December 30, 2024 • 27 mins
As we close out Season 7 of Brand the Interpreter, I take a moment to reflect on the challenges and triumphs of 2024. In this heartfelt finale, I share personal stories, the moments that reminded me why this podcast matters and my gratitude to all of you - listeners, guests, and supporters - who've made this journey possible.
I'll also take a look back at some of the highlights from this season, revisiting memorable moments and impactful conversations that have shaped this year. Plus, hear what's next, including upcoming Reflection Room episodes to keep the conversation going while I prepare for an exciting Season 8.
Thank you for showing up and being part of this incredible Brand the Interpreter Community!
Share your thoughts about this episode!
Thanks for tuning in, till next time! 👋
Connect with Mireya Pérez, Host
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome back, branded Bunch, to the season finale of
Brand the Interpreter.
This episode marks the finalchapter of Season 7, and, as
always, I'm so grateful you'rehere with me today.
As I look back on 2024, Irealize it's been a year filled
with challenges, challenges thatmade me question whether this
project of mine would continue.
(00:30):
I won't lie there were momentswhen I thought it might be best
to stop publishing episodesaltogether.
I questioned whether thispodcast was truly making a
difference, but time and timeagain, subtle reminders would
show up.
For instance, in May, I met thedeputy director for the Office
of Civil Rights, michael Millay.
When I introduced myself, hesurprised me by saying I know
(00:53):
who you are.
I listen to your podcast.
You should have seen my face.
I think somebody somewhere hasa picture of it.
Actually, the podcast has alsobeen mentioned in several
self-published books, includingDr Regina Galasso's Becoming a
Translator for Dummies, and I'vebeen personally thanked by
individuals who have shared howthe content has helped them on
(01:16):
their own personal journeys.
I can't even begin to count thedoors this podcast has opened
for me.
I share these examples toremind myself, and perhaps you,
that even our labors of love canbe difficult to navigate.
Sometimes we convince ourselvesthat the projects or pursuits
we're passionate about aren'tworth the effort.
(01:36):
But maybe the challenges weface are the universe's way of
asking how deeply we believe inour own dreams.
Will we keep pushing forwardwhen things get tough, or will
we give up when obstacles arise?
As Brand the Interpreterapproaches its fifth year, I'm
reminded of something thatlegendary Mexican singer,
(01:57):
vicente Fernandez, often toldhis audience.
He'd say as long as you keepclapping, I will keep singing.
In the same spirit, I say thisto you as long as you keep
showing up, I'll keep creatingcontent, content that shines a
light on our profession and theincredible people behind it.
I want to take a moment tothank each of you listeners
(02:20):
who've tuned in, guests who haveshared your stories and
everyone who has supported thispodcast in one way or another.
Your encouragement fuels mypassion for this work.
While I prepare for season eight, I'll continue publishing
Reflection Room episodes to keepthe conversations going.
I hope you're enjoying thesebite-sized episodes.
I'm already brainstorming ideasfor season eight and I can't
(02:41):
wait to dive into some of themost thought-provoking stories
yet.
I hope you're enjoying thesebite-sized episodes.
I'm already brainstorming ideasfor Season 8, and I can't wait
to dive into some of the mostthought-provoking stories yet,
so stay tuned.
It's going to be an excitingjourney.
In the meantime, I'd love tohear from you.
Let me know what stories,themes or topics you'd like to
see in Season 8, or share yourreflections on past episodes.
(03:03):
Your input helps shape thepodcast and makes it even better
, and if this podcast hasresonated with you, please share
it with others who might enjoyor benefit from it.
Together we can amplify thevoices in this incredible
profession.
And with that I bid you atemporary farewell as I close
out this season and prepare forwhat's ahead.
(03:24):
I hope to see you back herenext year for more interpreter
stories on Brand the Interpreter, where I continue sharing your
stories about our profession.
Thanks for tuning in and forbeing a part of this journey.
Till next time, till next time.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
People always ask me what was the most difficult
assignment that you had, mostdifficult piece that you have to
translate on TV?
And once during the war onUkraine, maybe the first week or
the first 10 days of war, therewas a piece that was absolutely
(04:10):
crushing, that was terrible,and I had watched that piece
before because on CNN somereports go on air several times
a day, as in any newscast, andso I knew what was coming.
