July 26, 2024 • 55 mins
What happens when a childhood spent resisting a second language transforms into a compelling career? Maru Lozano, our guest for this episode, shares her fascinating journey from her upbringing in Puerto Rico to becoming a professional translator, interpreter, and coach. Raised by a US-born father and an influential grandmother who taught English, Maru’s early aversion to learning English took an unexpected turn, molding her into an accomplished interpreter. This episode highlights the twists and turns of career paths, demonstrating how seizing unforeseen opportunities can lead to rich and rewarding professional lives.
As we delve deeper into Maru’s story, we uncover the intricate differences between translation and interpreting through her experiences. From the nerve-wracking moment of her first interpreting assignment to her structured education at Nestor Wagner's School of Interpreting, Maru talks candidly about the mental rigor and practical experiences that shaped her abilities. This segment is a testament to the importance of thorough training, practical exposure, and the role of mentorship in overcoming the initial hurdles and growing into a competent interpreter, particularly in community and medical settings.
Finally, we shed light on the challenges interpreters face within medical and educational environments, and the necessity for specialized training and support systems. Maru discusses the balancing act of freelance work, the financial intricacies of being a solopreneur, and the indispensable value of mentorship and networking. Her advice for aspiring interpreters includes fostering industry-wide awareness about professional standards and actively seeking shadowing opportunities to gain real-world insights. Join us for an enlightening conversation that celebrates the noble yet demanding profession of interpreting, offering practical guidance for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Brand the
Interpreter podcast.
This is Mireya, your host, andI appreciate you joining me here
today.
You know, the other day I wasthinking that these days I've
been spending a lot of timetraining new interpreters.
I've been either working withcompanies or organizations
developing curriculum, or I'veactually been providing
(00:29):
interpreter training, and I wasjust thinking the direction that
sometimes our career takes.
Sometimes it has hints of thethings that we plan for it.
Sometimes they're things thatwe never thought about, perhaps,
or we never planned, but theywere opportunities that came and
(00:51):
we took them, and so, eitherway, it's just interesting to
know that throughout your careeryou're going to have these
moments of change, these momentsthat sometimes you think have
nothing to do one with the other, and yet somehow they do,
especially when you see themsort of come around full circle.
(01:12):
And I know that I'm speakingright now in abstracts, but hey,
what's new with me, right?
It's just interesting becauseyou'll hear in today's episode
our guest, maru Lozano, share astory about how her interpreter
journey started and almostimmediately stopped or ended.
(01:32):
It almost never came tofruition and yet somehow, some
way, it came around full circleagain and showed up into her
life and this is how she onceagain ended up in the
interpreting profession.
All that just to say that justbecause things don't seem to be
(01:54):
unfolding the way you plannedthem or the way you thought they
would unfold, doesn't mean thatthey're not unfolding Okay,
doesn't mean that they're notunfolding okay.
I thought I'd just remind youof that today.
Anyway, let's dive right on into today's episode, shall we?
Maru Lozano was born and raisedin Puerto Rico and lives in Long
Beach, california.
(02:15):
As a professional translator,interpreter and coach, she has
acquired decades of successfulresults, curating and delivering
educational materials,adjusting content to community
literacy and diversity needs forclients and non-profit
healthcare and education sectors.
Currently, she serves as SeniorCommunications Translation
(02:36):
Manager at Altamed.
She's passionate and engaginglanguage oral, written and
visual to bring about youngwomen empowerment through visual
coaching, speaking and painting.
Recently, she trained with DrValerie Young, a worldwide
authority on the impostersyndrome, becoming a licensed
speaker associate to presentRethinking the Imposter Syndrome
(02:58):
, a program that has beendelivered to over 500,000 people
in the world.
So, without further ado, pleasewelcome Maru Lozano to the show
.
Maru, welcome to the show.
It's such a privilege and anhonor to have you here today.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm very grateful for the invite, Mirelda.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Absolutely yes.
I'd like to start just jumpright into the conversation and
ask you the very same questionthat I love, for I don't know
what reason, but I do love toask this question at the
beginning of the show to everyguest that has been here, and
I've been told, at least throughthe grapevine, through feedback
from the audience, that theyreally enjoy this question as
(03:43):
well.
So I don't think I'll ever stopasking this question, but if
you would be so kind, maru, asto giving us a little bit of an
insight me and the audience ofwho Maru is or was as a child
and possibly what a fondchildhood memory is, maybe where
you grew up, Give us a littlebit of background, sure.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I would love to share where I'm from and what memory
is coming back at this time forme.
I was born and raised in PuertoRico, and what is present to me
right now is the fact that Igrew up in a kind of unusual
(04:24):
household in Puerto Rico is notvery common for bilingual
households.
That's more of a US, acontinental US phenomenon, right
.
And so for me, being thedaughter of a US-born father who
had half Puerto Rican heritagebut then half German American
(04:49):
background, he was born andraised in Brooklyn, and so he
spoke in English a lot, rightwhen he was communicating with
my mom and of course in themeantime I was just not.
I could hear that as noise, Icould not really make any
meaning of it, but I think itdefinitely shaped who I became
(05:09):
ultimately.
So for me it was just a naturalthing to be present to two
languages, one that I did notunderstand at the time and one
that was my first languagelanguage, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So that that's what's coming up for me, mireya did
you, did you end up at somepoint, or do you recall that
your your dad in particularstressed the english language,
or were you immersed in that,the learning of it and ensuring
that you were picking it up inschool, or how did that come to
be?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, that was not just my father influencing
learning, the importance ofstressing the importance of
learning English, but curiously,my mom's mother was a very
well-known, a very famousEnglish teacher in middle school
.
She was very it was just alegendary figure because she was
(06:08):
very much a social worker kindof teacher, very involved in the
well-being and the coming ofage of her students, and she
always stressed to me how shereally wanted me to learn
English and I at the time wasrebelling against it.
frankly, I did not enjoy thatyeah, doing what my parents are
(06:31):
telling me to do exactly, and sothe last thing that I wanted
was to learn this language, andand what's really interesting to
me is how, ultimately, itshaped me professionally Right.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Right, exactly.
Yeah, the thing that we mostresist sometimes is exactly the
thing that we need to expand.
Yeah, exactly.
That's so funny, and then.
So you ended up taking Englishclasses in school, did she?
Did?
Your grandma ends up being yourteacher.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
She, oh no, yeah, she could tell that she would lose
her patience with me, but uh,she had me uh take tutoring
lessons from a time that when Iwas very young.
I remember uh very fondly those,those tutoring sessions,
because the tutor was just sonice, you know, uh and uh, but
(07:24):
that was not enough to learn thelanguage.
Frankly, what really got me tolearn it was when I had to
graduate from elementary schooland then I was placed in an
American middle school.
And the reason why I ended upin an American middle school is
because another unusual thing isthat I was baptized in the
(07:47):
Methodist church, not theCatholic, and so going with my
peers to a Catholic middleschool was just not a
possibility for me.
I was placed on a waiting listthat was very long for Catholic
schools, so it forced me toreplace in an American middle
school and then a high school,and especially in middle school,
(08:09):
those first few months werefish out of water, completely
uncomfortable, right Lost in thelanguage.
For sure that was being spoken,but just out of survival it
came one day right when Iconnected the dots enough to go
(08:29):
with the flow you know, andattend the school, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Do you recall?
I know that as we're growing upthere's a lot of changes.
Sometimes there's there'sabsolutely nothing in mind in
terms of what we aspire to be.
Sometimes it's so fantasticalthat we look back and think,
look, I don't even know how Istem that.
I think I wanted to be likeShe-Ra or something for the
younger generation.
(08:53):
It was like this cartoonsuperhero back in the end when I
grew up.
And then, of course, it shapedand formed as I got older and as
the world hit me with the slapof reality, as I got older and
as the world hit me with thistype of reality.
But do you recall thinking everor at some point saying I want
to be that when I grow up?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Wow, that's a really interesting question.
Well, I do have early memoriesof teaching my younger sister,
you know so.
Communication was big and Ialso communicated through
painting from a very early age.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, tell us like, how, like what kind of images
would come to mind that you feltinclined to put it on paper.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know portraits.
I spent long hours on my ownwith art books.
I could find, you know, in mymom's collection.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, so did you ever think that there could be some
sort of art-like career for you?
Is that what?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
maybe you were aspiring.
Oh, that was the thing that, onthe one hand, my parents,
especially my mom and my dad,you know, would definitely
celebrate my art, but as a hobby, you know.
When it came to the moment toreally make decisions, that
could, you know, establish me ona career path towards art,
(10:16):
that's when I was told no, no,you can't make a living, mija,
you know, doing art You're goingto have to to, yeah, study
pre-med or they want, they want,they pushed pre-med at the time
that college came interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What did you fast forward, end up actually
majoring in in in your future?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I know, uh, I ended up majoring in Latin American
studies.
What was that?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
interest for you.
Why Latin American studies?
From art to med to LatinAmerican studies.
How did that come into thepicture?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, that definitely came through the fact that in
one of my courses I reallyincreasingly became fascinated
by discovering Puerto Ricothrough its literature, through
a very influential professor whobecame a mentor.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I was just so much more drawn by literature than by
sciences, and so it becameclear to me that my path was not
medicine, but rather somethingto do with language.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
What were you aspiring with that major?
What do you think at that pointyou were thinking you could do
with it?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I was told, anyway, that most of the time, I was
being told that only teachingreally was the track right, the
track right.
