Ad-Hoc Interpreting in Spanish Community Service Learning and Other Contexts

by Ann Abbott

Yesterday I gave a talk at the Law School here at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It was for a meeting of the Immigration Law Society, a group of students interested in immigration law. I built the slides and the information on a talk I gave earlier this semester to the interpreters in the Champaign school district. Here are my slides:

Interpreting: Language, Culture and Ethics by AnnAbbott

If you would like for me to speak to your group about this, you can reach out to me at arabbott@illinois.edu or 217-333-6714.

I was very interested in the student questions afterward. Some asked for more detail about ad hoc intepreting, but a lot of students were interested in knowing more about how to improve their language skills.

For people who feel that their second language is rusty, I suggested doing a lot of listening and reading (input); then they can find opportunities to practice speaking. If you're watching movies or binging on Casa de Papel on Netflix, a student asked if they should switch languages, use the subtitles or something else. I explained that you need to push yourself but not to a point where you are completely lost. In other words, try watching the show in Spanish without subtitles. If you find yourself completely lost, see if you can put on subtitles in Spanish. If that still doesn't work, try subtitles in English. If you understand everything already, then you need to start removing some of the scaffolding so that you push yourself more.

Here's a list of the follow-up information and resources that I will ask the organizers to share with the other students.

My contact information
Prof. Ann Abbott * arabbott@illinois.edu * 217-333-6714

My blog

Related courses that I teach
SPAN 232 "Spanish in the Community"and sample syllabus.
SPAN 332 "Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures and Communities" and sample syllabus.

Language learning resources
On our campus:

• Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program (IFLIP), short term and reasonable cost; lots of languages, including English as an International Language
• Mi Pueblo, free conversation meet-ups run by students of Spanish 
• Online Spanish courses, for-credit Illinois courses; I designed SPAN 130 and SPAN 142 
• For international students, the linguistics department offers courses in pronunciation. 

Online resources for Spanish and other languages:

• Apps. Some of my colleagues created LingroToGo (scroll down to find links), a free app which is better/complementary to the very popular Duolingo app. Some of my students love HelloTalk.
• Our library. Find resources and links for a number of languages. For Spanish in particular, be sure to click on all the tabs on the top to see the variety of resources and links provided.
• MOOC. This free, online course sounds wonderful. It started yesterday, but maybe you can still join. If not, I would ask when they plan to offer it again. My friend from grad school who lives in Spain now is part of this project.
• Culture. My colleague Florencia Henshaw created this (growing) resource of cultural perspectives on common topics. Some are in English and others are in Spanish, Korean, etc. Just hit the green + sign, and you can very easily record your own cultural perspectives.
• Other interpreting contexts. 
• Medical Spanish Podcast is a good resource for interpreting in health professions. (Thank you, Jenna Leving Jacobson). 
• School. My blog post from several years ago with resources for parent-teacher conferences. 

Social justice

• Take a look at the organizations within the University YMCA and attend their events.
• Language Justice. 
• Attend this talk on Monday to hear about the wonderful work my friends/colleagues in Anthropology are doing as expert witness in asylum cases for people from Central America. 
• Language Justice Curriculum and Language Justice Toolkit.
• Legal Issues.
• Ayuda Legal Illinois. A great Facebook page to like and follow to learn legal vocabulary and issues in Spanish.
• Mi vida dentro/My life on the Inside. I just saw this documentary, and I was fascinated by the role of court interpreters, the Spanish spoken by the policeman during the interrotation and other ways in which language access and language ideologies played a role in the outcome of this case. See if you can find the whole film.

I would like to thank Nicole Diorio and Minnie Seo for the very kind invitation to engage with them and the other students in the Immigration Law Society.

Finally, I received these wise words from a friend and former student. He frames the work of interpreting in human terms--and that's really what this is all about.

"David García You’re always doing cool stuff, Profe. I would like to share with you a few things off the top of my mind: 1) Interpreting is about conveying meaning. The first step in that chain is being a great listener, which means that listening to comprehend is foremost; 2) Faithfulness & ethics: People are in a vulnerable position when they are using an interpreter. They are trusting you to get it right. Honor their voice— don’t pretend, distort or filter. It’s ok not to understand everything (do you always underestand what your friends or parents say?). If you didn’t get it, clarify. There are ethics to the trade. Learn them and abide by them; 3) Practice: there are techniques. Interpreting is HARD. You can do it, but learn shadowing, retaining, being super-human patience... as with endeavor, recognize that there is preparation, research, and reflection to be done."