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now everybody my name is Chris gorgeous
and this is my wife
Johnny gorgeous so recently we've been
receiving a lot of questions via our
Instagram page and today's question that
we're going to be answering is from
fourth Wallflower and she's first starts
off by saying thank you for your videos
and posts I would love to learn more
about the process of becoming a
certified interpreter what type of
experience in classes are needed as well
as any degrees needed keep up the great
work
so let's go ahead and go step by step as
far as what it takes to become an
interpreter well to start with if you're
new to the language the best thing you
can do is take a class to learn the
language itself so your local community
college most of them have a sign
language class that you can take
typically colleges provide ASL one
through four some of the universities
provide higher levels than that but most
Community College is one through four
and go take those classes associate as
much as you can with the Deaf sometimes
even the instructors themselves will be
deaf which is amazing because then
you're really able to learn from a
native speaker and after that you can if
you want your national certification
which will allow you to do court legal
pretty much anything under the Sun you
need a bachelor's degree doesn't matter
what your major is as long as it's
equivalent to those credits needed for
your bachelor's degree and then you will
go and you'll take your national
certification however if you're not
wanting to go down that road you're like
you know what courts not for me I don't
want to touch legal that's fine
maybe education is more your style so
you can take your esse certification or
the e IPA between the two I would
recommend your a IPA certification it
holds a little more weight however with
the scaling process you need to work in
the state of California a 4.0 or higher
most other states require a 3.5 or 3.0
some don't even have any at all but for
the state of California it requires a
4.0 or better and with that
certification you can work K through 12
you can work for an interpreting agency
and you could do college anything like
that but that's my advice and what
certifications you would need for that
do you have anything you think would be
better so basically just summarize step
1
learn the language and step two start
getting experience so my advice would be
to not wait and tell you are NID
certified or or getting your
certification but just start getting
that experience just right off the bat
and so ways that you could do that it's
just practicing at home or if you're out
in doing a deaf social and try
interpreting for some of the deaf if
they need help order in their food or if
you just bringing a hearing friend that
doesn't know sign language try
interpreting for the the ones that
you're there in person with and you can
just look at YouTube videos or just
start getting your mindset around
interpreting because it really is a
learning process and I wouldn't wait
until you acquire a certification
because it's just going to make getting
that certification that much harder if
you don't have any experience at all and
one of the fun things that I like to do
when I was practicing well I was already
an interpreter but just to keep
practicing every day was when I was
driving um whether it be into a job or
just in general
any street signs that I would see I
would finger stall and I'd be like okay
practicing it making sure it was clear
another thing I would do is radio comes
on a song I would be in the car driving
and trying to like visualize okay how
would I sign this song so it's not
literal but it's like what the song
means or if I was at a stoplight and I
wasn't driving I would sit there
just signing the song okay I would you
this or not not what I would do that is
not what that song means or something
and you're just kind of everyday
practicing and it kind of gives you that
feel for interpreting to be like okay
alright yeah I know what's going on or
even if you're at home watching TV and
you're watching The Big Bang Theory or
you're watching something and you're
like oh I want to interpret that now
their content can be kind of like a big
deal with their science terms so why not
the best one to practice with but if
you're just watching a TV show at home
or I'm watching a movie how would you
interpret that how would I use my facial
expressions to match what's being said
to really emphasize the point you know
try to find fun ways for you to practice
at home - it doesn't have to be okay I'm
gonna go on YouTube and I'm gonna have
this lecture on there and I'm gonna
press through it make it fun make it
something that you don't get tired of
like I don't want to I don't want to do
this again no it could be something you
know that's light-hearted and just it's
giving you that practice of being able
to take something and put it back out in
sign language and to get the point
across and that's what you're really
trying to do yeah and if you ever look
into like Polly Watson you know people
that know multiple languages three four
or five or even more languages than that
one of the things that they all have in
common is that they find a process of
learning the language and they make it
fun they make it enjoyable and if we
don't if we tackle a language and it's
not fun most of us are just gonna quit