And it was a father thatlearned that his wife and two
(04:34):
children had died in anexplosion and he learned that
seeing a picture on social mediabecause they were trying to
live, I think was Kiev, theywere trying to leave the city
and they were using this sort ofpieces of luggage and they
separated.
He saw a picture of the piecesof luggage and he recognized
(04:58):
that.
And the report had pictures ofthis family vacationing and they
were the same age, the children, the same age as my children,
and the anchor.
She was destroyed on TV.
I had to translate her.
(05:18):
She was destroyed, crying andcrying, with the pictures and
everything.
And then, the first time thatthis report went on air, I told
the editor this was devastating,this was terrible, and he said
(05:40):
yes, and then half an hour laterhe said Denise, we are going to
broadcast that, you have totranslate it.
And at the time I had a boothpartner with me, renato, and I
said, renato, we'll have to dothat part.
So I had my computer, I went toYouTube, put some cat videos a
(06:06):
very long one.
I love cat videos, they arevery relaxing.
And so when the piece started,I just I was listening to the
report but looking at the catsand looking at cats doing some
messy stuff and I was went.
(06:29):
So I could go for that.
I don't know, maybe four, five,six minutes.
And when it finished I wasshaking, I could not speak
anymore.
My throat was closed and I tookfive minutes coffee and half an
hour later was working again.
My throat was closed and I tookfive minutes coffee and half an
hour later was working again,and that was it.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
This may sound counterintuitive, but I would
say do what's right for you.
What worked for me may not workfor you.
I'm a different person.
You have your own talents,skills, personality, baggage,
aspirations.
So do what works for you.
Yes, at some point along the wayyou want to formalize your
(07:13):
talent, because a lot of peoplehave latent talent.
You're gifted in a particulararea, but at some point you want
to formalize that with someform of instruction structure
that may take the form of adegree program, that may take
the form of some sort ofapprenticeship.
So you want to.
(07:34):
You want to back up your, yourtalent and your gift with
something of substance, inwhatever form that makes sense
to you.
You know, I had thatopportunity gifted to me right
here in my homeland.
For you, it might meantraveling overseas to go, you
know, to a university somewhere.
(07:55):
It might also mean living in aforeign land to you know.
Really formalize your languageacquisition.
Whatever it is.
Do what's right for you.
And I will mirror what you said,miria, in terms of telling your
network.
I mean, we find it so easy totell our network what we had for
breakfast this morning onFacebook or Instagram or
(08:17):
whatever, but why not tell yournetwork.
Hey, I'm looking foropportunities in XYZ.
Or hey, I'm in this country andI'd love to meet up with I
don't know whoever's here.
I think we have a fantastictool that is social media that
can help us connect acrossborders and boundaries and,
(08:38):
again, it's up to us to how weuse that tool strategically to
ask for what we want.
Maybe that's my last point.
I am a huge fan of asking, butprecisely what I want?
I will ask people exactly whatI want or need.
The answer might be no, butthen the answer might be hey, I
can't help you, but I knowsomebody who does, and I also
(09:02):
believe, in speaking thesethings into the atmosphere that
somewhere, somehow, god is goingto respond.
Ask and you shall receive.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have observed that unfortunately, at least again in
my experience it seems likemore and more interpreters,
especially those that arebecoming certified in recent
years, are willing to be paidless and less, driving the fees
(09:34):
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
to really become aware ofprofessionalizing the work and
(09:57):
really not just thinking aboutour own payments but actually to
really have a collectivemindset.
You know, and really being ableto connect that whatever you
accept today is going to impact,whether you realize it or not,
others as well is going toimpact, whether you realize it
(10:20):
or not, others as well.
I worked before the pandemicwith 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
of laying out translation feesas well as interpreting fees and
(10:42):
making a distinction betweennonprofit client fees and
for-profit client fees, and Ihave used it as a model for my
own invoices and whatnot in thelast few years.
But essentially that's reallymy two cents.
You know that it needs to be abetter paid profession period.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Realistically you're going to work with.
You're probably going to workwith some agencies at least,
like I think it's pretty rare tomeet a translator or
interpreter who says that theywork with zero agencies I mean
some people, but I thinkprobably you want to at least,
and that then it's just a matterof going to their website and
doing what they tell you to do.
(11:29):
So go to the agency's websiteand they'll have a link that
says like careers, join the team, freelance for us, you know
opportunities.