So I, at the time, though, gotan opportunity to have my first
(11:54):
well-paid, full-time job as aneditor assistant, and so that
began to expose me to optionsoutside teaching you know,
perhaps editing, and of course,in my current job I do a lot of
editing a lot of quality.
Well, it's called qualityreviews, but editing is
definitely being used.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So you just started getting exposed to the different
types of jobs related to veryrelated, but that maybe not so
obvious as you're taking that,that path, that studies path,
right?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
No, it was very organic is the word.
Yeah, one thing led to another,and I've been trying before
today to place the first timethat I got exposed to
interpreting.
I had heard about interpretingat the time in college but
interestingly enough it was onlyUN based right United Nations
(12:52):
and so it seemed very remote andI did not really know much
about it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And at this time are you still in Puerto Rico or did
you do studies?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
somewhere else.
I went to Princeton, and so itbegan there, and I would say
that it didn't.
The interpreting came to meorganically, as something of a
question.
You know that because I wastranslating documents.
(13:22):
I mean this is a fast forward,of course to my early jobs.
Once I graduated, I went toSpain with the NYU in Madrid
program and there I beganhearing more about translations
being one thing but interpretingbeing another.
(13:46):
And for the need to interpret, Iwasn't given opportunities to
actually start interpretinguntil I came back to the States,
to the US, and there was justone moment where I was kind of
thrown into it, and it was oneof those things where I was
(14:09):
given an offer.
There was a need, somebody wasneeded to cover an assignment,
and I was told oh, you'll begreat at it.
If you're a teacher or someonethat has taught facilitated, I'm
sure that you'll be able to doit.
And it was brutal, it was veryscary.
I remember feeling like I wasdrowning.
(14:31):
You know, without being inwater, I felt like I was
drowning.
It was very challenging.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Do you remember the topic that was being discussed?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well I was at the time.
I was told to go on and takethe.
Actually, you're going to thinkthis is crazy, but at the time
I was told that I could prettymuch go in and take an exam.
This was an exam for the noless than the federal foreign
interpreter, oral, and I wasn'treally prepared, you know, by
(15:05):
anyone to be told, no, you needto prepare, you need to study,
and so I was.
I remember that as a verypainful moment, you know, very
discouraging, where I all I knewwas that, as I was rendering
the statements, I was definitelyfloundering and it was just
(15:27):
very, very traumatic.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Very traumatic.
Yes, I can only imagine.
I mean, I definitely have beenin opportunities where I am
grateful for being prepared forsuch encounters or being
prepared for for such encounters.
You know, just thinking, wow,if it hadn't been because I had
training prior to being throwninto this, that I would have
(15:53):
would have happened.
You know, just justunderstanding how the training
could apply in so many differentcontexts.
Just knowing or thinking aboutyou getting thrown in there and
really not having theappropriate preparation, just
there's so many feelingsinvolved.
If there is any new listeners,new interpreters out there, or
(16:16):
maybe those of you that havereached out to say I want to
make a career change, this is avery pivotal moment for many
bilingual individuals becausethere are so many feelings
surrounding a moment such asthat.
The feeling right of thinking Ithought I was fluent.
You know, beginning to questionone's own fluency because we we
(16:39):
correlate fluency with theability to interpret messages or
meanings right.
We make that correlation as itas does everyone else, by the
way, that just the generalpublic.
And then there's the feeling ofwhat am I doing to this person
that I'm supposed to be serving?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, no, it's a very dangerous assumption to make
that the fact that you'rebilingual uh that you know, that
you just thought of, oh, thatmeans that that person can
render that exam or that otherexam, et cetera, et cetera, any
certification exam withouthaving to prepare and just based
(17:18):
on your hours and hours ofyears and years of reading.
That those are very differentskill sets.
And so it was very eye-opening.
And years passed, I lost yearsof well, I wouldn't say lost, I
just became a better translator.
You know those years that I wasnot interpreting, I was just
(17:41):
given more opportunities totranslate.
I got increasingly better at it,but it would be years before I
was actually exposed yet againto the possibility of
interpreting and being toldbecause of your background you
(18:01):
could become an interpreter.
But I began then to hear theword unique training.
I went to the, I attended the.
I don't remember the long nameof it, but it's the Nestor
Wagner-led School ofInterpreting, I believe, in
(18:22):
Santa Fe Springs.
I was able to attend that for afew weeks before a full-time
job came my way, but that atleast began to fill in the gap,
right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
there was something, there was something in the
background, at least tounderstand the role and
understand the skills that ittakes, and and understand what
goes on in the background too,because I think that's another
misconception of the generalpublic and many bilinguals
themselves is not to recognizethat there's actually a whole
process going on in thebackground.
(18:58):
You know in one's brain per se,right With with the information
that is being, that is beingheard, that is, you know, being
taken in before we actually arerendering anything.
And I think, for me at least,that's the part of the process
that gave me like, wow, there'sso much more to interpreting
than just knowing two or morelanguages because of what's
(19:21):
going on in the background.
You know in one's, in one'sbrain to be able to capture.
You know anyway one's brain tobe able to capture Anyway.
So that whole process for mewas just mind blowing.
But to even just get a grasp,you come in with a different
demeanor.
I would say to an encounter,understanding that this isn't
necessarily going to be easy.
So I've got to be on my game tomake sure that this is going to
(19:44):
be done correctly, to the bestof my abilities at this point,
as opposed to.
I love it when someone says youknow, especially someone that
doesn't speak more than onelanguage likes to soften the
blow.
You'll be great at it.
You know the language.
Oh, you're going to do so good.
I've heard that sometimes youknow just as a bystander with
other bilingual individuals.
(20:04):
But sometimes you know just asa bystander with other bilingual
individuals, oh no, you can dothis, you know, you speak the
languages, you're fine to softenthe blow.
And then you get experienceslike that.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Experience is the key , and then enough awareness at
least, because at least that wasa seed that was planted in me
to actually be alert fortraining opportunities on the
job.
So what happened was later Iactually was able to model
(20:33):
myself after and shadow,basically learn by shadowing
others in community interpreting.
Before medical interpretingentered my life, there was just
suddenly a variety ofinterpreting jobs that came my
way, but the first one where Ilearned the ropes was in
community interpreting byactually watching professionals
(20:56):
do it or people who had a lot ofexperience, and then that
included getting from the groupor from the client materials,
agendas, handouts, so that thepeople that I was watching were
actually asking for thesebeforehand, before the event,
and actually doing research.
(21:17):
So it was definitely aneye-opener of how much you also
had to prepare.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Oh, I love that, yeah , especially by example, that
you're able to see, right, justhow it's supposed to be, how I
don't know if supposed to be you, just you.
I guess at that point you'rejust watching and really taking
in like, oh wow, I would havenever have thought, uh, right.
And of course, unless you go tothat formal training that gives
you the almost authority to sayno, it's actually expected that
(21:48):
as a trained interpreter, youare preparing before you're
walking into that assignment.
And then it's like well, thisis why I say like I just I love
the whole concept of it, becauseit's knowing that there's much
more to it than theunderstanding of two languages.
Now you're saying thatinterpreting starts to come in
more and more often,interpreting requests.
(22:09):
What's going on for you?
Are you feeling in terms ofprofession?
Are you feeling I'm going toexpand into this other side of
the language services industry?
I think I am liking it becauseI know that there's translators
that are like industry.
I think I I am liking itbecause I know that there's
translators that are like I amnot an interpreter.
(22:30):
There's no way, particularlyafter an experience such as
yours, they might've checked outand said that's not for me.
What were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I checked out for a while because of that traumatic
experience I shared.
Um, it took years to overcomethat, uh, and it just came.
It just came organically, uh,because the opportunity
presented itself again, but in amuch less intimidating fashion.
(22:57):
So, you know, it took for me tobe granted an opportunity at a
community event, withpreparation, with, you know,
team interpreting being offered.
So I was not alone and I wasactually able to say and take a
second look at it and realize,no, this is about preparation,
(23:20):
this is not that you lack theskill set, this is about you
preparing.
You know, and I actually had avery good influencers come my
way and say no, I believe in you, I believe that you can do it.
However, in terms of making it acareer, that didn't happen
(23:41):
until I became a certifiedmedical interpreter and I was
actually given an opportunitywhile being a community
interpreter.
One afternoon I was approachedby the Los Angeles Unified
School District technician atthe time because he really liked
(24:02):
how I did it and he actuallysaid we're looking for people.
Would you be interested in apart-time opportunity?
I said absolutely.
So.
I was able to mix medicalinterpreting and the Los Angeles
Unified School Districtinterpreting to make an
experience pretty much.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Okay, but by then you've already had some
experience in communityinterpreting and medical
interpreting and you're makingyour way into educational
interpreting.
Share with us what yourobservations were coming in from
these you know this, theseother experiences, these other
fields into education.
Was there overlap?
What did you see in terms ofhow, in this particular district
(24:45):
, which is a pretty largedistrict and very linguistically
diverse, I would say as well,what were your observations as
you're coming in?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, I would say that in the school district the
challenge was that the meetings,especially the IEPs, involved
so much and for so long thatwithout having a team person, I
was actually able to contrastthe difference between being a
(25:18):
solo interpreter assigned tothese meetings versus sharing
with another interpreter andswitching every 10 or 15 minutes
.
The contrast was huge.
But of course I understood thatthe school district just does
not have the resources andenough resources to facilitate.
(25:39):
Sometimes it did, but most ofthe time it could not allow you
to switch with anotherinterpreter and cover that way.
