Feedback is a natural part of our journey as interpreters. While often difficult, it allows us to work with our clients and colleagues better when we embrace it as an opportunity to grow.
When faced with feedback: 1) See it as a growth opportunity, not a personal attack. Remember, you don’t have to agree; you can choose what you do with the feedback. 2) Reflect on the emotions that arise before reacting. Process feelings calmly, then focus on improvement. 3) Respond thoughtfully. You’re the expert guide, in control. A calm reply shows emotional intelligence. 4) Use suggestions to build your skills. Interpreters never stop acquiring knowledge. Let feedback guide your continuing education. 5) Keep perspective. This is about constructive suggestions to improve the client’s journey, not a negative evaluation of you. By embracing feedback as an opportunity for growth and skillfully processing emotions, we better connect with our clients and colleagues.
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Dance, Interpreting, & You: Working Together To Better Understand or Improve Your Practice11/7/2022 Exploring the dance experience to understand human interaction and communication in interpreted spaces.
Keywords: dance experience, dance exploration, human interaction, communication in interpreted spaces, modern dance performance, body language Cultivating An Interpreting Culture Of Respect, Accountability & Trust
By: Sarah L. Wheeler, M.Ed., M.S. KEYWORDS: interpreter personality, model communication, interpersonal communications, professional development, training and courses, building relationships, cross-cultural competence, cross-cultural awareness, and sensitivity Encouraging people to share ideas, experiences, and challenges. Cultivating a culture of respect, accountability, and trust with all the people you interact with at work is essential when working with any group of people, but especially for interpreters. Interpreters are in a shared setting—interacting with diverse groups of people and striving to cultivate rapport and cooperation, including coworkers, colleagues, and people from different backgrounds and cultures who all have a shared objective to interact, work together, and create shared experiences. The interpreting profession could learn from Pixar's innovative and creative culture. The brainchild was president Ed Catmull, who believed that intelligent people are more important than good ideas. He wanted to create a culture where people could fail, take risks, and learn from mistakes. Catmull also put a lot of effort into creating an environment where everyone felt valued and respected. He knew that employees couldn't do their best work if they didn't feel good about themselves. He also believed that it was important for Pixar employees to understand each other's perspectives and work together as a team. He set up a system of "Brain Trust" meetings, where anyone from the company could get together and discuss any issue they were having with their work. Catmull didn't allow these meetings to turn into gripe sessions; instead, he encouraged people to focus on solutions rather than problems. Give the people you work with enough room to maneuver or make mistakes - and recommit to continue trying again. How do we create a culture that welcomes mistakes and turns them into growth opportunities? We can learn from author David Liddle as he discusses the 7C's of transformation: Collaboration, Courage, Common Purpose, Communication, Compassion, Curiosity, and Connection. We start by admitting that, as interpreters, we don't know everything. It can often be more beneficial for you and others if you are willing to ask questions, listen and learn from others. When we pretend to know everything, we risk appearing arrogant and being perceived as inflexible when presented with new information (or ways of doing things). When we are open to learning from others, it creates an environment where we can share knowledge and ideas. The more we practice this behavior, the better we become at it. The most important thing to remember is that this can only be done by example. You must model yourself to create a culture of respect, accountability, and trust among your coworkers and colleagues. Working in an environment that promotes a culture of respect, accountability, and trust can be one of the most rewarding experiences in your interpreting career. It must be defined to cultivate a culture on the most basic level. What does respect look like in a workplace? What are the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of everyone involved? Respect is foundational in any relationship, especially when working with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Interpreters can model this by being respectful to others, not only as an individual but also as a representative of the organization for which they work. Respect can be demonstrated by how an interpreter treats others—their colleagues and clients, for example. It means not making assumptions about someone's culture or background but treating people with dignity and respect. Recognize that culture takes time to build. It takes intention and investment to create a culture of respect, accountability, and trust and months to change it. Interpreters should not expect immediate results when trying new strategies or learning new behaviors. Instead, interpreters should focus on building their self-awareness and self-care skills to grow as professionals while supporting others in their organization through these changes. In the same way, interpreting agencies, organizations, and community leaders should recognize that culture is an ongoing process of improvement and adaptation rather than something static that can achieve once and for all. When interpreting agencies, organizations, and community leaders focus on building their self-awareness, they can support the growth of others in their organization while also improving themselves.' While this all takes time, one of the essential things interpreters can do to support their growth is participate in various continuing education opportunities, mentorships, and professional support groups. Professional conferences and workshops can provide interpreters with new ideas, tools, and techniques for building their self-awareness and self-care skills. It's also essential for interpreters to network with other professionals in similar settings to share experiences and learn from each other. There are many ways for interpreters to cultivate welcoming and supportive relationships among their coworkers and colleagues. Here are a few you can start doing today:
Many of you may not know I was in the military. While in, I learned how to use the OODA Cycle to make fast and accurate decisions. The OODA cycle (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) is based on the idea that a situation or problem will occur, and then events will unfold, and your first task should be to observe what's happening. The second task is to orient yourself in the current situation (skip this if you have a good memory of what happened). The third task is to decide based on your hypothesis. The fourth task is you act based on your decision and continue the loop again. Every day, interpreters have to make quick decisions, and with practice in using the OODA Cycle, you can increase your awareness of the situation and environment. The more prepared you are, the better decisions you'll make. The ability to quickly notice, interpret and understand your environment can lead to success. Whether in sports, the military, or interpreting, the OODA Cycle can be used to gain that edge you're looking for.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS
Living Courageously: How To Face Fear And Continue Interpreting (Even When You Feel Scared)10/15/2022 It's easy to get distracted under pressure, especially while interpreting, but there are ways to stay present during that high-stakes moment so you can still perform at your best when things get hectic.