Just do what they tell you todo, but follow up three to six
times.
We all fantasize that we'regoing to submit these agency
applications and, like 10minutes later, the phone's going
to ring and they're going tosay oh, we have this juicy
(11:50):
project for you.
When can you start?
It doesn't work that way.
So I don't know where theonline applications go, but you
barely ever get a response tothat.
You're probably going to haveto email them.
Find people.
I think hopefully everyoneknows that when you go on
LinkedIn, if you put the name ofany company into the search box
(12:10):
and then you click people,it'll show you every person on
LinkedIn that has that company'sname and their profile.
So go in and what I do isconnect with some of their
project managers and say Iapplied on your website.
Could you let me know whatwould be the next steps?
You have to ask them a question, right?
Don't just say like hi, Iconnected on your website.
(12:31):
They'll be like great, and itends there, right?
So say, right, could you let meknow the next steps?
And I think with agencies, itis reasonable to nudge them
until they tell you yes or no,like you don't want to do that
with direct clients because youdon't know if they need you and
it can be aggravating, right,and you don't want to be that
(12:51):
person who's like hi, it's meagain, hi, it's me again.
And they're like I would haveresponded if we need you and we
don't.
But with agencies, I do thinkit's fair to keep nudging them
until they tell you yes or no.
And like I just actually didthis to a project manager
yesterday that I said this is myfinal follow up, you know, I'm
(13:12):
contacting you once more aboutthe projects that we talked
about.
I'm contacting you once moreabout the projects that we
talked about.
I'm still very interested, butif I don't hear from you, I
won't contact you again.
But I think that you have to be.
It feels so pushy and cringy,but agencies get so many
applications that I feel likeyou really need to follow up
until you either get a responsefrom them or follow up at least
(13:34):
three times.
I know that sounds painful andit is.
Follow up at least three timesand tell them like this is the
final time that I'm going tofollow up.
Let me know if you'reinterested and if I don't hear
from you, I won't follow upagain.
Now with direct clients it'smore subtle.
So first of all, you have tohave some sort of specialization
(13:55):
or because you don't know whoto market to Like.
I know that interpreters areless specialized than
translators.
You know it's pretty rare tomeet an interpreter who you
thought I want to work withimmigration law firms Like that
(14:16):
would be, I feel like for yourlisteners who are court
certified, that, a pretty goodfirst step.
One thing that I always tellpeople is, with your first round
of direct clients targetclients who have work that you
are like I could do this in mysleep.
You don't want to feel stressedby the work that they want you
(14:38):
to do.
If you've never worked with adirect client before, you know.
But you want to think like youknow, interpreting for
immigration law firms or doingdepositions so do stuff where
you think I am not going to bestressed by the work but, like
I've interpreted for witnesstestimony, like up and down in
court, like I am not stressedout by you know what this work
(15:00):
is going to consist of.
And then what you want to do islet's take immigration law firms
.
They're really easy to findright, because law firms also
belong to a million barassociations.
You know you can look forimmigration law associations
your local bar association andthen go to the law firm's
website and lots of them havecontact information right there
(15:22):
and you're going to email.
In a small firm, you couldemail the attorneys.
In a bigger firm, maybe one ofthe paralegals or the admin
people you know, like if the lawlike three people, just email
the attorneys, you know.
But if the law is like threepeople, just email the attorneys
, you know.
But if the law firm is like 300people, the attorneys aren't
going to write back to you.
You need to contact maybe oneof their paralegals or an admin
(15:44):
person.
The email needs to be short,125 words or less.
And here's what I would saysomething like if I were writing
to you, I'd say you know, dearAttorney Perez, I'm a
French-English interpreter.
I'm a court-certifiedFrench-English interpreter in
the area.
I came across your websitewhile researching immigration
(16:05):
law firms in New York.
I'm wondering if there might bea need for a French-English
interpreter to interpret foryour clients.
Would you be the correct personto speak with about offering my
freelance services?
Again, don't say let me know ifyou need me, don't let the
email just like run off intodeath.
You know say would you be thecorrect person to speak with
(16:28):
about offering my freelanceservices, so that hopefully
they'll reply to you or say, oh,I'm copying our HR person.
Or like, oh, our other, thisother attorney handles our
foreign language matters andthey might need you.