So I would say that one of thedifferences between that
experience and communityinterpreting was the lack of
(26:00):
team interpreting.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and you're right, because there are many of
times lack of resources in oureducational, public, educational
agencies and therefore lack ofpotential allocation to the
language services.
They might have the bareminimum.
Maybe they'll have what theyneed, but maybe like the bare
minimum in terms of providingservices.
So when being able to dosomething such as hey, we need
(26:25):
two people for one assignment,it becomes extremely challenging
, especially in such a largeschool district, right, because
everyone's just going outeverywhere, dispersed to all
school sites, potentially.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
What did you?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
find in terms of the terminology.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, well, the school district translations
department has developed aglossary that has been a
resource for many years andstill accessible to this day.
That really helped.
But I would say that one of thethings that I made sure of was
(27:01):
to keep open-minded and keepalert to the street language of
parents, you know, and reallymake sure that they understood,
especially in the individualeducation plans, the IEP
meetings.
I would call it doubletranslation, you know, making
(27:23):
sure that, as these elevatedwords, right, these very, very
high register words are beingshared, to make sure to pause
and make sure that the parents,in a more simplified way, could
get it, you know, and so thatdistinguished me also in the way
(27:44):
that I approached it, that youapproached the work.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, I think there was a lotof.
For my experience at least, Ialso came from the medical into
educational and from myexperience I felt like there was
a lot of crossover between thetwo.
But I did feel, if I could, ifI could, compare the two, in
terms of which one was a bitmore complex.
The only reason why I would sayeducational was more complex is
(28:12):
because it lacked that schooldistrict.
At least, I'm not saying everyschool district has this, but
potentially many do lack theinfrastructure to support
language access.
Many approach it as a checkmarkpiece where we have an
individual that provides theservice you know, check.
(28:34):
So, coming from the medicalfield that had the
infrastructure created tosupport not just the service but
the role, it was highlycomplicated to go into the
educational setting and not havethe infrastructure.
Individuals not understand therole, not knowing how to work
(28:54):
with the interpreter.
It was just like whoa.
This is a completely differentworld and one that can easily
take someone that is used tocoming from some structure, from
some you know, potentiallymaybe every, every so often
having to um, to train, quote,unquote, the the medical staff
on how to appropriately workwith the interpreter every so
(29:17):
often, to suddenly everyencounter, having to remind
everyone and pauses during themeeting, so that to me I felt
like that's the piece that wasthe most difficult.
But the crossover part that I'dmentioned earlier was remember
that I just said, oh, I wasgrateful that I had some
(29:38):
training.
Those were the moments where Iwas grateful, particularly with
the special education meetingthat had many or several medical
diagnosis that the studentmight have, and so the medical
terminology piece all of thatcame into play when I'm sitting
there as the interpreterterminology piece.
All of that came into play whenI'm sitting there as the
interpreter.
And that's exactly where mymind went, such as your
(30:00):
experience, maru was like ifthis had been someone else from
the school setting any otherbilingual teacher, receptionist,
attendance clerk what wouldthey have done in this situation
?
And I think that helped mark myjourney into I knew which
direction I wanted to take fromthat point forward in the field,
(30:21):
like what you know, what Iwanted to specialize in, has
there been a thing such as thatfor you that you felt you've
encountered, like you've found agap that you feel you would
like to fill and talk more aboutin terms of that specific topic
in the field of interpreting ortranslation.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Well, what's coming to mind in terms of a gap is
that I'm also remembering achance that I was given to do
medical interpreting at the ER.
To do medical interpreting atthe ER in a local hospital in
downtown LA you know a verychallenging environment and I
(31:08):
remember that there was a gap interms of expectations and just
being able to do my job, meaningthat in that hospital to do my
job, meaning that in thathospital it had about eight
floors or so and at the time wewere all the interpreters were
given a pager.
We were expected it seemed torespond to being paged at any
(31:29):
time and what actually happenedoften was that, as I was doing
the service in one floor, I wasbeing paged, you know, at two
floors and it was just reallywow, what a gap between wanting
to serve and being able to right, just because it was just that
(31:53):
logistical impossibility.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, that you're seeing that there is the need
and you're unable to fill it,and that's a perfect example, as
well as of the lack ofappropriate infrastructure to
support the role, because thatobviously is unsustainable you
can't be in two places at onceif you're not done with one
assignment at once if you're notdone with one assignment, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
And then again it paused me as far as I walked out
of that experience thinking I'mnot cut out to be a medical
interpreter.
I, of course, out of ignorance,did not realize there's so much
more beyond being a medicalinterpreter in the ER.
I was just not knowledgeableyet of all the possibilities
open to medical interpretingoutside the ER.
(32:42):
I just knew that the ER was notfor me.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, it's the saddest thing, too, to hear
sometimes amazing languageprofessionals as they are in
current day and just hearingtheir experiences such as that
that almost took them out ofhaving the opportunity to remain
, and perhaps, I don't know,there might have been many
(33:10):
individuals that have actuallybeen taken out because of
traumatic experiences such asthat and feeling inadequate to
be able to do their jobcorrectly or thinking I just
don't have what it takes becauseI am a medical interpreter and
here I am in a medical settingand I'm not doing what I'm
supposed to be doing.
So it is very discouraging and,as someone that hears the
(33:34):
stories a lot, very discouraging.
And as someone that hears thestories a lot, it's
disheartening because there areso many resources out there,
which is another.
One of the reasons why Icreated this platform is because
I wanted to add just anotherresource of people being able to
access the resources, thedifficulties of other
interpreters via their storiesand what they did to overcome
(33:56):
them, because I feel likethey're all out there.
It's just once we're in theweeds.
It's really difficult to find,like, how do I know if anybody
else is going through this?
And we tend to go through thesechallenges in silo right,
because it's our own mental gamesometimes that is challenging
ourselves or questioning, makingus question ourselves Do I have
(34:18):
what it takes to stay in thisfield?
What else have you experiencedthroughout the years, now that
you've been more exposed tothese circumstances and to the
field itself and the professionand, I imagine, other
professionals, in terms ofnetworking and things of that
nature?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
What have you come across that you really feel you
would like to highlight or say?
This is make a living out of atranslation based job and then
do interpreting on weekendspretty much, or after work.
I would say that I have beenable to do interpreting in a
(35:13):
much more relaxed way.
Do interpreting in a much morerelaxed way.
My understanding right now is,or in recent years has been,
no-transcript.
I have observed that unless youtake up a full-time job as an
(35:33):
interpreter, say in a schooldistrict or perhaps in a
hospital, it's really, in myexperience anyway, not very
feasible to have enoughfreelancing.
Come, if you may, to become afull-time freelance interpreter.
I may be wrong, I may just notbe plugged in at this time.
(35:56):
Enough, does that make sense?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
yeah, yeah, and I think it's very relevant to your
particular experience, which isvery important, because we have
had guests on the show that saythe contrary right.
We have had guests on the showthat say the contrary right.
It's just a matter ofstrategizing and knowing what to
do and where to look for thesejobs and things like that nature
, but it's almost a full-timejob in and of itself,
(36:20):
structuring your approach to beable to establish that rapport,
to establish that network and beable to bring in enough
business.
But I think that goes, maru, Ithink you might agree that that
goes with any business.
Anything we do is going to taketime to build and to get to a
level of I feel like it's givingme enough that I could support
(36:43):
myself with this job, with myown business.
I think, for the most part,unless you just come up with the
most genius of ideas and it andit just so happens to hit
immediately as a success.
I think for the most part, eveneven ideas that we now know are
successful companies one daystarted as challenging little
(37:03):
mom and pop ideas.
So so I think it just reallydepends on on absolutely the
experience and the amount orwhat the strategy is.
I wouldn't say the amountbecause I think a just really
depends on absolutely theexperience and the amount or
what the strategy is.
I wouldn't say the amountbecause I think a lot of us work
hard to try to make things workfor ourselves if we're trying
to go solo.
But I think it's just potentialthe strategy.
And do you have the ability tosit and pause with no business
(37:26):
coming in in order to strategize?
Many of us don't.
So it's like, okay, maybe I'mgoing to do this part time while
I sort of figure out how I'mgoing to strategize my next move
to expand the business, becausethe work is out there, that's
for sure, and I think itcontinues to grow.
The numbers in the industry sayso.
(37:48):
So I think definitely woulddepend on just that strategy
that we're coming up.
You talk a lot about, youpresent a lot of on on uh
communication that's generatedby gaps in language.
Uh, you do talk about uhsolopreneurship and and have
presentations such as that.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat inspires these
(38:09):
conversations for you.
What is it that you're sharingout there to the broader
community about the professionand what inspires you about the
profession to speak about it?
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well, I would say that I've always been aware, or
I've become increasingly aware,of what a great service
interpreting provides, and soit's a very noble and very
fulfilling profession.
I just wish that it were.
(38:42):
In my experience anyway I'llspeak for myself the actual
financial remuneration has beenan issue.
I have observed thatunfortunately, at least again in
my experience, it seems likemore and more interpreters,
especially those that arebecoming certified in recent
(39:06):
years, are willing to be paidless and less, driving the fees
for all of us down.
So I really that's what Ibecame aware of.
You know that in the field ofinterpreting, there hasn't been,
as it has happened in otherprofessions perhaps, a tendency
(39:30):
to really become aware ofprofessionalizing the work and
really not just thinking aboutour own payments, but actually
to really have a collectivemindset, you know, and really
being able to connect thatwhatever you accept today is
(39:52):
going to impact, whether yourealize it or not, others as
well.
