Author Archives: Jonathan Downie

4 Weeks of BSL

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It’s now nearly 2 years since we announced the launch of our exciting and unique degrees in British Sign Language Translation and Interpreting. One of the reasons to study BSL here at Heriot-Watt is that on top of delivering excellent teaching, we also work closely with D/deaf and signing communities in research. So, for the next four weeks, we will give you an insight into the research done by our Sign Language team, as well as a couple of posts on hot topics amongst D/deaf and signing communities.

Enjoy!

Orkney Can Wait

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The first time I met a Deaf person was in 2006 as a PhD student. I was asked to help out with BSL exams in Heriot-Watt, to make sure examiners were there
and to look after the candidates. The Deaf examiner made me think how inspiring
it was for someone to overcome a disability and communicate confidently with
hearing people like me, who cannot fingerspell to save my
life.

I was, of course, wrong.

 Not about the examiner, who was indeed wonderful, but about deafness being a disability. It is not. That’s the first thing I learned from attending “Send
the Deaf to Orkney!”, a debate starring our very own Director of Research, Graham Turner, organised by Beltane during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 Arriving at the venue, I saw colleagues Gary Quinn, Robyn Dean and many others waiting outside to see the show. They were signing all at the same time, laughing and looking very excited. I wanted to join in, but then again I didn’t want to spoil their fun by being the only person who couldn’t sign. Robyn could have interpreted, but I would still feel like I was intruding. I guess that’s how Deaf people must feel in hearing environments.

 We were given miniature Orkney flags to wave in lieu of clapping or cheering and, shortly after, comedienne Susan Morrison came on stage to introduce the debate. Susan’s introduction was interpreted into BSL by Jemina Napier. Now, you know Jemina is brilliant, not because she is a Professor who has published over 50 papers, written 6 books and holds a Chair in Intercultural Communication at Heriot-Watt, but because she can interpret Glaswegian jokes into BSL with no sweat, having just moved here from Sydney 12 months ago.

 To add to the wow factor, Jeff McWhinney came on stage. Hurricane Jeff – more like! A Deaf entrepreneur and leader in the UK Deaf community, Jeff started signing his way through his argument for sending Deaf people to Orkney in such a vivid and engaging way, I almost didn’t need to listen to the interpreter! Ok, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the sign for ‘tokenistic’. Deafness with a capital ‘D’ is a culture, a way of life with its own values and language. Deaf people are immensely proud of their language and heritage and it is precisely the protection of this language and heritage that was central to the idea of having a separate, defined space for the Deaf to live in. Their own homeland – a Deafland, away from the tyranny of the hearing world.

But why Orkney? Well, it is an island, and Heriot-Watt already has a campus there, so it would kind of suit us! A Deaf Orkney would at last offer a place where signing came first, and the life of the community could be organised in BSL. The future of the language – in its heritage, visual form, not mixed uncomfortably with English – would be assured.

Jeff was so convincing, I started waving my flag like a maniac.

Graham Turner came on stage and he started signing as well (I’m guessing to remove any communicative bias from the debate). In my naivety, I thought sign-language was all about using your hands, but I soon discovered that you have to use your whole body, the muscles of your face and your mouth. Graham and Jeff were ‘performing’ in the eyes of hearing people, so to speak, but for Deaf people this was just signing. Sign language is a performance in itself, requiring creativity and imagination, which makes it even more fascinating.

So Graham questioned Jeff’s approach by stating that BSL is now valued by hearing people, too. That’s why it’s been recorded as the second most popular adult evening class (after First Aid), and why a BSL GCSE qualification is under serious consideration. So why hide it away on Orkney? Keep Deaf people here, so that our culture is enriched by
theirs!

Ok, well, that was easy enough. I want the Deaf here.
Let’s vote.

Not so fast. The argument is not so simple and linear. Graham and Jeff went back on stage and took turns to make the case for each side again, but reversing their roles. Graham recognised that on Orkney, Deaf families could freely decide not to opt for cochlear implants for their children, without pressure from doctors. Hurricane Jeff protested – attitudes have changed, haven’t you noticed? This is the 21st century! Implants or no implants, you can choose to sign if you want to. And can you imagine such a close-knit Deaf community? Divorce rates in Orkney would skyrocket, as there would be no privacy and everyone would be involved in everyone else’s business!
Nightmare!

Hear hear! I say, let’s vote!

But there was more. The economic dimension of a Deaf homeland in Orkney is crucial. Think about education in BSL without the cost of interpreters, or mental health provision dramatically reduced because Deaf children would be brought up with no identity crisis. And think of the tourism: every Deaf person the world over will want to visit Orkney’s signing haven!

