,” I could almost see an embodied form to the protests taking shape inside my brain. The vision was similar to a cartoon where
Reclaiming Our Profession
November 4, 2012
“I am an interpreter.” I was giddy the first time I said these words out loud, having just finished my inaugural shift as a volunteer interpreter in a medical clinic.
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