By now, I’m sure many of you have seen this video:
There has been a lot of buzz about his use of facial expressions, body movements and signing. I’d like to share some of my knowledge with you today so you can truly appreciate the talented and skilled work of this interpreter, Sam Harris.
First a little note — Here’s an article from the Atlantic — Why Great Sign Language Interpreters are so Animated that lays it out for all of us. It may seem exaggerated to those who do not use sign language, but it is not. It is part of the language itself and a cultural difference. Sam Harris was not angry, emotional or passionate. He was doing his job.
But first about me — I’m an American Sign Language, Deaf Studies and ASL Linguistics teacher, Deaf, and I mentor sign language interpreters to work on their grammar skills, receptive (reading ASL) skills as well as their expressive (signing) skills. You are getting a lesson from me today. Please forgive me for not using technical terms or getting into the weeds. I am here to give you the layperson, easy to understand version of this lesson. Got it?
Let me take a bit of an aside to explain something to you —
NOTE: Why am I using the word Deaf, and not deaf?
According to Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, in Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (1988):
……..the uppercase Deaf when referring to a particular group of deaf people who share a language – American Sign Language (ASL) – and a culture. The members of this group have inherited their sign language, use it as a primary means of communication among themselves, and hold a set of beliefs about themselves and their connection to the larger society. ……..
You can learn more here from the webpages provided by the National Association of the Deaf.
Now that you know a little more about my cultural identity and my expertise, you know you can take me seriously. :) Let’s start the lesson.
What is a sign language interpreter? Most people would say that it’s a signer, a hearing (non-deaf) person that stands next to a hearing person and changes what they speak to sign, and vice versa. Yes.. and no. Sign language interpretation is highly skilled work, very difficult to do and requires years of training to do properly. Here, I’ll let the National Association of the Deaf tell you all about it
The demand for qualified interpreters exists in many settings: educational interpreting in K-12 and higher education settings; in the community, such as for doctor’s visits, court appearances, and business meetings; and for the provision of video relay services(VRS) and video remote interpreting (VRI) services.
If you are a novice signer or have just begun to take sign language classes, you are not ready to become an interpreter; not yet. Interpreting also involves more than just signing. An interpreter must accurately convey messages between two different languages. It is a skill that takes time to develop.
Deaf and hard of hearing people deserve to have interpreters who know what they are doing and who do it well. A qualified interpreter is one who can, both receptively and expressively, interpret accurately, effectively, and impartially, using any necessary specialized vocabulary. Interpreters who struggle with their own expressive and receptive sign skills are difficult to understand, and cannot convey their clients’ messages accurately. This situation benefits no one. Deaf and hard of hearing people get frustrated, hearing people (businesses, speakers, interviewers, etc.) form an unfavorable impression of the entire experience, and the interpreting profession gets shortchanged.
If you aren’t doing your job properly, or are not trained or skilled, you end up looking like this.
Oh lord, don’t get me started. Here’s a short list of what went wrong.
1. He’s missing a lot of information. He’s not signing full sentences, only pieces of information in separate chunks that are not coherent.
2. Oh god, that yellow shirt. It’s blinding. Sign language interpreters should be wearing dark colored shirts (and if you are POC and dark skinned, it needs to be lighter in color).
3. Notice how he’s staring at the speaker and stumbling, trying to keep up?
4. He has nearly no facial expression. Facial expression in ASL is not merely emotive. It’s grammatical. For instance, the position of the eye brows will indicate if the sentence signed is a question, a statement, a negation (statement with “not”), if it has an conjunction and so on. Even the lip movements and tongue placement has grammatical purpose. (sticking out the tongue = careless — as in “carelessly driving” or “carelessly staying when you are supposed to evacuate”. )
5. His fingerspelling is atrocious. Skilled finger spellers finger spell much more smoothly. It’s like watching a master guitar player vs. a novice player stumbling through the cords. It takes years of practice and dexterity. The effect of watching this guy finger spell is like listening to a very poorly cover version of a song. Ow, my eyes. It hurts, and I just want to look away.
Here’s a little backstory on here — apparently, an certified sign language was on call to do this, but apparently she didn’t get the call and they just grabbed this guy with a deaf sibling and put him on the stage. The Deaf community was pissed. The information conveyed was not clear, not accurate, and put people’s lives in danger. (I heard about this though the Deaf grapevine, I have names and confirmation of what happened, but I cannot find a link to this information without connecting to someone’s personal Facebook page, and I’d rather not do that. Take this with a grain of salt, if you wish.). As far as I know, some local Deaf people are on it and trying to work with them so this doesn’t happen again. Good luck to them!