I worked in so before thepandemic, with a collective that
no longer exists.
I'm not sure why it dissolved,but it was a real school in
showing me a way to set fees ata very good level, both in terms
(40:18):
of laying out translation feesas well as interpreting fees,
used it as a model, you know,for my own uh invoices and
whatnot in the last few years.
Um, but essentially, uh, that's, uh, that's really my, my two
(40:47):
cents.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
You know that it needs to be a better, a better
paid profession period, yeah,and I and I I think definitely
many, if not all, agree that'sdefinitely that there's a period
behind that.
You know, period and no more.
It's a full statement, they'rejust there does need to be a
better pay and I think I alsobelieve, as you mentioned, that
(41:10):
it definitely has to do a lotwith the lack of understanding
of the skillset that it requiresand just being able to
professionalize and standardizethat role when you have many,
many bilingual individuals thatare willing to do the work for
less, sometimes maybe even justas taking it on as an extra
(41:33):
thing from what they're alreadydoing.
If they're working as in-housesomething else right, if they're
I don't know receptionist,secretaries or something they
don't know any better andthey're taking on the
responsibility.
So, yeah, there's a lot offactors that come into play and
then, of course, now we've gotAI in the mix that you know is
(41:54):
also wanting to come in and andbe another competitor to the
professional and that that, ofcourse, drives even more
difficulty in trying to stayafloat, like you mentioned
earlier in, in not feeling likewe're drowning, right?
So definitely a lot ofdifficulties.
Through the years, I'm certainthat you've learned a lot of
(42:15):
experiences, both in thetranslation and the interpreting
side.
What would you recommend now ifyou could go back and say I
would have done this differentlyas a recommendation for maybe
the newer generation ofbilingual professionals that are
coming in, that are trainedprofessionals coming into the
(42:36):
field?
What would you recommend tothem?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Wow, that's definitely food for thought.
I would recommend to becomemembers as soon as they can of
associations that areprofessional associations.
If they are medical interpreters, to definitely become involved
in the IMI, for instance,international Medical
(43:02):
Interpreters Association, and orthe National Board of Certified
Medical Interpreters borders ofcertified medical interpreters
network.
Definitely network a lot moreuh, I was not networking
actively in those in thoseseasons in between, as much as I
could and and to definitelystart, you know, by by seeking
(43:26):
mentors.
I did not seek a mentor earlyand I think it would have helped
, you know, because then youcould use their guidance to not
just price your services butalso to perhaps get
opportunities shadowing, becauseit's one thing to be trained
(43:46):
and another thing is to be outin the field doing the work.
So I definitely would recommendto seek mentorship and seek to
create shadowing opportunities.
I can't think of a lot ofprofessional interpreters that
would not be open to beingshadowed because, at least in my
(44:09):
experience, a lot ofinterpreters are very nice
people and helpful peoplebecause it is a very giving
service.
I know that there's, of course,there's all kinds of
individuals.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, you've got your divas out there.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, of course there's definitely divas out
there.
Right, of course there'sdefinitely divas, but uh, but
there's definitely enough givingand generous, open people to,
to, at least you know, with them.
With that thing in mind, thatgoal in mind, go and get one
mentor and don't even try to getmore than one, but just one at
a time.
That would be my bestrecommendation.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
In the four years that I've been doing.
I can't believe I whenever Isay that, I'm like, wow, I can't
believe it's been four years.
But in the four years I've beenhaving this podcast or doing
this podcast, it's the firsttime that I've actually heard
someone recommend that and it's,I think, such a genius idea
that recommend seeking a mentorto shadow.
I mean, we've heard, you know,recommending seek a mentor, tap
(45:16):
into someone that's already onthe field, don't be afraid to
ask them questions, and which,of course, absolutely.
But this is the first time thatI've actually heard someone say
seek a mentor and seek toshadow them.
You are absolutely right, maru.
That can make a world of adifference.
Number one, to know that that'seven the specialty area that
(45:39):
you want to be in.
What if you go and shadowsomething in the medical field
and you are just disgusted bythings that are happening in
that medical setting and you'relike I don't even think I would
be able to sit here andinterpret, you know, watching
all this stuff happen in thebackground.
This is not for me.
And then you save yourself theyou know the years of
(46:01):
potentially or well, yeah, years, because you would go into the
field and then have to go searchfor something else.
But I think that that's a very,very great point.
Go out and find a mentor toshadow, if anything.
If you're interested, forinstance, in educational
interpreting, but you don't knowreally what it is or what it
(46:22):
would entail, or if it doesn'tsound like it would be as
complicated, go and shadowsomeone.
Go and ask if you could go andshadow someone.
There might be things that theywould have to do in order to
allow that, you know, for you tohave the opportunity to step
into a school district.
But if you're really interested, you would be, I think,
(46:44):
inclined to take the steps thatare necessary to clear you to be
on campus and in a setting as astudent.
I would say definitely.
If you're already going throughyour training, it's easier for
a school district to accept youcoming in as a student of a
particular content, of aparticular field and be able to
shadow one of their employees.
(47:05):
I think that other specialtyareas do it as well.
Or here's another idea,piggybacking off of Maru's idea
why not mention that?
To whatever training programyou are in, sometimes the
universities or the communitycolleges would love the
opportunity to be able to havemore options for you to do your
(47:26):
service hours and maybe, if yousay, hey, I'd like to go to Los
Angeles School District, isthere any way that we can, that
the university can work or thecollege can work with LAUSD, to
be able to, for us to shadowthem, their interpreters,
something of the sort?
Right, that's?
That was a great idea.
I really liked that.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Thank you, I'm so, so glad that it that it rang a
bell and that you think it's agreat idea.
I also right now think that forthe medical interpreting,
shadowing is totally doable,especially from those that are
telehealth appointments, wherethe mentor interpreter can
(48:06):
actually allow you to be attheir home office and be there
without you know the medicalprofessional, seeing that
there's someone else there,right, it's not something that's
doable if it's an in-personmedical appointment for reasons
that you can imagine, but it'sdefinitely doable in telehealth
(48:26):
appointments.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yeah, for sure, and I think you know I've had guests
here on the show that have also.
They manage interpretingservices in healthcare settings
and large hospitals and there'swork that needs to be done in
order to be able to partner withlocal universities or colleges,
but they would love to have thehelp to come in Number one to
(48:48):
shadow and then later, hopefully, if you are interested, to sort
of volunteer, as you're doing,your training program.
It's a matter of collaborationbehind the scenes, but I think
you would open up theopportunity for someone to say,
oh, I'd never thought about thatinstitution as a way for you to
be able to practice yourconsecutive interpreting, or
whatever it may be.
(49:08):
But yeah, no, I think that'sdefinitely a great suggestion
and I'm hoping that you arethinking so too, audience, in
terms of being able to seek outa mentor for mentoring excuse me
, shadowing opportunities.
What else would you like toshare with this particular
audience, maru, in the sense ofjust you know whether it be
(49:31):
recommendations, or rather whatis a great resource that you
have found very usefulthroughout your career that you
would like to share with thisaudience?
Speaker 2 (49:42):
Oh my, the resources.
I would say that definitely,one resource that's available to
the general public is by justGoogling it using the keyword
glossary, and then Los AngelesUnified School District
Translations Unit.
I believe that the glossary isan actual PDF that's accessible
(50:09):
for use.
Is an actual PDF that'saccessible for use.
Resources I would recommendprofessional associations such
as the ones that I mentioned,and just reading and just
(50:29):
listening to live or recordedinterviews in Spanish, I mean
you have to, especially those ofus who live and work in the US.
I think it's really importantfor us to not take for granted
that we need to still, you know,read and listen to Spanish
content to keep our languageskills, you know, fresh.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Is there a resource you use or a tool that you used
in translations that you felthas been super helpful for
interpreting?
Is there one that you can thinkof that you can say you know, I
used to use this as a tool formy translation work, but it's
also extremely helpful in theinterpreting field.
(51:13):
I've come to find out Anythingthat you can think of.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Well, one thing I love is the tool, an app spelled
L-I-N-G-U-E-E, oh Lingui.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Lingui.
Yeah, oh, they have an app now.
Yeah, oh, wow, I didn't knowthat.
Yeah, I'm going to look that up.
How do you use it and howshould interpreters use it and
not use it, uh-huh.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Well, I would say that interpreters, just as a
tool to check, just double checkin the preparation for an
assignment.
Sometimes in site translationsthere's a need to double check
that you have spelled somethingcorrectly, for instance, and I
(52:26):
just find it a wonderful tool ingeneral to really come up with
correctly spelled words, andalso it well positions you to
get the right.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
You can definitely use it for content and context.
Because what's great about that?
At least the browser you knowon the internet.
When you go in there, you'reable to click on whatever the
word might be or whatever thatphrase is being used in the word
that it's being used in, andthen it takes you sometimes to
(52:50):
that document or that site whereyou so you can get even more
context as to where the word iscoming from and how they were
using it, which I think that'salso a very great way of just
getting some context around theword.
Um, especially if you're on thego, especially if it's something
fast that oh, like this camelast minute.
They updated the slides rightbefore we started and you're
(53:12):
like, ah, what is that conceptabout?
And so something really quickto jump in there instead of
having to scroll with so manyresults.
You're able to get to you knowthis one word and then it gives
you only context based on thatword through through that app
L-I-N-G-U-E-E.