But wait, said Graham, raising his finger. Video interpreting is now possible and a BSL GCSE would ultimately mean more and cheaper BSL interpreters.

Still, the idea of Deaf people having a place to call their own seemed more attractive in the course of the debate. Maybe not Orkne
y (I’d pick a sunny island in the Mediterranean), but, as it was pointed out, the issues of control over one’s own life and the right to self-determination are equally important. An official Deaf constituency in the UK would mean Deaf parliamentarians contributing to major decisions at the local level.

But do we need a designated Deafland for this to happen? The idea of a public sphere is in our heads anyway. It doesn’t really exist, it emerges with communication. And as long as Deaf people communicate to raise awareness about Deaf issues, their public sphere will be kept alive.

So I wouldn’t book a one-way ticket to Kirkwall just yet.

Author: Katerina Strani

You Might be a Translator if…

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LifeinLINCS usually does serious, thought-provoking, analytical posts but it’s summer, so it’s time for a little fun too. So, if you have ever wondered whether you or someone close to you might be a translator, here are some signs to look for:

You might be a translator if…

1)    Your favourite comics have characters who can’t decide between electronic and paper dictionaries.
2)    The nearest you get to a suntan is when you forget to turn down the brightness on one of your three computer monitors.
3)    Seeing the phrase “scanned pdf” sends you running for a crucifix, a clove of garlic and overpriced OCR software
4)    You actually understood number 3.
5)    You write your Christmas and Valentine’s cards using CAT software.
6)    Your CAT crashes and hangs more often than it purrs.
7)    You have complained to your pets about your clients
8)    … in three different languages
9)    … in the past hour alone.
10)    You are not sure whether to find Google Translation funny, annoying or insulting
11)    … but you still secretly use it to get the gist of blog posts written in languages you don’t use
12)    … and you will never, ever openly admit to that!
13)    “Being invited to a party” means “being on an online conference call”
14)    … but you still brought snacks.
15)    You completed a job while still wearing your pyjamas.
16)    People in your family are wondering when you will “get a proper job”.
17)    Your working hours are dictated more by the routine of your children or pets than by the clock.
18)    To you, misplacing a comma is a crime worthy of the death penalty.
19)    The last time you left the house, someone called the police to report a possible intruder in the neighbourhood.
20)    You have a masters degree and a bunch of certificates and yet you still have people asking you to work for less than your local minimum wage.

Signs and Wonders

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Spock: Live Long and Prosper

Leonard Nimoy signs “Live long and prosper” Original image by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons.

After an exciting and successful opening year, Heriot-Watt’s undergraduate degree in Sign Language Interpreting will welcome a new group of students in September 2013 (and, at the same time, applications will open for the 2014 intake). We’ve designed the programme to take advantage of LINCS’ decades of experience in educating spoken language interpreters to the highest levels.

And we’ve tried to learn from previous attempts to prepare ready-to-practise sign language interpreters elsewhere in the world, drawing upon our own experience, as staff, of delivering training in England, Australia, the USA and around the globe. We’re committed to ensuring that Heriot-Watt’s students will be worthy of the full professional recognition that they will automatically receive on graduation from the registration authorities (SASLI in Scotland and NRCPD elsewhere in the UK).

The profile of sign languages is increasingly visible, on a global scale. Just last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sign-language interpreter Lydia Callis became a star overnight when she interpreted the Mayor’s hurricane warnings to New Yorkers. American Sign Language has become one of the most popular language classes over there, ranking fourth in the latest Modern Language Association Survey — and nearly shoving German from third place. The number of students taking the language has risen by more than 50% in the past decade. Make no mistake, British Sign Language (BSL) is heading in the same direction. Even a decade ago, it was reported to be the second most popular vocationally-related evening class after First Aid.

It’s certainly going to be an invigorating workplace for them future SLIs. Let’s see – what kinds of things might they have been up to this summer? Well, SLIs are a regular fixture now at several major music festivals, starting with the biggest of them all, Glastonbury. Fancy yourself interpreting the Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys or Emeli Sande, in front of 100,000 dancing revellers? Yup, it happened. (The young at heart can see how Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood got on when he tried his hand as an SLI at the recent Latitude Music Festival in Suffolk on August 1st!) At the Edinburgh Fringe in August, there will be all manner of interpreted shows, from comedy to Shakespeare.

But it doesn’t have to be glamorous to be rewarding. Some of the most important work is being done in contexts like the NHS24 pilot service for BSL users. Here, interpreters are working towards ensuring that we never see a repeat of the incident in May this year when a Deaf patient in Dundee was hospitalised for 12 days without access to an SLI, and so without effective communication with healthcare staff. To prevent such problems, we’re working closely with NHS24, and with Mark Griffin MSP who is aiming to bring a BSL Bill before the Scottish Parliament later this year.