And you're probably going tohave to do that 50 to 100 times
before you get a client out ofit.
You're not going to.
I mean, maybe you will emailsix law firms and have them, you
(16:53):
know, come back at.
Like, if you research it reallycarefully, maybe.
But for example, I think foryour listeners who are court
certified, starting out withimmigration law firms and also
agencies that hire courtreporters, I've gotten quite a
bit of deposition interpretingwork through agencies that hire
(17:15):
court reporters because theyhave to use a court reporter for
a deposition and it's usuallylive for whatever reason they
don't do.
You know?
Most of court is just recorded.
Now they in my experience theyonly use human court reporters
in or at least in the Coloradocourts only for high profile
stuff, like if it's a motionshearing or a trial or something,
(17:35):
you have a live court reporter,but the rest of the time they
just record it.
And I think that a lot of timesthe agency that provides the
court reporter will be askedlike do you have referrals to
any court interpreters that wecould use because we have this
foreign language deposition?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Well, it became quite apparent to me at the beginning
, especially the first school Iwas in.
Well, it became quite apparentto me at the beginning,
especially the first school Iwas in, that there were no
interpreters in the office oranywhere nearby.
I mean, I was the closestclassroom where they could find
a bilingual person and so I wascalled in there quite a bit
during that year and it wasn'tpleasant for me to be called out
(18:19):
of a classroom when I'm in themiddle of teaching a lesson and
trying to calm down the studentsand getting them all in their
proper reading groups andeverything else that's happening
in the morning.
So I would say that the schoolwas not entirely aware that
there was a big need forinterpreting services and at
(18:44):
times anybody that had takenmaybe two courses in Spanish
would go in there and act as aninterpreter too, and it wasn't
the greatest way to handle theneeds of the parents.
When I became a bilingualresource teacher, I had a little
more flexibility because I wasable to interpret for teachers
(19:05):
during the conferences, iepmeetings, and that all of a
sudden changed for me because Ifelt truly helpful.
And you asked about the contrastbetween court and schools.
Well, obviously I was applyingsome of my knowledge from my
court situations to the schoolsettings, which I really should
(19:31):
do, like every interpretershould do, and treating
everybody with respect andacting as a professional,
signing up for the exchangethat's going to take place.
So I was very aware of what hadto happen in the schools, and
(19:52):
at one point I approached the HRperson in the district this is
a district that had about 13schools and I said you know,
there are some potentialinterpreters in schools.
Why don't we set up aassessment to see who's
(20:12):
qualified?
And so I was asked to createthis assessment so that those
that were interested could takepart in this assessment and then
, at the same time, if theypassed they're the salary would
be bumped a little bit.
So that I did create, and Ithink that was an important step
(20:34):
forward.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Yes, that mirrored the general population sphere.
You know, everything about AIis extremes.
I think that's part of part ofthat is just the media hype.
Anything that you put out therehas to scream at you to get it
get in front of people'seyeballs.
So it was either AI is going tosave the world it's the next
coming of Jesus or AI is thedevil and it's going to put us
all into this dystopian hell.
(20:57):
So that was kind of why I sortof got involved in SafeAI.
When I found it, I was like, oh, this is perfect.
I need more information to beable to make an informed
decision about what I'm going tobe talking to my clients about,
because they were coming to megoing this Gen AI thing.
It's great.
You know a lot of the schooldistricts and I was like hold
the boat.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Wait a minute, because you do not know how this
works and you do not know ifit's secure.
Do not be running your IEPsthrough that.
Translate them please, you know,but you get that in the
industry, right, you have to doa lot of client education before
before they get to realize like, yeah, if it's free, then you
(21:38):
are the product, not the thingthat you're translating.
They are using your materials,as you know information, to
train their, train their bot andthat's their public information
.
Then and it's like, oh, that'snot what you want to be putting
anybody's private information inthere for.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
For example, there have been situations where maybe
they're organizing an event ina way that interpretation is not
going to work call it weather,call it placing, call it
whatever but when we're doingthe tryout, we're trying to
start the system, we see thatsomething is not going to work
before the meeting.
So we immediately alert ourclient and there's been
(22:18):
situations when people have beenbrushed off like ah, who cares?
But we immediately go to ourclient we say, hey, this is not
your values, this is not whatyou stand for.
