Another visualization game:
Practice describing favorite people and places in English to a friend, then show that friend a photo of the person or place.
Negotiate how to improve the description.
When you are both satisfied, do it again in ASL. Again, negotiate until you are both satisfied.
The difficulty in description is finding any language satisfactory for the intangibles that accompany the description. By practicing first in our primary language, we increase our ability to quantify those feelings and emotions. This in turn will enhance our ability to use our secondary language to describe those same feelings and emotions.
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Friday
Tuesday
Fun with Idioms: Son of a Gun
The phrase "son of a gun" has evolved as a descriptive way to say that someone has done something unexpected. Usually it is used for negative behavior, but in some cases it can be used as a sort of endearment. Many people believe that "son of a gun" is a cleaned up version of "son of a bitch," but the etymology shows that it is the other way around.
When the phrase was first used, it referred to children with questionable pedigrees. Old English military ships usually did not allow their sailors to go ashore when they stopped at a port during a voyage. The military would allow the wives of the sailors to come aboard and spend some time with the men, however. Since the ships had very little space, the men and women would sling hammocks between the guns on deck. Any child that was conceived beneath the guns was known as a "son of a gun" since there was no way to confirm that the couple were actually married, which meant that there was no way to prove which sailor was the real father of the child. A son of a gun was a bastard child conceived between the guns on the deck of a military sailing ship. A couple of centuries ago this term was an insufferable insult.
The modern phrase "son of a bitch" bears a closer meaning to the original insult of the phrase "son of a gun," though "son of a bitch" developed long after "son of a gun" had become part of common speech. Today, "son of a gun" is not used in an insulting manner very often since the more powerful "son of a bitch" is available for use.
When the phrase was first used, it referred to children with questionable pedigrees. Old English military ships usually did not allow their sailors to go ashore when they stopped at a port during a voyage. The military would allow the wives of the sailors to come aboard and spend some time with the men, however. Since the ships had very little space, the men and women would sling hammocks between the guns on deck. Any child that was conceived beneath the guns was known as a "son of a gun" since there was no way to confirm that the couple were actually married, which meant that there was no way to prove which sailor was the real father of the child. A son of a gun was a bastard child conceived between the guns on the deck of a military sailing ship. A couple of centuries ago this term was an insufferable insult.
The modern phrase "son of a bitch" bears a closer meaning to the original insult of the phrase "son of a gun," though "son of a bitch" developed long after "son of a gun" had become part of common speech. Today, "son of a gun" is not used in an insulting manner very often since the more powerful "son of a bitch" is available for use.
Friday
New tip of the week
The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Translated: Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)
Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)
Sometimes life happens at such a fast clip we are all left breathless. We do our best to stay on top of money, family, friends, business - and we forget to stay on top of our own physical and mental health.
It is important to schedule break time into the work day. Anyone who starts as soon as the day breaks and works until well after dark knows how exhausting it can be. The life of a private practice interpreter is often hit or miss, feast or famine. It is tempting to fill the schedule full while the work is available and promise oneself a good rest when the work slows.
The problem is the human body needs more recuperation time than that. Even six hours of sleep can restore the muscles that were stressed by a day of interpreting. A half an hour with one's eyes closed can help the mind process the linguistic overload of a long assignment. A short walk can stretch muscles cramped from long hours of sitting. Watching a silly something on You-tube or Hulu can lift the spirits after a hard job.
We have to learn to take care of ourselves. Most interpreters, as a care-giving profession, sacrifice themselves for their family or their community. The best and the healthiest know when to say "no." The world will still turn, the bills will still be there, the work will still come.
You will just be healthy enough to face whatever life throws at you.
Take care of you - you are the only "you" we've got.
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Translated: Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)
Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)
Sometimes life happens at such a fast clip we are all left breathless. We do our best to stay on top of money, family, friends, business - and we forget to stay on top of our own physical and mental health.
It is important to schedule break time into the work day. Anyone who starts as soon as the day breaks and works until well after dark knows how exhausting it can be. The life of a private practice interpreter is often hit or miss, feast or famine. It is tempting to fill the schedule full while the work is available and promise oneself a good rest when the work slows.
The problem is the human body needs more recuperation time than that. Even six hours of sleep can restore the muscles that were stressed by a day of interpreting. A half an hour with one's eyes closed can help the mind process the linguistic overload of a long assignment. A short walk can stretch muscles cramped from long hours of sitting. Watching a silly something on You-tube or Hulu can lift the spirits after a hard job.
We have to learn to take care of ourselves. Most interpreters, as a care-giving profession, sacrifice themselves for their family or their community. The best and the healthiest know when to say "no." The world will still turn, the bills will still be there, the work will still come.
You will just be healthy enough to face whatever life throws at you.
Take care of you - you are the only "you" we've got.
Tuesday
Active versus Passive voice.
Active and passive voice sentences describe the same action in different ways. Active voice is generally preferable for writing and formal speaking because it is clear and consice.
People tend to fall into passive voice very easily when they are trying to describe something or tell a story. Lecturing professors and off-the-cuff speakers are notorious for stringing together long stretches of prose that is entirely passive.
How do you tell the difference between passive and active voice when you hear it?
The linguistic explanation is that active voice sentences have a subject-verb construction, while passive sentences have a verb-subject construction.
Active: The dog bit the man.
Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.
Both sentences mean the same thing, but say it very differently.
One way to spot a passive sentence is to look for a series of unnecessary words. "The man was bitten by the dog" uses 7 words to say the same thing that "The dog bit the man" accomplished in 5. It doesn't seem like a huge difference in a short example, but it can get really cumbersome in a more complex sentence.
Passive voice also tends to make the listener wait until the entire sentence is over before the meaning is clear. Active voice tells you who did what right away. You can remove the linking words from an active sentence and still understand what is being said: dog bit man.
