Describe the context and participants for this interpretation based on the exercise title and picture of the speaker. Anne Marie Baer will be discussing different artists and how their works have impacted her. More specifically, she will talk about her husband’s artwork.
Did your proficiency in the source language affect your ability to interpret this passage? If yes, explain why. Did your proficiency in the target language affect your ability to interpret this passage? If yes, explain why. My proficiency in the source language definitely hindered my ability to effectively interpret this message. I was missed of a lot of things she was saying and, consequentially, some (potentially important) information was omitted. Also, even though my first language is English, the stress from interpreting the passage simultaneously, as well as, the stress from my inability to understand everything she was saying, I do not think the message production was very good. I felt very rushed, I missed almost all of her fingerspelling, and I couldn’t grasp the main points of what she was saying. I am pretty sure I would do a better job if I could interpret this consecutively, or if I could ask the actual speaker (not the taped version) for clarification.
During the interpretation process, were you aware of any processing problems such as predicting language patterns or remembering what you heard? Refer to the transcript and underline any portions of the text where you feel these types of errors occurred. There were quite a few instances where I was unable to predict what she was going to say. I felt like she was repeating herself a lot in ASL, and I found it hard to express the same thing in English over and over again. My vocabulary is not that broad when it comes to art. The following transcriptions are a few instances where I could fully comprehend:
- THAT ONE DEAF MEAN CAN’T HEAR MUSIC. EXPRESS THEIR EXPERIENCE.
“Deaf people have no hearing and so they can’t hear music.”
- ME GROW-UP ME START SEE SEE DIFFERENT DEAF ART.
“That is how the artist portray the deafness, the deaf community.”
I was confused because I had missed the part where she talked about her growing up and seeing all different works.
- When she was talking about what the different colors represented I thought she was going to go somewhere else with that comment. I thought she would talk about pitch, but then she added in that black represented death. I still don’t understand what she means.
- TOP SEE GREEN YELLOW (hand motion – squiggles). ITSELF COLOR CONNECT BELOW WRITE N-O-T-E-S.
I didn’t know what the squiggling was for, or where she was going with that comment.
Compare source and target messages to examine your interpretation for examples of literal translation. If you find examples of literal translation put parentheses around the corresponding sections of the transcript. Examine your work for examples of omissions. Refer to the transcript and underline any information that is omitted in your interpretation.
Literal Translations:
“When I entered the Deaf Heritage festival I saw different oil paintings on the wall.”
I think what was meant here was that she was walking around, enjoying the works of various artists when she spotted a few oil paintings that really caught her eye.
“They had individual people doing different activities such as running, dancing, cycling…”
“What the deaf artist did was he changed the…um... notes and staves for colors….”
“I’m gonna go ahead and show you another part of his work.”
What I should’ve said was this: “Now, I am going to go ahead and show you some other pieces from the same artist” (or something along those lines).
Omissions:
5:45 I omitted the part near middle of the video where she is talking about his colors really expressing a deaf… something. I am still unclear about what this means.
I completely missed when she moved on from the painting of the chalkboard thing to the one with the trumpet player and the dog. I tried to fill in and make as much sense as possible, but since I wasn’t able to predict—or even keep up—with her it was a difficult task.
Before she talked about the meaning behind the music stand picture and the other one she said that she wanted to describe what the pictures were. I left this part out as well.
I omitted the artist, her husband’s, name because I was too busy catching up to see what she spelled. His name was also harder to understand because he has an Israeli name.
Compare source and target messages to examine your interpretation for errors in comprehension. If you find errors in comprehension mar a “C” on the transcript in the corresponding location. There were a lot of times when I did not understand what was going on. All of the examples above are evidence of that. If I remember correctly, I felt the same way about this video the last time I was asked to interpret it. I think it would have had a much better outcome if I was able to use CI or ask for clarification.
5-Step Follow-Up
Step 1: Interpretation Rendered Review your entire interpretation. Select the 3-minute portion that reflects your best work. Transcribe only the portions of the interpretation you would like to improve. You do not need to transcribe the source text. Use only the steps outlined below to revise each error that you identify.
Transcription of portions that need improvement:
"Hello, my name is Anne Marie Baer and I am from Maryland. I want to discuss deaf artists. I’ll start with the basics and talk about deaf artists in general. But then I want to focus on one person in particular, and I’ll show you a couple his pieces of art… his artworks.One of my first experiences of seeing art that really reflected the deaf experience was when I was younger and I went to what was called a Deaf Heritage Festival. There’s a lot of different activities and things that are connected with the deaf culture, to really give you a feel for what it’s like to be deaf. When I entered the deaf heritage festival I saw all the oil paintings on the wall. I was really intrigued. One of the ones that really sticks out in my memory was a picture of a violin that was cut in half and was put on… um… a blue sunny background. I didn’t really know what the picture was for until I looked closer and I realized there weren’t any lines. Interesting. Because we can’t hear.Deaf people have no hearing, and so they can’t hear music, and that is how the artist portrayed the dea-the deafness…… the deaf community."
Step 2: Determine Underlying Reason Although there are many possible reasons for errors in interpretation, in this analysis you will select one of the following for each error identified in Step 1.
Comprehension Transfer Reformulation
Step 3: Probable Effect of Error on Communicative Function After selecting the types of errors, rate each error according to how it impacts the communication, keeping in mind that not all errors are equally serious.
5 = no negative consequences
4 = minimal 3 = moderate
2 = severe
1 = grave
I feel that the audience had to do a lot of their own meaning transfer based on my interpretation, but that they were able to make the connections as to what I really meant.
Step 4: Revisions Write, and then later record, a revised interpretation for each error that better preserves the meaning of the original source message.
Interpretation re-written:
"Hello, my name is Anne Marie Baer and I am from Maryland. I want to tell you a little bit about deaf artists. I’ll start with the basics and talk about deaf artists in general, and then I want to focus on one person in particular. I will show you a few of his pieces that really stuck out to me. One of my very first experiences of seeing art that really reflected the deaf experience was when I was younger, and I went to what was called a Deaf Heritage Festival. There were numerous activities and things that are connected with the deaf culture, to really give you a feel for what it’s like to be deaf. As I was walking around the festival I saw a few oil paintings on a wall that caught my eye. I was intrigued. One of the pieces that really sticks out in my memory was a picture of a violin that was cut in half and was put on… um… a blue sunny background. I looked closer and started analyzing the painting, and then finally I realized there weren’t any lines. I thought that was really interesting. Since Deaf people cannot hear, and the artist was Deaf as well, he wanted to portray how he viewed music. That represented the deaf communities view on the auditory arts."
Step 5: Action Plan for Improvement Once you have determined the types of errors and their impact, write down what action you plan to take to improve your work.
I plan to watch this video a few more times in order to understand what she is saying. I also know that I need to work on my ASL to English interpreting. I have been focusing too much on “making the beautiful ASL” that my ASL to English interpretations have not improved much.