If you want to see something that is an EPIC FAIL, a shit show for the ages, check out this one! (NOTE: The guy is supposedly signing South African Sign Language, not ASL. SUPPOSEDLY. *AHEM*)
I’m still reeling from this one. The guy stood upon the stage for four hours.. and nobody noticed. Other than deaf people, that is. You can read more about this here — limpingchicken.com/…. That’s a whole other story — I could write another diary on this!
Anyway, let’s move on..
What people don’t know about Sam Harris, what was not mentioned in the media at all (WHY WHY the erasure? COME ON), is that he is Deaf. Deaf as in.. deaf!
You may be asking yourself — how is he doing this? How does he know what is going on!
Let’s get back to the lesson plan. Ahem.
Here’s a passage from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf — what is interpreting?
The Art of Interpreting….
- Is the process of transmitting spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL) and/or gestures for communication between Deaf and hearing individuals;
- Enhances the quality of interaction between the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities;
- Serves as a tool in bridging communication gaps;
- Is a profession that is highly dynamic and sophisticated;
- Offers a career that allows one to grow with each knowledge building experience.
What is not as commonly know is that there are different types of sign language interpreters. There’s the most common type — a hearing person who stands next to another hearing person and translates voice to sign and vice versa. That’s what most people see, and that’s what most people thought Sam Harris was. I could go through a long list — there are specializations for theatre, law, medicine, Spanish/ASL/English, for instance, but let’s focus on two types today. NOTE: “certification” refers to certification that is assigned to an interpreter by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf after they pass a battery of tests. An interpreter may not be certified. That means you hire them at your own risk. The priority must be to hire a certified interpreter.
1. Certified Sign Language Interpreter / Sign Language Interpreter (see definition above)
2. Certified Deaf Interpreter / Deaf Interpreter
Sam Harris is a CDI — Certified Deaf Interpeter. I’ll share with you again some information from the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf. They are Deaf people because of their skill in ASL as native speakers that are beyond that what most hearing interpreters can acquire. There are DI’s — Deaf Interpreters who are not certified, but with any other profession, the certification is a guarantee of quality of skill and years of experience (most of the time). Bolding is mine.
Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI)
Holders of this certification are deaf or hard of hearing and have demonstrated knowledge and understanding of interpreting, deafness, the Deaf community, and Deaf culture. Holders have specialized training and/or experience in the use of gesture, mime, props, drawings and other tools to enhance communication. Holders possess native or near-native fluency in American Sign Language and are recommended for a broad range of assignments where an interpreter who is deaf or hard-of-hearing would be beneficial. This credential has been available since 1998.
CDI’s are often used in public setting such as emergency announcements. Their purpose is to share the information in ASL to the widest possible range of deaf people. Not all deaf people are skilled in ASL — they may sign a variation — they may not sign well, or they use another sign language (ASL is used in Canada and USA only). They may have language deficiencies (don’t get me started on our the shoddy, patchwork deaf education we have here in the USA), or otherwise be disabled (mentally and/or physically). They are also often used in court settings (all those fancy lawyerly words are difficult to interpret), for instance. That was why Sam Harris was there on the stage.
Now.. I know this is the big question — how the hell does a CDI do their job without being able to hear?! They work in teams with hearing sign language interpreters. The hearing sign language interpreter does their job — which is translate voice to sign and vice versa. They are seated in sight of the CDI, who can see them from where they are located. The CDI will watch the hearing sign language interpreter sign and then modify their ASL to a more skilled version of ASL that is more clear, accurate, and more inclusive of the communication needs of different Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing people. Hey, I’ll let John Lamberton, a CDI based in New York City, tell you all about it. (And yes, he was accused of being a fake interpreter. No, he isn’t. I know him in IRL. He’s Deaf and is talented and skilled at this job. Hi there, Jon!)
Okay I think I can wrap up this lesson here. I hope it wasn’t too boring — which is why I shared all those pretty, interesting videos with you.
I shared this with you because I want you know that there are brilliant, talented Deaf people out there doing work, and they deserve recognition. None of the media releases or tv shows, not even Kimmel did share that he was Deaf, and that BUGS ME. Erasure isn’t cool. Sam Harris is DEAF, and that’s one reason why he’s GOOD. Goddamn it. Most hearing sign language interpreters cannot EVER get up to that skill level. He’s earned the right to be recognized as much.
Here, I’ll leave you with the link with Sam Harris on Kimmel, doing his CDI job. Way to go SAM!
KISS-FIST!