Take out the links from a passive sentence and it is a little strange: man bitten dog.
In some cases, passive sentences leave out the subject entirely. "The man was bitten" doesn't say who - or what - did the biting.
Understanding the difference between active and passive voice can help you communicate more effectively in many different situations. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/5cc99h.
People tend to fall into passive voice very easily when they are trying to describe something or tell a story. Lecturing professors and off-the-cuff speakers are notorious for stringing together long stretches of prose that is entirely passive.
How do you tell the difference between passive and active voice when you hear it?
The linguistic explanation is that active voice sentences have a subject-verb construction, while passive sentences have a verb-subject construction.
Active: The dog bit the man.
Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.
Both sentences mean the same thing, but say it very differently.
One way to spot a passive sentence is to look for a series of unnecessary words. "The man was bitten by the dog" uses 7 words to say the same thing that "The dog bit the man" accomplished in 5. It doesn't seem like a huge difference in a short example, but it can get really cumbersome in a more complex sentence.
Passive voice also tends to make the listener wait until the entire sentence is over before the meaning is clear. Active voice tells you who did what right away. You can remove the linking words from an active sentence and still understand what is being said: dog bit man.
Take out the links from a passive sentence and it is a little strange: man bitten dog.
In some cases, passive sentences leave out the subject entirely. "The man was bitten" doesn't say who - or what - did the biting.
Understanding the difference between active and passive voice can help you communicate more effectively in many different situations. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/5cc99h.
Friday
First Tip of 2011
Watch an action show without sounds or captions.
Here's a great way to practice gleaning information from only visual cues. Look for relationships and emotions. See how well you can figure out the point of the show. Later, play it back or watch the re-run and see what you missed.
A second reason to employ this tip is to understand a little more about the culture we serve. In the years before captioned media, the most popular movies among the Deaf community were action films. Dramas were poorly lit and had too much talking to lipread, even if one were good enough to lip read around the camera angles. Comedies had their moments, but also relied often upon verbal puns that were easy to miss. If it wasn't a slapstick comedy, most of my Deaf friends skipped it. Musicals were also hit and miss. The old MGM musicals had enough dancing to keep my friends interested, but later shows like Moulin Rouge were again dark and relied upon the words too much to make sense.
But action shows were a hoot. The dialogue was only as important as the plot. No one really cared why Harrison Ford was jumping off a train or a dam, my friends just though it was exciting to watch. Their parents would share the same feeling about Hitchcock thrillers. The intricacies of the storyline were lost but a plane chasing a man down in a corn field was exciting regardless!
So give it a try. You may understand your Deaf friends more - and have a great opportunity to improve your observation skills and by extension, your interpreting skills.
Here's a great way to practice gleaning information from only visual cues. Look for relationships and emotions. See how well you can figure out the point of the show. Later, play it back or watch the re-run and see what you missed.
A second reason to employ this tip is to understand a little more about the culture we serve. In the years before captioned media, the most popular movies among the Deaf community were action films. Dramas were poorly lit and had too much talking to lipread, even if one were good enough to lip read around the camera angles. Comedies had their moments, but also relied often upon verbal puns that were easy to miss. If it wasn't a slapstick comedy, most of my Deaf friends skipped it. Musicals were also hit and miss. The old MGM musicals had enough dancing to keep my friends interested, but later shows like Moulin Rouge were again dark and relied upon the words too much to make sense.
But action shows were a hoot. The dialogue was only as important as the plot. No one really cared why Harrison Ford was jumping off a train or a dam, my friends just though it was exciting to watch. Their parents would share the same feeling about Hitchcock thrillers. The intricacies of the storyline were lost but a plane chasing a man down in a corn field was exciting regardless!
So give it a try. You may understand your Deaf friends more - and have a great opportunity to improve your observation skills and by extension, your interpreting skills.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Fun with Idioms: Acid test
With Idioms: Acid Test
The English language is just full of little phrases that say one thing but mean something completely different. Most people go through life hearing idioms daily but never thinking about exactly what those idioms really mean.
As an interpreter, it is vital to understand the meaning behind the words. Since idioms don't really make literal sense, they can be incredibly confusing if they aren't translated properly. That's why it's important to learn the real meaning behind as many idioms as possible so that you are prepared for any interpreting situation.
Today's idiom is "acid test." The literal meaning of an acid test would be to perform a test on acid, right? The truth is, the phrase does come from a real test involving acid. Scientists use litmus paper to determine the acidity or baseness of a chemical. It is also called a "Litmus test."
Of course, when someone uses the phrase in conversation it means something completely different. Outside of the laboratory, an acid test is a severe or crucial trial. Something is going to happen that will expose the true nature of the person or thing being considered.
Idioms are signed in different ways depending on the context, but one suggestion for acid test would be to sign "investigate" with an affect showing intensity.
The English language is just full of little phrases that say one thing but mean something completely different. Most people go through life hearing idioms daily but never thinking about exactly what those idioms really mean.
As an interpreter, it is vital to understand the meaning behind the words. Since idioms don't really make literal sense, they can be incredibly confusing if they aren't translated properly. That's why it's important to learn the real meaning behind as many idioms as possible so that you are prepared for any interpreting situation.
Today's idiom is "acid test." The literal meaning of an acid test would be to perform a test on acid, right? The truth is, the phrase does come from a real test involving acid. Scientists use litmus paper to determine the acidity or baseness of a chemical. It is also called a "Litmus test."
Of course, when someone uses the phrase in conversation it means something completely different. Outside of the laboratory, an acid test is a severe or crucial trial. Something is going to happen that will expose the true nature of the person or thing being considered.
Idioms are signed in different ways depending on the context, but one suggestion for acid test would be to sign "investigate" with an affect showing intensity.
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