It’s recognised around the world that SLIs have actually led the way for spoken language interpreters in the community, too. Back in the 1980s, SLI research was trailblazing in recommending new practices in the field – in particular, carving out a more open, collaborative approach (developed in work like the book ‘Interpreting interpreting‘).

Deaf communities are relatively stable (whereas the numbers in other minority language populations tend to fluctuate). Also, disability legislation ensures that BSL users have legal entitlements to appropriate services. This means that the SLI profession has taken shape more quickly – SLIs’ working conditions, and salaries that reflect their commitment to graduate-level education, are well established.

Looking into our crystal ball, we can see the likelihood of more services being provided through video technology. Companies like SignVideo are showing how this can work well for both SLIs and consumers.

International travel and video-chat facilities mean that Deaf and hearing people from around the globe often encounter each other these days. So SLIs can expect to provide services more frequently using what’s called ‘international signing’ (IS) – the kind you can see World Federation of the Deaf President, Colin Allen – a recent guest to LINCS – using here to introduce the annual ‘International Week of the Deaf’. IS may look the same as BSL to you, but it’s actually quite different, and requires amazing visual thinking and kinaesthetic skills.

One thing’s for sure – there’s rarely a dull moment in this line of work.

Author: Graham Turner

Putting a Smile on The Public Face of Languages

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If you are a translator, interpreter, sociolinguist, anthropological linguist or any other kind of linguist, there is a lot to get annoyed about. Courses are closing, rates are (in places) dropping, respect is on the wane and hardly a day goes by without some newspaper publishing a story about some new gadget that will entirely automate some way we use language. If we didn’t know better, we would say we were all going to be out of our jobs by Christmas.

True, there is a lot to complain about. True, due to something fundamental about the nature of social media (or should that be “human nature”?) negative posts and comments will get more views than positive ones. But does that make it right?

I write this post as either a complete hypocrite or a reformed addict, depending on how you see it. I have written some negative and sarcastic posts in my time. Yet nowadays, I often wonder whether we might actually be shooting ourselves in the foot if we are too quick to react with negativity.

Back near the beginning of the blog, I wrote a post calling for us to start changing the public face of languages. Late last year, I reprised the same theme and appealed for linguists to start demonstrating the value in what we do by showing exactly what we add to society. Today, I want to bring back the same theme again but with what might be a more personal challenge. Are we portraying a positive or negative view of life as a professional linguist?

If you are a 16 or 18 year old choosing what career you will train for, I think you would be looking, at least partially, for a career where people seem positive about what they do. Surely, aside from purely economic calculations, people want to have a job they will enjoy, among people who are helpful and friendly.

Now, to be absolutely fair, I must say at this point that the vast majority of linguists I have worked with, at all stages of my career have been friendly, happy and passionate about their work. Part of what makes this industry so great to work in is that you will come across some truly amazing and inspiring people.

Sadly, that image of careers in the language sectors is not always the one portrayed in the press and even, I hate to say it, by linguists themselves. Often, in our justifiable and even justified need to fight for a cause, educate clients, improve practice, etc, we forget to sell the positives too. Yes, some clients don’t behave the way they should but surely the good ones deserve as much (if not more) publicity as the bad ones. Yes, there are unfair contracts and court interpreters are often mistreated but surely the examples of professional court interpreters giving a superb service are as worthy of collection as instances where interpreters have failed to show up and do a good job.

Perhaps even our most justified campaigns for better treatment, more funding, less course closures and the like would be even more powerful if gave as much space to positive examples as we did to negative ones.  To those who say that closing language courses is “what everyone is doing”, we can say, that, actually no, universities like Heriot-Watt are creating courses and hiring more staff. To those who say that interpreting is a wasteful expense, we can say, no, interpreters have always played a vital role in delivering fair, just trials, and economic growth.

Some of the most powerful cases we can put for the value of languages come from the places where languages have made a positive difference. Some of the greatest arguments for the value of our work come from stories of happy clients, treated patients, and bestselling books. Maybe we need to work even harder at putting a smile on our public face.

Author: Jonathan Downie

IPCITI Update

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If you are disappointed that the submission date for abstracts to the IPCITI conference has now passed, we have good news for you: registration is open and will remain open until one month before the start of the conference. With a lineup of guest speakers including: Claudia Angelleli, Delia Chiaro, Elena Davitti and LINCS’ own Chair of Intercultural Communication, Jemina Napier, it’s a conference you won’t want to miss.

For more information and the chance to register, visit the IPCITI 2013 website.