You're here and you know thatthe only way that something is
going to work is that everybodyis involved, because they hear
the community voices, they heareverybody and that's the way
it's going to work.
So we have stood up to clients,we have stood up to people.
(22:41):
We have told them hey, this isnot going to work, something is
missing, we need this, we needthat, and we give them the
feedback.
And and maybe at the beginningwe did have like a very bad
experience where we feel like weweren't able to do our job.
And that's when I tell you,when something goes wrong, where
, for example, we're situated or, you know, in a place where
(23:02):
maybe the bad, you know, theequipment is not, we're not
going to be able, it's not goingto be able to reach, because
maybe we're at a wall that isnot allowing the, the sound to
go out.
Jordy can explain that betterthan I.
But when that happens, nobody'sgonna say, oh, you know what.
They were placed against thatwall.
Most likely that's why it not.
No, they're gonna sayinterpreting.
Interpretation did not work, wedid not hear and, as you say,
(23:26):
having a bad interpretation islike not having anything, so
we're not giving languagejustice.
So that's when we really have tothink do I really want to
continue working with somebodythat is going to not really, you
know, just do it to check theboxes and nobody's going to
really hear what we're saying.
So, yeah, we do stand up, we dotell them this is not going to
work.
We should do this.
(23:46):
Your values are always thateverybody should understand.
And an interesting thing Iremember sometimes we say we
give voice to people that don'thave voices, but that's not true
.
We don't give voices to peoplethat don't have voices.
We've given voices to thepeople that haven't been heard
in the past.
They've always had a lot to say, but they haven't been heard.
(24:06):
So that's really important forus that they really hear them.
Speaker 9 (24:11):
You know, I think it's a couple of components
right.
So earlier I teased the conceptof academic return on
investment right, dollarsinvested for dollars for student
growth, and you know that's.
I think that's an importantcomponent for school leaders to
understand and be able tomeasure and quantify.
You know, how the investment isimpacting students.
I think that's critical.
We want to understand whatwe're spending the money on and
(24:32):
we want to understand what weget out of it.
And taking a look at data andtaking a look at the dollars
spent and seeing where you'respending the money and seeing
what you get for it, I think isan incredibly important
component.
And, of course, differentdistricts have different tools
in place to measure studentgrowth and to look at student
data.
There's a lot of greatcompanies out there who do that
kind of work.
But then to be able to attachsome sort of growth metric to
(24:56):
measure what do we get out ofthis investment, of course we
made the investment, we spent Xamount of dollars, but how much
growth did that lead to for ourmultilingual families?
So I really think having asystem in place that allows you
to measure your impact is reallyimportant.
Now I mentioned a critical wordand I've done it a couple of
times and that's impact.
So the other thing that I talkabout with school leaders, as it
(25:18):
relates to academic return oninvestment and the work that we
do in K-12 schools, is, you know, it's not about the output,
right, it's about the impact.
So, when you're thinking aboutthe role of an interpreter,
right and I oftentimes don'tthink school leaders really
understand what the role of aninterpreter is or how that works
but you got to think less aboutthe output understanding.
They think too much.
It's all.
We just need to understand eachother.
(25:39):
We need to understand eachother.
Well, it's not always aboutunderstanding.
You think about the role of aninterpreter in a special
education setting.
It's important to develop anunderstanding.
There's lots of ways that wecan go about getting an
understanding from one another,right.
There's tools, there'stechnologies, there's
interpreters, there's all thesedifferent ways.
But one of the important thingsthat we're trying to do within
(26:00):
that special education settingis establish credibility and
trust with the family.
That's so, so incrediblyimportant in special education,
especially as you start talkingabout.
You know outplace services, oryou know different things that
you want.
You know families to react toor sign off on, or you know,
allow their student to, you know, take advantage of the best of
what your district has to offer.
You're going to need to getbuy-in from that family and you
(26:23):
know allowing them to, you know,limp their way through a
conversation in broken Englishis not allowing them to have
meaningful participation intheir son or daughter's
education.
It's just not so, you know,when you think about that and
you think about, you know,academic return on investment
and what we get out of it.
I encourage school leaders tothink about the output instead
of the impact you.
Welcome back, branded Bunch, to the season finale of
Brand the Interpreter.
This episode marks the finalchapter of Season 7, and, as
always, I'm so grateful you'rehere with me today.