But yeah, be careful how youuse it.
(53:33):
You've got to do research too.
You can't just take its wordfor it.
See what I did there.
Lastly, maru, where can ourlisteners find out more about
you and the work that you do?
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Well, linkedin would be a place to keep in touch with
me.
I have a profile there.
I'm working currently on ourwebsite, but it's just a work in
progress, so I would sayLinkedIn would be the way to
connect with me.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
I'll make sure to include your LinkedIn link in
the episode notes, Maru.
In the meantime, thank you forthe opportunity to share your
story here on Brand theInterpreter.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Thank you for the opportunity, Mireya.
It's been an honor.
Take care and best wishes toeverybody.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Brand the
Interpreter podcast.
This is Mireya, your host, andI appreciate you joining me here
today.
You know, the other day I wasthinking that these days I've
been spending a lot of timetraining new interpreters.
I've been either working withcompanies or organizations
developing curriculum, or I'veactually been providing
(00:29):
interpreter training, and I wasjust thinking the direction that
sometimes our career takes.
Sometimes it has hints of thethings that we plan for it.
Sometimes they're things thatwe never thought about, perhaps,
or we never planned, but theywere opportunities that came and
(00:51):
we took them, and so, eitherway, it's just interesting to
know that throughout your careeryou're going to have these
moments of change, these momentsthat sometimes you think have
nothing to do one with the other, and yet somehow they do,
especially when you see themsort of come around full circle.
(01:12):
And I know that I'm speakingright now in abstracts, but hey,
what's new with me, right?
It's just interesting becauseyou'll hear in today's episode
our guest, maru Lozano, share astory about how her interpreter
journey started and almostimmediately stopped or ended.
(01:32):
It almost never came tofruition and yet somehow, some
way, it came around full circleagain and showed up into her
life and this is how she onceagain ended up in the
interpreting profession.
All that just to say that justbecause things don't seem to be
(01:54):
unfolding the way you plannedthem or the way you thought they
would unfold, doesn't mean thatthey're not unfolding Okay,
doesn't mean that they're notunfolding okay.
I thought I'd just remind youof that today.
Anyway, let's dive right on into today's episode, shall we?
Maru Lozano was born and raisedin Puerto Rico and lives in Long
Beach, california.
(02:15):
As a professional translator,interpreter and coach, she has
acquired decades of successfulresults, curating and delivering
educational materials,adjusting content to community
literacy and diversity needs forclients and non-profit
healthcare and education sectors.
Currently, she serves as SeniorCommunications Translation
(02:36):
Manager at Altamed.
She's passionate and engaginglanguage oral, written and
visual to bring about youngwomen empowerment through visual
coaching, speaking and painting.
Recently, she trained with DrValerie Young, a worldwide
authority on the impostersyndrome, becoming a licensed
speaker associate to presentRethinking the Imposter Syndrome
(02:58):
, a program that has beendelivered to over 500,000 people
in the world.
So, without further ado, pleasewelcome Maru Lozano to the show
.
Maru, welcome to the show.
It's such a privilege and anhonor to have you here today.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm very grateful for the invite, Mirelda.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Absolutely yes.
I'd like to start just jumpright into the conversation and
ask you the very same questionthat I love, for I don't know
what reason, but I do love toask this question at the
beginning of the show to everyguest that has been here, and
I've been told, at least throughthe grapevine, through feedback
from the audience, that theyreally enjoy this question as
(03:43):
well.
So I don't think I'll ever stopasking this question, but if
you would be so kind, maru, asto giving us a little bit of an
insight me and the audience ofwho Maru is or was as a child
and possibly what a fondchildhood memory is, maybe where
you grew up, Give us a littlebit of background, sure.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I would love to share where I'm from and what memory
is coming back at this time forme.
I was born and raised in PuertoRico, and what is present to me
right now is the fact that Igrew up in a kind of unusual
(04:24):
household in Puerto Rico is notvery common for bilingual
households.
That's more of a US, acontinental US phenomenon, right
.
And so for me, being thedaughter of a US-born father who
had half Puerto Rican heritagebut then half German American
(04:49):
background, he was born andraised in Brooklyn, and so he
spoke in English a lot, rightwhen he was communicating with
my mom and of course in themeantime I was just not.
I could hear that as noise, Icould not really make any
meaning of it, but I think itdefinitely shaped who I became
(05:09):
ultimately.
So for me it was just a naturalthing to be present to two
languages, one that I did notunderstand at the time and one
that was my first languagelanguage, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So that that's what's coming up for me, mireya did
you, did you end up at somepoint, or do you recall that
your your dad in particularstressed the english language,
or were you immersed in that,the learning of it and ensuring
that you were picking it up inschool, or how did that come to
be?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, that was not just my father influencing
learning, the importance ofstressing the importance of
learning English, but curiously,my mom's mother was a very
well-known, a very famousEnglish teacher in middle school
.
She was very it was just alegendary figure because she was
(06:08):
very much a social worker kindof teacher, very involved in the
well-being and the coming ofage of her students, and she
always stressed to me how shereally wanted me to learn
English and I at the time wasrebelling against it.
frankly, I did not enjoy thatyeah, doing what my parents are
(06:31):
telling me to do exactly, and sothe last thing that I wanted
was to learn this language, andand what's really interesting to
me is how, ultimately, itshaped me professionally Right.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Right, exactly.
Yeah, the thing that we mostresist sometimes is exactly the
thing that we need to expand.
Yeah, exactly.
That's so funny, and then.
So you ended up taking Englishclasses in school, did she?
Did?
Your grandma ends up being yourteacher.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
She, oh no, yeah, she could tell that she would lose
her patience with me, but uh,she had me uh take tutoring
lessons from a time that when Iwas very young.
I remember uh very fondly those,those tutoring sessions,
because the tutor was just sonice, you know, uh and uh, but
(07:24):
that was not enough to learn thelanguage.
Frankly, what really got me tolearn it was when I had to
graduate from elementary schooland then I was placed in an
American middle school.
And the reason why I ended upin an American middle school is
because another unusual thing isthat I was baptized in the
(07:47):
Methodist church, not theCatholic, and so going with my
peers to a Catholic middleschool was just not a
possibility for me.
I was placed on a waiting listthat was very long for Catholic
schools, so it forced me toreplace in an American middle
school and then a high school,and especially in middle school,
(08:09):
those first few months werefish out of water, completely
uncomfortable, right Lost in thelanguage.
For sure that was being spoken,but just out of survival it
came one day right when Iconnected the dots enough to go
(08:29):
with the flow you know, andattend the school, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Do you recall?
I know that as we're growing upthere's a lot of changes.
Sometimes there's there'sabsolutely nothing in mind in
terms of what we aspire to be.
Sometimes it's so fantasticalthat we look back and think,
look, I don't even know how Istem that.
I think I wanted to be likeShe-Ra or something for the
younger generation.
(08:53):
It was like this cartoonsuperhero back in the end when I
grew up.
And then, of course, it shapedand formed as I got older and as
the world hit me with the slapof reality, as I got older and
as the world hit me with thistype of reality.
But do you recall thinking everor at some point saying I want
to be that when I grow up?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Wow, that's a really interesting question.
Well, I do have early memoriesof teaching my younger sister,
you know so.
Communication was big and Ialso communicated through
painting from a very early age.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, tell us like, how, like what kind of images
would come to mind that you feltinclined to put it on paper.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know portraits.
I spent long hours on my ownwith art books.
I could find, you know, in mymom's collection.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, so did you ever think that there could be some
sort of art-like career for you?
Is that what?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
maybe you were aspiring.
Oh, that was the thing that, onthe one hand, my parents,
especially my mom and my dad,you know, would definitely
celebrate my art, but as a hobby, you know.
When it came to the moment toreally make decisions, that
could, you know, establish me ona career path towards art,
(10:16):
that's when I was told no, no,you can't make a living, mija,
you know, doing art You're goingto have to to, yeah, study
pre-med or they want, they want,they pushed pre-med at the time
that college came interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
What did you fast forward, end up actually
majoring in in in your future?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I know, uh, I ended up majoring in Latin American
studies.
What was that?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
interest for you.
Why Latin American studies?
From art to med to LatinAmerican studies.
How did that come into thepicture?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, that definitely came through the fact that in
one of my courses I reallyincreasingly became fascinated
by discovering Puerto Ricothrough its literature, through
a very influential professor whobecame a mentor.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I was just so much more drawn by literature than by
sciences, and so it becameclear to me that my path was not
medicine, but rather somethingto do with language.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
What were you aspiring with that major?
What do you think at that pointyou were thinking you could do
with it?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I was told, anyway, that most of the time, I was
being told that only teachingreally was the track right, the
track right.
So I, at the time, though, gotan opportunity to have my first
(11:54):
well-paid, full-time job as aneditor assistant, and so that
began to expose me to optionsoutside teaching you know,
perhaps editing, and of course,in my current job I do a lot of
editing a lot of quality.
Well, it's called qualityreviews, but editing is
definitely being used.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So you just started getting exposed to the different
types of jobs related to veryrelated, but that maybe not so
obvious as you're taking that,that path, that studies path,
right?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
No, it was very organic is the word.
Yeah, one thing led to another,and I've been trying before
today to place the first timethat I got exposed to
interpreting.
I had heard about interpretingat the time in college but
interestingly enough it was onlyUN based right United Nations
(12:52):
and so it seemed very remote andI did not really know much
about it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And at this time are you still in Puerto Rico or did
you do studies?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
somewhere else.