There are many reasons why people lose focus under pressure—whether it’s a big assignment, you are working with a new interpreting team, or you are feeling judged by the other people at the assignment. There are also ways to stay present during that high-stakes moment so you can still perform at your best. Here are some tips for staying focused when you need to perform: 1) Bring yourself back to the present moment by acknowledging your feelings. Are you scared? Nervous? Excited? Whatever it is, acknowledge it and let go of any expectations from yourself or others. 2) Center yourself in the present moment by focusing on your breath for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, and letting them out slowly. This will help bring you back into your body and mind to stay focused on what’s happening. 3) Think about all your options and decisions. Don’t just react; take time to reflect on what’s happening and why it’s happening so that you can make better decisions about responding appropriately without panicking or making things worse (for example, by overreacting). 4) Think about your emotional triggers and think through these questions before and after the assignment. What are the things that trigger your emotions? What happens when you get upset? How do you feel when things don’t go according to plan? How can you avoid getting triggered by these situations or people? Emotional expressions within communication do a lot within relationships. For example, they signal value to others which adds to social capital, they facilitate specific behaviors or outcomes and regulate social interaction and strengthen bonds. You may wonder why emotional conveyance is a considerable part of interpreters' work. I’ve outlined a few examples below, so let's get into it.
Emotions are felt in the body, and somatosensory feedback has been thought to trigger conscious emotional experiences. Knowing this, interpreters could use our bodies much as a method actor would feel the emotions they are planning to convey, especially if we are visible and a part of the communication interaction. There are many reasons to do this; for one, emotions are used as a form of social referencing, a concept that has been researched by (Klinnert, Campos, & Sorce, 1983), which says that we look for information from other people on how to act or to clarify a situation. However, if the interpreter acts emotionally incongruently, this may skew the emotional experience and ability to apply social referencing accurately within that situation for everyone involved. Emotions also modulate our readiness to move, and depending on the situation, especially ones where we are feeling uncomfortable; we tend to contract; however, if we are in a social setting where we are feeling the ability to interact freely with others and ready to explore our surroundings, then we are more likely to be open to receive and be ready for action and have more postural control. When an interpreter is aware of body language within an interpreted interaction, their own and the conveyance of feelings can hugely impact how the message is received and how feelings/emotions are embodied and conveyed in the target language. So we enter the world of emotions. How can interpreters realign their approach to allow the emotion of the person they are interpreting to come across? How do you begin to establish how a person is feeling? First and foremost, you must be aware that this process takes time. You cannot develop a substantial emotional bond with someone within five minutes of them telling their story. Take your time to listen and watch for emotional cues (eye contact, touch, body movements, etc.) and establish an emotional baseline with that person. Once you have established that connection, try to find an approach with which you can communicate this emotional information, whether it be through gestures or even observation techniques such as mirroring or matching body language, tone, the intensity and pace of signs, and volume of voice; all of these will help the person you are interacting with feel more connected to you by demonstrating that you are keeping pace with what they are conveying the intended emotions. Improving an interpreter's ability to interpret nonverbal signals has more significant consequences for relationships and communication. Training and practice are the best way to improve an interpreter's abilities in this area, so keep up your skills and emotional intelligence skills and let's continue to do the great work you do as interpreters! Body language can reinforce the message you convey within any type of communication interaction. For example, if you are interpreting for a speaker discussing a sad topic, you might use a mournful facial expression and slumped posture to convey sadness. Similarly, if the speaker mentions something that makes them angry, you might adopt a more aggressive stance and use forceful hand movements.
Your body language is a powerful tool for conveying emotion while interpreting. Different types of body movements can convey different emotions. For example, crossing your arms can convey anger or hostility, while clapping your hands can convey joy or excitement. It's important to use body language appropriate for the emotion you are trying to convey. So below are three ways YOU can begin to use your knowledge of body language effectively while interpreting: Facial expressions: Your face is one of the most expressive parts of your body, so make sure you use it appropriately to convey emotions. Be aware of your facial expressions and make sure they are in sync with the message you are trying to convey. Using facial expressions effectively will help add meaning and context to the target language because you embody and feel what is being conveyed. Posture: How you hold your body can convey meaning independent of the spoken word. For instance, if someone falls silent in the middle of their speech, you might mirror their body language by also falling silent. This nonverbal cue lets the audience know that the silence is purposeful and not simply an error on your part. Gestures: Gestures are another way to convey meaning, and they can be particularly effective when used in conjunction with facial expressions and body language. This allows your body to create a feedback loop to your brain that you are indeed moving in a way that syncs with how you are supposed to feel. As interpreters, we often focus on the language; however, it is essential to remember that body language plays a crucial role in communication. By using facial expressions, posture, and gestures effectively, we can significantly improve our interpreting skills and better convey the emotions behind the language through the skill of interpreting the emotions of the conversation. |
AuthorWelcome to the Emotionally Intelligent Interpreter! Archives
November 2023
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