As I look back on 2024, Irealize it's been a year filled
with challenges, challenges thatmade me question whether this
project of mine would continue.
(00:30):
I won't lie there were momentswhen I thought it might be best
to stop publishing episodesaltogether.
I questioned whether thispodcast was truly making a
difference, but time and timeagain, subtle reminders would
show up.
For instance, in May, I met thedeputy director for the Office
of Civil Rights, michael Millay.
When I introduced myself, hesurprised me by saying I know
(00:53):
who you are.
I listen to your podcast.
You should have seen my face.
I think somebody somewhere hasa picture of it.
Actually, the podcast has alsobeen mentioned in several
self-published books, includingDr Regina Galasso's Becoming a
Translator for Dummies, and I'vebeen personally thanked by
individuals who have shared howthe content has helped them on
(01:16):
their own personal journeys.
I can't even begin to count thedoors this podcast has opened
for me.
I share these examples toremind myself, and perhaps you,
that even our labors of love canbe difficult to navigate.
Sometimes we convince ourselvesthat the projects or pursuits
we're passionate about aren'tworth the effort.
(01:36):
But maybe the challenges weface are the universe's way of
asking how deeply we believe inour own dreams.
Will we keep pushing forwardwhen things get tough, or will
we give up when obstacles arise?
As Brand the Interpreterapproaches its fifth year, I'm
reminded of something thatlegendary Mexican singer,
(01:57):
vicente Fernandez, often toldhis audience.
He'd say as long as you keepclapping, I will keep singing.
In the same spirit, I say thisto you as long as you keep
showing up, I'll keep creatingcontent, content that shines a
light on our profession and theincredible people behind it.
I want to take a moment tothank each of you listeners
(02:20):
who've tuned in, guests who haveshared your stories and
everyone who has supported thispodcast in one way or another.
Your encouragement fuels mypassion for this work.
While I prepare for season eight, I'll continue publishing
Reflection Room episodes to keepthe conversations going.
I hope you're enjoying thesebite-sized episodes.
I'm already brainstorming ideasfor season eight and I can't
(02:41):
wait to dive into some of themost thought-provoking stories
yet.
I hope you're enjoying thesebite-sized episodes.
I'm already brainstorming ideasfor Season 8, and I can't wait
to dive into some of the mostthought-provoking stories yet,
so stay tuned.
It's going to be an excitingjourney.
In the meantime, I'd love tohear from you.
Let me know what stories,themes or topics you'd like to
see in Season 8, or share yourreflections on past episodes.
(03:03):
Your input helps shape thepodcast and makes it even better
, and if this podcast hasresonated with you, please share
it with others who might enjoyor benefit from it.
Together we can amplify thevoices in this incredible
profession.
And with that I bid you atemporary farewell as I close
out this season and prepare forwhat's ahead.
(03:24):
I hope to see you back herenext year for more interpreter
stories on Brand the Interpreter, where I continue sharing your
stories about our profession.
Thanks for tuning in and forbeing a part of this journey.
Till next time, till next time.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
People always ask me what was the most difficult
assignment that you had, mostdifficult piece that you have to
translate on TV?
And once during the war onUkraine, maybe the first week or
the first 10 days of war, therewas a piece that was absolutely
(04:10):
crushing, that was terrible,and I had watched that piece
before because on CNN somereports go on air several times
a day, as in any newscast, andso I knew what was coming.
And it was a father thatlearned that his wife and two
(04:34):
children had died in anexplosion and he learned that
seeing a picture on social mediabecause they were trying to
live, I think was Kiev, theywere trying to leave the city
and they were using this sort ofpieces of luggage and they
separated.
He saw a picture of the piecesof luggage and he recognized
(04:58):
that.
And the report had pictures ofthis family vacationing and they
were the same age, the children, the same age as my children,
and the anchor.
She was destroyed on TV.
I had to translate her.
(05:18):
She was destroyed, crying andcrying, with the pictures and
everything.
And then, the first time thatthis report went on air, I told
the editor this was devastating,this was terrible, and he said
(05:40):
yes, and then half an hour laterhe said Denise, we are going to
broadcast that, you have totranslate it.
And at the time I had a boothpartner with me, renato, and I
said, renato, we'll have to dothat part.
So I had my computer, I went toYouTube, put some cat videos a
(06:06):
very long one.
I love cat videos, they arevery relaxing.
