SeSo, Inc.

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Professional Development: “My previous experience with interpreting in the education system has been with low stakes, fairly easy parent teacher conferences for elementary students. I felt confident to be able to convey whatever information was presented in those session. I am now much more aware that educational vocabulary is quite extensive in addition to endless acronyms. I will now expand my educational vocabulary of words and meanings in all of my working languages.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Professional Development: “Through training, we learn that it is important to explain my role in order for both parties to be on the same page while focusing on the various needs of students. We also learn that we are agents of change and should continue to advocate for effective language access for our parents and interpret with accuracy and impartiality.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Practice: “One skill that I learned and going to put to practice is to take notes during interpretation. I have been using my fingers to help me remember what I need to relay to parents. Training provides me with resources that I can use to learn abbreviation and symbols to remember the sequence of the information. I think if I take notes correctly will help me to be accurate.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Terminology: “I have learned the importance of becoming familiar with educational vocabulary. Additionally, I have learned the importance of not only knowing the vocabulary, but being able to define and explain those terms in multiple registers.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Interpreter Training: “During my training, I learned a variety of ways to help with memory, but the most helpful was learning about shorthand note-taking strategies. I am currently working on developing a personal shorthand system to help me remember what is said.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Self-Care: “I want to be aware and be intentional about finding ways to cope with the stress. Some of my current stress coping strategies I use are yoga, exercise, meditation, connecting with friends, playing with my cats, listening to music, and dancing. I will continue to use these strategies and incorporate new helpful approaches as I find them.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Best practices: “Pre-sessions help create expectations that ensure you are successful as an interpreter. They also dispel any misconceptions people may have about how an interpreter should perform or what role they may have.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Best practices: “Keeping a notebook of glossary/vocabulary and adding to it regularly is something I do to help me. This goes hand in hand with practicing interpretation on a daily basis, whether it is while listening to the radio, watching tv or reading to develop proficiency with the different modes and build vocabulary skills.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Best practices: “I plan to make sure that if documents are not offered to me previous to the meeting, that I will request them and ask for enough time to properly preview them as well as ask preliminary questions for clarification (if needed) before the meeting begins.”

Professional Interpreters in Education Share Their Experience

On Best practices: “To help me interpret more accurately, I am curating a collection of glossaries & resources for the vocabulary that I may need in these situations. I also plan to pay attention to slang terms and colloquialisms and start a collection of those as well.”