I went to Princeton, and so itbegan there, and I would say
that it didn't.
The interpreting came to meorganically, as something of a
question.
You know that because I wastranslating documents.
(13:22):
I mean this is a fast forward,of course to my early jobs.
Once I graduated, I went toSpain with the NYU in Madrid
program and there I beganhearing more about translations
being one thing but interpretingbeing another.
(13:46):
And for the need to interpret, Iwasn't given opportunities to
actually start interpretinguntil I came back to the States,
to the US, and there was justone moment where I was kind of
thrown into it, and it was oneof those things where I was
(14:09):
given an offer.
There was a need, somebody wasneeded to cover an assignment,
and I was told oh, you'll begreat at it.
If you're a teacher or someonethat has taught facilitated, I'm
sure that you'll be able to doit.
And it was brutal, it was veryscary.
I remember feeling like I wasdrowning.
(14:31):
You know, without being inwater, I felt like I was
drowning.
It was very challenging.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Do you remember the topic that was being discussed?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well I was at the time.
I was told to go on and takethe.
Actually, you're going to thinkthis is crazy, but at the time
I was told that I could prettymuch go in and take an exam.
This was an exam for the noless than the federal foreign
interpreter, oral, and I wasn'treally prepared, you know, by
(15:05):
anyone to be told, no, you needto prepare, you need to study,
and so I was.
I remember that as a verypainful moment, you know, very
discouraging, where I all I knewwas that, as I was rendering
the statements, I was definitelyfloundering and it was just
(15:27):
very, very traumatic.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Very traumatic.
Yes, I can only imagine.
I mean, I definitely have beenin opportunities where I am
grateful for being prepared forsuch encounters or being
prepared for for such encounters.
You know, just thinking, wow,if it hadn't been because I had
training prior to being throwninto this, that I would have
(15:53):
would have happened.
You know, just justunderstanding how the training
could apply in so many differentcontexts.
Just knowing or thinking aboutyou getting thrown in there and
really not having theappropriate preparation, just
there's so many feelingsinvolved.
If there is any new listeners,new interpreters out there, or
(16:16):
maybe those of you that havereached out to say I want to
make a career change, this is avery pivotal moment for many
bilingual individuals becausethere are so many feelings
surrounding a moment such asthat.
The feeling right of thinking Ithought I was fluent.
You know, beginning to questionone's own fluency because we we
(16:39):
correlate fluency with theability to interpret messages or
meanings right.
We make that correlation as itas does everyone else, by the
way, that just the generalpublic.
And then there's the feeling ofwhat am I doing to this person
that I'm supposed to be serving?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, no, it's a very dangerous assumption to make
that the fact that you'rebilingual uh that you know, that
you just thought of, oh, thatmeans that that person can
render that exam or that otherexam, et cetera, et cetera, any
certification exam withouthaving to prepare and just based
(17:18):
on your hours and hours ofyears and years of reading.
That those are very differentskill sets.
And so it was very eye-opening.
And years passed, I lost yearsof well, I wouldn't say lost, I
just became a better translator.
You know those years that I wasnot interpreting, I was just
(17:41):
given more opportunities totranslate.
I got increasingly better at it,but it would be years before I
was actually exposed yet againto the possibility of
interpreting and being toldbecause of your background you
(18:01):
could become an interpreter.
But I began then to hear theword unique training.
I went to the, I attended the.
I don't remember the long nameof it, but it's the Nestor
Wagner-led School ofInterpreting, I believe, in
(18:22):
Santa Fe Springs.
I was able to attend that for afew weeks before a full-time
job came my way, but that atleast began to fill in the gap,
right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
there was something, there was something in the
background, at least tounderstand the role and
understand the skills that ittakes, and and understand what
goes on in the background too,because I think that's another
misconception of the generalpublic and many bilinguals
themselves is not to recognizethat there's actually a whole
process going on in thebackground.
(18:58):
You know in one's brain per se,right With with the information
that is being, that is beingheard, that is, you know, being
taken in before we actually arerendering anything.
And I think, for me at least,that's the part of the process
that gave me like, wow, there'sso much more to interpreting
than just knowing two or morelanguages because of what's
(19:21):
going on in the background.
You know in one's, in one'sbrain to be able to capture.
You know anyway one's brain tobe able to capture Anyway.
So that whole process for mewas just mind blowing.
But to even just get a grasp,you come in with a different
demeanor.
I would say to an encounter,understanding that this isn't
necessarily going to be easy.
So I've got to be on my game tomake sure that this is going to
(19:44):
be done correctly, to the bestof my abilities at this point,
as opposed to.
I love it when someone says youknow, especially someone that
doesn't speak more than onelanguage likes to soften the
blow.
You'll be great at it.
You know the language.
Oh, you're going to do so good.
I've heard that sometimes youknow just as a bystander with
other bilingual individuals.
(20:04):
But sometimes you know just asa bystander with other bilingual
individuals, oh no, you can dothis, you know, you speak the
languages, you're fine to softenthe blow.
And then you get experienceslike that.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Experience is the key , and then enough awareness at
least, because at least that wasa seed that was planted in me
to actually be alert fortraining opportunities on the
job.
So what happened was later Iactually was able to model
(20:33):
myself after and shadow,basically learn by shadowing
others in community interpreting.
Before medical interpretingentered my life, there was just
suddenly a variety ofinterpreting jobs that came my
way, but the first one where Ilearned the ropes was in
community interpreting byactually watching professionals
(20:56):
do it or people who had a lot ofexperience, and then that
included getting from the groupor from the client materials,
agendas, handouts, so that thepeople that I was watching were
actually asking for thesebeforehand, before the event,
and actually doing research.
(21:17):
So it was definitely aneye-opener of how much you also
had to prepare.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Oh, I love that, yeah , especially by example, that
you're able to see, right, justhow it's supposed to be, how I
don't know if supposed to be you, just you.
I guess at that point you'rejust watching and really taking
in like, oh wow, I would havenever have thought, uh, right.
And of course, unless you go tothat formal training that gives
you the almost authority to sayno, it's actually expected that
(21:48):
as a trained interpreter, youare preparing before you're
walking into that assignment.
And then it's like well, thisis why I say like I just I love
the whole concept of it, becauseit's knowing that there's much
more to it than theunderstanding of two languages.
Now you're saying thatinterpreting starts to come in
more and more often,interpreting requests.
(22:09):
What's going on for you?
Are you feeling in terms ofprofession?
Are you feeling I'm going toexpand into this other side of
the language services industry?
I think I am liking it becauseI know that there's translators
that are like industry.
I think I I am liking itbecause I know that there's
translators that are like I amnot an interpreter.
(22:30):
There's no way, particularlyafter an experience such as
yours, they might've checked outand said that's not for me.
What were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I checked out for a while because of that traumatic
experience I shared.
Um, it took years to overcomethat, uh, and it just came.
It just came organically, uh,because the opportunity
presented itself again, but in amuch less intimidating fashion.
(22:57):
So, you know, it took for me tobe granted an opportunity at a
community event, withpreparation, with, you know,
team interpreting being offered.
So I was not alone and I wasactually able to say and take a
second look at it and realize,no, this is about preparation,
(23:20):
this is not that you lack theskill set, this is about you
preparing.
You know, and I actually had avery good influencers come my
way and say no, I believe in you, I believe that you can do it.
However, in terms of making it acareer, that didn't happen
(23:41):
until I became a certifiedmedical interpreter and I was
actually given an opportunitywhile being a community
interpreter.
One afternoon I was approachedby the Los Angeles Unified
School District technician atthe time because he really liked
(24:02):
how I did it and he actuallysaid we're looking for people.
Would you be interested in apart-time opportunity?
I said absolutely.
So.
I was able to mix medicalinterpreting and the Los Angeles
Unified School Districtinterpreting to make an
experience pretty much.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Okay, but by then you've already had some
experience in communityinterpreting and medical
interpreting and you're makingyour way into educational
interpreting.
Share with us what yourobservations were coming in from
these you know this, theseother experiences, these other
fields into education.
Was there overlap?
What did you see in terms ofhow, in this particular district
(24:45):
, which is a pretty largedistrict and very linguistically
diverse, I would say as well,what were your observations as
you're coming in?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, I would say that in the school district the
challenge was that the meetings,especially the IEPs, involved
so much and for so long thatwithout having a team person, I
was actually able to contrastthe difference between being a
(25:18):
solo interpreter assigned tothese meetings versus sharing
with another interpreter andswitching every 10 or 15 minutes
.
The contrast was huge.
But of course I understood thatthe school district just does
not have the resources andenough resources to facilitate.
(25:39):
Sometimes it did, but most ofthe time it could not allow you
to switch with anotherinterpreter and cover that way.
So I would say that one of thedifferences between that
experience and communityinterpreting was the lack of
(26:00):
team interpreting.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and you're right, because there are many of
times lack of resources in oureducational, public, educational
agencies and therefore lack ofpotential allocation to the
language services.
They might have the bareminimum.
Maybe they'll have what theyneed, but maybe like the bare
minimum in terms of providingservices.
So when being able to dosomething such as hey, we need
(26:25):
two people for one assignment,it becomes extremely challenging
, especially in such a largeschool district, right, because
everyone's just going outeverywhere, dispersed to all
school sites, potentially.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
What did you?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
find in terms of the terminology.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, well, the school district translations
department has developed aglossary that has been a
resource for many years andstill accessible to this day.