And so when the piece started,I just I was listening to the
report but looking at the catsand looking at cats doing some
messy stuff and I was went.
(06:29):
So I could go for that.
I don't know, maybe four, five,six minutes.
And when it finished I wasshaking, I could not speak
anymore.
My throat was closed and I tookfive minutes coffee and half an
hour later was working again.
My throat was closed and I tookfive minutes coffee and half an
hour later was working again,and that was it.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
This may sound counterintuitive, but I would
say do what's right for you.
What worked for me may not workfor you.
I'm a different person.
You have your own talents,skills, personality, baggage,
aspirations.
So do what works for you.
Yes, at some point along the wayyou want to formalize your
(07:13):
talent, because a lot of peoplehave latent talent.
You're gifted in a particulararea, but at some point you want
to formalize that with someform of instruction structure
that may take the form of adegree program, that may take
the form of some sort ofapprenticeship.
So you want to.
(07:34):
You want to back up your, yourtalent and your gift with
something of substance, inwhatever form that makes sense
to you.
You know, I had thatopportunity gifted to me right
here in my homeland.
For you, it might meantraveling overseas to go, you
know, to a university somewhere.
(07:55):
It might also mean living in aforeign land to you know.
Really formalize your languageacquisition.
Whatever it is.
Do what's right for you.
And I will mirror what you said,miria, in terms of telling your
network.
I mean, we find it so easy totell our network what we had for
breakfast this morning onFacebook or Instagram or
(08:17):
whatever, but why not tell yournetwork.
Hey, I'm looking foropportunities in XYZ.
Or hey, I'm in this country andI'd love to meet up with I
don't know whoever's here.
I think we have a fantastictool that is social media that
can help us connect acrossborders and boundaries and,
(08:38):
again, it's up to us to how weuse that tool strategically to
ask for what we want.
Maybe that's my last point.
I am a huge fan of asking, butprecisely what I want?
I will ask people exactly whatI want or need.
The answer might be no, butthen the answer might be hey, I
can't help you, but I knowsomebody who does, and I also
(09:02):
believe, in speaking thesethings into the atmosphere that
somewhere, somehow, god is goingto respond.
Ask and you shall receive.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have observed that unfortunately, at least again in
my experience it seems likemore and more interpreters,
especially those that arebecoming certified in recent
years, are willing to be paidless and less, driving the fees
(09:34):
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
to really become aware ofprofessionalizing the work and
(09:57):
really not just thinking aboutour own payments but actually to
really have a collectivemindset.
You know, and really being ableto connect that whatever you
accept today is going to impact,whether you realize it or not,
others as well is going toimpact, whether you realize it
(10:20):
or not, others as well.
I worked before the pandemicwith 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
of laying out translation feesas well as interpreting fees and
(10:42):
making a distinction betweennonprofit client fees and
for-profit client fees, and Ihave used it as a model for my
own invoices and whatnot in thelast few years.
But essentially that's reallymy two cents.
You know that it needs to be abetter paid profession period.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Realistically you're going to work with.
You're probably going to workwith some agencies at least,
like I think it's pretty rare tomeet a translator or
interpreter who says that theywork with zero agencies I mean
some people, but I thinkprobably you want to at least,
and that then it's just a matterof going to their website and
doing what they tell you to do.
(11:29):
So go to the agency's websiteand they'll have a link that
says like careers, join the team, freelance for us, you know
opportunities.
Just do what they tell you todo, but follow up three to six
times.
We all fantasize that we'regoing to submit these agency
applications and, like 10minutes later, the phone's going
to ring and they're going tosay oh, we have this juicy
(11:50):
project for you.
When can you start?
It doesn't work that way.
So I don't know where theonline applications go, but you
barely ever get a response tothat.
You're probably going to haveto email them.
Find people.
I think hopefully everyoneknows that when you go on
LinkedIn, if you put the name ofany company into the search box
(12:10):
and then you click people,it'll show you every person on
LinkedIn that has that company'sname and their profile.
So go in and what I do isconnect with some of their
project managers and say Iapplied on your website.
Could you let me know whatwould be the next steps?
You have to ask them a question, right?
Don't just say like hi, Iconnected on your website.
(12:31):
They'll be like great, and itends there, right?
So say, right, could you let meknow the next steps?