and so that would be my number one
recommendation with both learning sign
language in the beginning is just find
processes that are enjoyable that are
fun whether it's you know watching like
vlogs on YouTube we're going out to
death events or taking an ASL class or
just you know learning sign language as
friends whatever process that you find
enjoyable continue doing that and
continue that process because you want
to make sure that that is a long-term
thing and the same thing applies for
interpreting find ways to make it fun
and you know whether it's watching TV or
movies or interpreting for songs or you
know fingerspelling things on the on the
freeway
just make sure that you find a process
that works for you and that is enjoyable
for you and another thing I would
recommend too is that think about what
it is that you want to interpret for um
are you were wanting to interpret for
education are you wanting to interpret
for lower grade levels upper grade
levels do you want to to prefer stem
classes college classes so whatever it
is that you want to interpret for I
would just start familiarizing yourself
with those kinds of vocabulary and those
kind of concepts because you know if you
want to interpret for that you're gonna
need the vocabulary for that so that
would be my recommendation for for that
and just as a couple of recommendations
for something fun if you want to
interpret it there's a song I hope I
remember the artist is but is that it's
hot and cold with a Katy Perry song no
yeah that's a fun one to interpret
because it's really simple the lyrics to
her song are really simple you wanted
something a little more challenging with
a little more spice to it
Bohemian Rhapsody interpret that I had
to do that once at a school oh my god
fun but whoo it's intense so make it fun
for yourself and like enjoy it enjoy
practicing and find these little little
things you can even go online on YouTube
and you'll see some people who help how
they interpret how this person
interprets a song or how this
interpreter interprets a lecture and
just kind of pull from other
interpreters too and you can really get
a feel for how it's done and take what
you want from different people and make
it your own because in the end you want
it to be enjoyable and you want to have
a good time doing it right and just
going along the lines too of making
progressive steps towards the
certification there are ITP programs out
there which is an acronym for
interpreter training programs and I
would check locally to see if there are
any of those in your area those are
really great ways to get your feet wet
and really start understanding
what it takes to interpret because there
is a lot more to it than meets the eye
and yeah there's lack time and there's
really getting the concept right and
making sure you are conveying the
message appropriately for the person
that you're interpreting for because not
everybody signs the same way and you
want to make sure that you are
conceptually and accurately conveying
what is being spoken from the teacher or
the doctor or whomever it is that you're
interpreting for to the client or to the
student so I TPS are really great for
that and also just a real quick gloss
over the certifications if you are
looking at the esse just keep in mind
that they are looking for certain things
there they tend to be a little more
English based so when you are setting up
your grammar they do test you on see
sign PSE and ASL and for the expressive
evaluation you actually can choose which
one you're most comfortable with
if you're unfamiliar with those you
might want to look into what are the
differences between see sign PSE and ASL
and that way you can start to identify
how you sign and you can carry that
forward and they will also test your
receptive skills and boat and all three
of those see sign PSE and ASL but
they're looking for speech readability
they're looking for are you mouthing the
words are you think you're spelling the
key vocabulary multiple time to making
sure the student is understanding the
key vocabulary the EIP a certification
is a little more ASL focused basically
you let them know your sign style and
then they will evaluate you based on
that yeah so know what the different
certifications are know what you need to
pass in your local state and step one
learn the language step two just start
finding fun ways to get you get into the
interpreting process whether it's
YouTube videos or signing songs or
interpreting songs going to
socials things like that and then as you
progress then you can start looking into
the certifications but yeah anything
else
no I think that's it okay great so if
you have any other further questions for
us feel free to reach out to to our
Instagram page at ASL basics or you can
email me directly at chris at ASL basics
calm and if you found this valuable be
sure to like the video and subscribe and
you can click that bill and all that
other stuff and until next time I will
see you in the next one see you later
bye okay this today okay today's
question comes from fourth wall flower
from tik tik tak let me do that again
today we're going to be going through
and the question is well first she says
thank you I know I have a lot to learn
still but I'm excited for this I'm
reading so what she really says thank
you for your videos I'll leave it
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