That really helped.
But I would say that one of thethings that I made sure of was
(27:01):
to keep open-minded and keepalert to the street language of
parents, you know, and reallymake sure that they understood,
especially in the individualeducation plans, the IEP
meetings.
I would call it doubletranslation, you know, making
(27:23):
sure that, as these elevatedwords, right, these very, very
high register words are beingshared, to make sure to pause
and make sure that the parents,in a more simplified way, could
get it, you know, and so thatdistinguished me also in the way
(27:44):
that I approached it, that youapproached the work.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, I think there was a lotof.
For my experience at least, Ialso came from the medical into
educational and from myexperience I felt like there was
a lot of crossover between thetwo.
But I did feel, if I could, ifI could, compare the two, in
terms of which one was a bitmore complex.
The only reason why I would sayeducational was more complex is
(28:12):
because it lacked that schooldistrict.
At least, I'm not saying everyschool district has this, but
potentially many do lack theinfrastructure to support
language access.
Many approach it as a checkmarkpiece where we have an
individual that provides theservice you know, check.
(28:34):
So, coming from the medicalfield that had the
infrastructure created tosupport not just the service but
the role, it was highlycomplicated to go into the
educational setting and not havethe infrastructure.
Individuals not understand therole, not knowing how to work
(28:54):
with the interpreter.
It was just like whoa.
This is a completely differentworld and one that can easily
take someone that is used tocoming from some structure, from
some you know, potentiallymaybe every, every so often
having to um, to train, quote,unquote, the the medical staff
on how to appropriately workwith the interpreter every so
(29:17):
often, to suddenly everyencounter, having to remind
everyone and pauses during themeeting, so that to me I felt
like that's the piece that wasthe most difficult.
But the crossover part that I'dmentioned earlier was remember
that I just said, oh, I wasgrateful that I had some
(29:38):
training.
Those were the moments where Iwas grateful, particularly with
the special education meetingthat had many or several medical
diagnosis that the studentmight have, and so the medical
terminology piece all of thatcame into play when I'm sitting
there as the interpreterterminology piece.
All of that came into play whenI'm sitting there as the
interpreter.
And that's exactly where mymind went, such as your
(30:00):
experience, maru was like ifthis had been someone else from
the school setting any otherbilingual teacher, receptionist,
attendance clerk what wouldthey have done in this situation
?
And I think that helped mark myjourney into I knew which
direction I wanted to take fromthat point forward in the field,
(30:21):
like what you know, what Iwanted to specialize in, has
there been a thing such as thatfor you that you felt you've
encountered, like you've found agap that you feel you would
like to fill and talk more aboutin terms of that specific topic
in the field of interpreting ortranslation.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Well, what's coming to mind in terms of a gap is
that I'm also remembering achance that I was given to do
medical interpreting at the ER.
To do medical interpreting atthe ER in a local hospital in
downtown LA you know a verychallenging environment and I
(31:08):
remember that there was a gap interms of expectations and just
being able to do my job, meaningthat in that hospital to do my
job, meaning that in thathospital it had about eight
floors or so and at the time wewere all the interpreters were
given a pager.
We were expected it seemed torespond to being paged at any
(31:29):
time and what actually happenedoften was that, as I was doing
the service in one floor, I wasbeing paged, you know, at two
floors and it was just reallywow, what a gap between wanting
to serve and being able to right, just because it was just that
(31:53):
logistical impossibility.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, that you're seeing that there is the need
and you're unable to fill it,and that's a perfect example, as
well as of the lack ofappropriate infrastructure to
support the role, because thatobviously is unsustainable you
can't be in two places at onceif you're not done with one
assignment at once if you're notdone with one assignment, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
And then again it paused me as far as I walked out
of that experience thinking I'mnot cut out to be a medical
interpreter.
I, of course, out of ignorance,did not realize there's so much
more beyond being a medicalinterpreter in the ER.
I was just not knowledgeableyet of all the possibilities
open to medical interpretingoutside the ER.
(32:42):
I just knew that the ER was notfor me.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, it's the saddest thing, too, to hear
sometimes amazing languageprofessionals as they are in
current day and just hearingtheir experiences such as that
that almost took them out ofhaving the opportunity to remain
, and perhaps, I don't know,there might have been many
(33:10):
individuals that have actuallybeen taken out because of
traumatic experiences such asthat and feeling inadequate to
be able to do their jobcorrectly or thinking I just
don't have what it takes becauseI am a medical interpreter and
here I am in a medical settingand I'm not doing what I'm
supposed to be doing.
So it is very discouraging and,as someone that hears the
(33:34):
stories a lot, very discouraging.
And as someone that hears thestories a lot, it's
disheartening because there areso many resources out there,
which is another.
One of the reasons why Icreated this platform is because
I wanted to add just anotherresource of people being able to
access the resources, thedifficulties of other
interpreters via their storiesand what they did to overcome
(33:56):
them, because I feel likethey're all out there.
It's just once we're in theweeds.
It's really difficult to find,like, how do I know if anybody
else is going through this?
And we tend to go through thesechallenges in silo right,
because it's our own mental gamesometimes that is challenging
ourselves or questioning, makingus question ourselves Do I have
(34:18):
what it takes to stay in thisfield?
What else have you experiencedthroughout the years, now that
you've been more exposed tothese circumstances and to the
field itself and the professionand, I imagine, other
professionals, in terms ofnetworking and things of that
nature?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
What have you come across that you really feel you
would like to highlight or say?
This is make a living out of atranslation based job and then
do interpreting on weekendspretty much, or after work.
I would say that I have beenable to do interpreting in a
(35:13):
much more relaxed way.
Do interpreting in a much morerelaxed way.
My understanding right now is,or in recent years has been,
no-transcript.
I have observed that unless youtake up a full-time job as an
(35:33):
interpreter, say in a schooldistrict or perhaps in a
hospital, it's really, in myexperience anyway, not very
feasible to have enoughfreelancing.
Come, if you may, to become afull-time freelance interpreter.
I may be wrong, I may just notbe plugged in at this time.
(35:56):
Enough, does that make sense?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
yeah, yeah, and I think it's very relevant to your
particular experience, which isvery important, because we have
had guests on the show that saythe contrary right.
We have had guests on the showthat say the contrary right.
It's just a matter ofstrategizing and knowing what to
do and where to look for thesejobs and things like that nature
, but it's almost a full-timejob in and of itself,
(36:20):
structuring your approach to beable to establish that rapport,
to establish that network and beable to bring in enough
business.
But I think that goes, maru, Ithink you might agree that that
goes with any business.
Anything we do is going to taketime to build and to get to a
level of I feel like it's givingme enough that I could support
(36:43):
myself with this job, with myown business.
I think, for the most part,unless you just come up with the
most genius of ideas and it andit just so happens to hit
immediately as a success.
I think for the most part, eveneven ideas that we now know are
successful companies one daystarted as challenging little
(37:03):
mom and pop ideas.
So so I think it just reallydepends on on absolutely the
experience and the amount orwhat the strategy is.
I wouldn't say the amountbecause I think a just really
depends on absolutely theexperience and the amount or
what the strategy is.
I wouldn't say the amountbecause I think a lot of us work
hard to try to make things workfor ourselves if we're trying
to go solo.
But I think it's just potentialthe strategy.
And do you have the ability tosit and pause with no business
(37:26):
coming in in order to strategize?
Many of us don't.
So it's like, okay, maybe I'mgoing to do this part time while
I sort of figure out how I'mgoing to strategize my next move
to expand the business, becausethe work is out there, that's
for sure, and I think itcontinues to grow.
The numbers in the industry sayso.
(37:48):
So I think definitely woulddepend on just that strategy
that we're coming up.
You talk a lot about, youpresent a lot of on on uh
communication that's generatedby gaps in language.
Uh, you do talk about uhsolopreneurship and and have
presentations such as that.
Talk to us a little bit aboutwhat inspires these
(38:09):
conversations for you.
What is it that you're sharingout there to the broader
community about the professionand what inspires you about the
profession to speak about it?
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well, I would say that I've always been aware, or
I've become increasingly aware,of what a great service
interpreting provides, and soit's a very noble and very
fulfilling profession.
I just wish that it were.
(38:42):
In my experience anyway I'llspeak for myself the actual
financial remuneration has beenan issue.
I have observed thatunfortunately, at least again in
my experience, it seems likemore and more interpreters,
especially those that arebecoming certified in recent
(39:06):
years, are willing to be paidless and less, driving the fees
for all of us down.
So I really that's what Ibecame aware of.
You know that in the field ofinterpreting, there hasn't been,
as it has happened in otherprofessions perhaps, a tendency
(39:30):
to really become aware ofprofessionalizing the work and
really not just thinking aboutour own payments, but actually
to really have a collectivemindset, you know, and really
being able to connect thatwhatever you accept today is
(39:52):
going to impact, whether yourealize it or not, others as
well.
I worked in so before thepandemic, with a collective that
no longer exists.
I'm not sure why it dissolved,but it was a real school in
showing me a way to set fees ata very good level, both in terms
(40:18):
of laying out translation feesas well as interpreting fees,
used it as a model, you know,for my own uh invoices and
whatnot in the last few years.
Um, but essentially, uh, that's, uh, that's really my, my two
(40:47):
cents.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
You know that it needs to be a better, a better
paid profession period, yeah,and I and I I think definitely
many, if not all, agree that'sdefinitely that there's a period
behind that.
You know, period and no more.
It's a full statement, they'rejust there does need to be a
better pay and I think I alsobelieve, as you mentioned, that
(41:10):
it definitely has to do a lotwith the lack of understanding
of the skillset that it requiresand just being able to
professionalize and standardizethat role when you have many,
many bilingual individuals thatare willing to do the work for
less, sometimes maybe even justas taking it on as an extra
(41:33):
thing from what they're alreadydoing.
If they're working as in-housesomething else right, if they're
I don't know receptionist,secretaries or something they
don't know any better andthey're taking on the
responsibility.
So, yeah, there's a lot offactors that come into play and
then, of course, now we've gotAI in the mix that you know is
(41:54):
also wanting to come in and andbe another competitor to the
professional and that that, ofcourse, drives even more
difficulty in trying to stayafloat, like you mentioned
earlier in, in not feeling likewe're drowning, right?
So definitely a lot ofdifficulties.
Through the years, I'm certainthat you've learned a lot of
(42:15):
experiences, both in thetranslation and the interpreting
side.
What would you recommend now ifyou could go back and say I
would have done this differentlyas a recommendation for maybe
the newer generation ofbilingual professionals that are
coming in, that are trainedprofessionals coming into the
(42:36):
field?
What would you recommend tothem?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Wow, that's definitely food for thought.
I would recommend to becomemembers as soon as they can of
associations that areprofessional associations.
If they are medical interpreters, to definitely become involved
in the IMI, for instance,international Medical
(43:02):
Interpreters Association, and orthe National Board of Certified
Medical Interpreters borders ofcertified medical interpreters
network.
Definitely network a lot moreuh, I was not networking
actively in those in thoseseasons in between, as much as I
could and and to definitelystart, you know, by by seeking
(43:26):
mentors.
I did not seek a mentor earlyand I think it would have helped
, you know, because then youcould use their guidance to not
just price your services butalso to perhaps get
opportunities shadowing, becauseit's one thing to be trained
(43:46):
and another thing is to be outin the field doing the work.
So I definitely would recommendto seek mentorship and seek to
create shadowing opportunities.
I can't think of a lot ofprofessional interpreters that
would not be open to beingshadowed because, at least in my
(44:09):
experience, a lot ofinterpreters are very nice
people and helpful peoplebecause it is a very giving
service.
I know that there's, of course,there's all kinds of
individuals.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, you've got your divas out there.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, of course there's definitely divas out
there.
Right, of course there'sdefinitely divas, but uh, but
there's definitely enough givingand generous, open people to,
to, at least you know, with them.
With that thing in mind, thatgoal in mind, go and get one
mentor and don't even try to getmore than one, but just one at
a time.
That would be my bestrecommendation.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
In the four years that I've been doing.
I can't believe I whenever Isay that, I'm like, wow, I can't
believe it's been four years.
But in the four years I've beenhaving this podcast or doing
this podcast, it's the firsttime that I've actually heard
someone recommend that and it's,I think, such a genius idea
that recommend seeking a mentorto shadow.
I mean, we've heard, you know,recommending seek a mentor, tap
(45:16):
into someone that's already onthe field, don't be afraid to
ask them questions, and which,of course, absolutely.
But this is the first time thatI've actually heard someone say
seek a mentor and seek toshadow them.
You are absolutely right, maru.
That can make a world of adifference.
Number one, to know that that'seven the specialty area that
(45:39):
you want to be in.
What if you go and shadowsomething in the medical field
and you are just disgusted bythings that are happening in
that medical setting and you'relike I don't even think I would
be able to sit here andinterpret, you know, watching
all this stuff happen in thebackground.
This is not for me.
And then you save yourself theyou know the years of
(46:01):
potentially or well, yeah, years, because you would go into the
field and then have to go searchfor something else.
But I think that that's a very,very great point.
Go out and find a mentor toshadow, if anything.
If you're interested, forinstance, in educational
interpreting, but you don't knowreally what it is or what it
(46:22):
would entail, or if it doesn'tsound like it would be as
complicated, go and shadowsomeone.
Go and ask if you could go andshadow someone.
There might be things that theywould have to do in order to
allow that, you know, for you tohave the opportunity to step
into a school district.
But if you're really interested, you would be, I think,
(46:44):
inclined to take the steps thatare necessary to clear you to be
on campus and in a setting as astudent.
I would say definitely.
If you're already going throughyour training, it's easier for
a school district to accept youcoming in as a student of a
particular content, of aparticular field and be able to
shadow one of their employees.
(47:05):
I think that other specialtyareas do it as well.
Or here's another idea,piggybacking off of Maru's idea
why not mention that?
To whatever training programyou are in, sometimes the
universities or the communitycolleges would love the
opportunity to be able to havemore options for you to do your
(47:26):
service hours and maybe, if yousay, hey, I'd like to go to Los
Angeles School District, isthere any way that we can, that
the university can work or thecollege can work with LAUSD, to
be able to, for us to shadowthem, their interpreters,
something of the sort?
Right, that's?
That was a great idea.
I really liked that.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Thank you, I'm so, so glad that it that it rang a
bell and that you think it's agreat idea.
I also right now think that forthe medical interpreting,
shadowing is totally doable,especially from those that are
telehealth appointments, wherethe mentor interpreter can
(48:06):
actually allow you to be attheir home office and be there
without you know the medicalprofessional, seeing that
there's someone else there,right, it's not something that's
doable if it's an in-personmedical appointment for reasons
that you can imagine, but it'sdefinitely doable in telehealth
(48:26):
appointments.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yeah, for sure, and I think you know I've had guests
here on the show that have also.
They manage interpretingservices in healthcare settings
and large hospitals and there'swork that needs to be done in
order to be able to partner withlocal universities or colleges,
but they would love to have thehelp to come in Number one to
(48:48):
shadow and then later, hopefully, if you are interested, to sort
of volunteer, as you're doing,your training program.
It's a matter of collaborationbehind the scenes, but I think
you would open up theopportunity for someone to say,
oh, I'd never thought about thatinstitution as a way for you to
be able to practice yourconsecutive interpreting, or
whatever it may be.
(49:08):
But yeah, no, I think that'sdefinitely a great suggestion
and I'm hoping that you arethinking so too, audience, in
terms of being able to seek outa mentor for mentoring excuse me
, shadowing opportunities.
What else would you like toshare with this particular
audience, maru, in the sense ofjust you know whether it be
(49:31):
recommendations, or rather whatis a great resource that you
have found very usefulthroughout your career that you
would like to share with thisaudience?
Speaker 2 (49:42):
Oh my, the resources.
I would say that definitely,one resource that's available to
the general public is by justGoogling it using the keyword
glossary, and then Los AngelesUnified School District
Translations Unit.
I believe that the glossary isan actual PDF that's accessible
(50:09):
for use.
Is an actual PDF that'saccessible for use.
Resources I would recommendprofessional associations such
as the ones that I mentioned,and just reading and just
(50:29):
listening to live or recordedinterviews in Spanish, I mean
you have to, especially those ofus who live and work in the US.
I think it's really importantfor us to not take for granted
that we need to still, you know,read and listen to Spanish
content to keep our languageskills, you know, fresh.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Is there a resource you use or a tool that you used
in translations that you felthas been super helpful for
interpreting?
Is there one that you can thinkof that you can say you know, I
used to use this as a tool formy translation work, but it's
also extremely helpful in theinterpreting field.
(51:13):
I've come to find out Anythingthat you can think of.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
Well, one thing I love is the tool, an app spelled
L-I-N-G-U-E-E, oh Lingui.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Lingui.
Yeah, oh, they have an app now.
Yeah, oh, wow, I didn't knowthat.
Yeah, I'm going to look that up.
How do you use it and howshould interpreters use it and
not use it, uh-huh.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Well, I would say that interpreters, just as a
tool to check, just double checkin the preparation for an
assignment.
Sometimes in site translationsthere's a need to double check
that you have spelled somethingcorrectly, for instance, and I
(52:26):
just find it a wonderful tool ingeneral to really come up with
correctly spelled words, andalso it well positions you to
get the right.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
You can definitely use it for content and context.
Because what's great about that?
At least the browser you knowon the internet.
When you go in there, you'reable to click on whatever the
word might be or whatever thatphrase is being used in the word
that it's being used in, andthen it takes you sometimes to
(52:50):
that document or that site whereyou so you can get even more
context as to where the word iscoming from and how they were
using it, which I think that'salso a very great way of just
getting some context around theword.
Um, especially if you're on thego, especially if it's something
fast that oh, like this camelast minute.
They updated the slides rightbefore we started and you're
(53:12):
like, ah, what is that conceptabout?
And so something really quickto jump in there instead of
having to scroll with so manyresults.
You're able to get to you knowthis one word and then it gives
you only context based on thatword through through that app
L-I-N-G-U-E-E.
But yeah, be careful how youuse it.
(53:33):
You've got to do research too.
You can't just take its wordfor it.
See what I did there.
Lastly, maru, where can ourlisteners find out more about
you and the work that you do?
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Well, linkedin would be a place to keep in touch with
me.
I have a profile there.
I'm working currently on ourwebsite, but it's just a work in
progress, so I would sayLinkedIn would be the way to
connect with me.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
I'll make sure to include your LinkedIn link in
the episode notes, Maru.
In the meantime, thank you forthe opportunity to share your
story here on Brand theInterpreter.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Thank you for the opportunity, Mireya.
It's been an honor.
Take care and best wishes toeverybody.
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