And I think with agencies, itis reasonable to nudge them
until they tell you yes or no,like you don't want to do that
with direct clients because youdon't know if they need you and
it can be aggravating, right,and you don't want to be that
(12:51):
person who's like hi, it's meagain, hi, it's me again.
And they're like I would haveresponded if we need you and we
don't.
But with agencies, I do thinkit's fair to keep nudging them
until they tell you yes or no.
And like I just actually didthis to a project manager
yesterday that I said this is myfinal follow up, you know, I'm
(13:12):
contacting you once more aboutthe projects that we talked
about.
I'm contacting you once moreabout the projects that we
talked about.
I'm still very interested, butif I don't hear from you, I
won't contact you again.
But I think that you have to be.
It feels so pushy and cringy,but agencies get so many
applications that I feel likeyou really need to follow up
until you either get a responsefrom them or follow up at least
(13:34):
three times.
I know that sounds painful andit is.
Follow up at least three timesand tell them like this is the
final time that I'm going tofollow up.
Let me know if you'reinterested and if I don't hear
from you, I won't follow upagain.
Now with direct clients it'smore subtle.
So first of all, you have tohave some sort of specialization
(13:55):
or because you don't know whoto market to Like.
I know that interpreters areless specialized than
translators.
You know it's pretty rare tomeet an interpreter who you
thought I want to work withimmigration law firms Like that
(14:16):
would be, I feel like for yourlisteners who are court
certified, that, a pretty goodfirst step.
One thing that I always tellpeople is, with your first round
of direct clients targetclients who have work that you
are like I could do this in mysleep.
You don't want to feel stressedby the work that they want you
(14:38):
to do.
If you've never worked with adirect client before, you know.
But you want to think like youknow, interpreting for
immigration law firms or doingdepositions so do stuff where
you think I am not going to bestressed by the work but, like
I've interpreted for witnesstestimony, like up and down in
court, like I am not stressedout by you know what this work
(15:00):
is going to consist of.
And then what you want to do islet's take immigration law firms
.
They're really easy to findright, because law firms also
belong to a million barassociations.
You know you can look forimmigration law associations
your local bar association andthen go to the law firm's
website and lots of them havecontact information right there
(15:22):
and you're going to email.
In a small firm, you couldemail the attorneys.
In a bigger firm, maybe one ofthe paralegals or the admin
people you know, like if the lawlike three people, just email
the attorneys, you know.
But if the law is like threepeople, just email the attorneys
, you know.
But if the law firm is like 300people, the attorneys aren't
going to write back to you.
You need to contact maybe oneof their paralegals or an admin
(15:44):
person.
The email needs to be short,125 words or less.
And here's what I would saysomething like if I were writing
to you, I'd say you know, dearAttorney Perez, I'm a
French-English interpreter.
I'm a court-certifiedFrench-English interpreter in
the area.
I came across your websitewhile researching immigration
(16:05):
law firms in New York.
I'm wondering if there might bea need for a French-English
interpreter to interpret foryour clients.
Would you be the correct personto speak with about offering my
freelance services?
Again, don't say let me know ifyou need me, don't let the
email just like run off intodeath.
You know say would you be thecorrect person to speak with
(16:28):
about offering my freelanceservices, so that hopefully
they'll reply to you or say, oh,I'm copying our HR person.
Or like, oh, our other, thisother attorney handles our
foreign language matters andthey might need you.
And you're probably going tohave to do that 50 to 100 times
before you get a client out ofit.
You're not going to.
I mean, maybe you will emailsix law firms and have them, you
(16:53):
know, come back at.
Like, if you research it reallycarefully, maybe.
But for example, I think foryour listeners who are court
certified, starting out withimmigration law firms and also
agencies that hire courtreporters, I've gotten quite a
bit of deposition interpretingwork through agencies that hire
(17:15):
court reporters because theyhave to use a court reporter for
a deposition and it's usuallylive for whatever reason they
don't do.
You know?
Most of court is just recorded.
Now they in my experience theyonly use human court reporters
in or at least in the Coloradocourts only for high profile
stuff, like if it's a motionshearing or a trial or something,
(17:35):
you have a live court reporter,but the rest of the time they
just record it.
And I think that a lot of timesthe agency that provides the
court reporter will be askedlike do you have referrals to
any court interpreters that wecould use because we have this
foreign language deposition?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Well, it became quite apparent to me at the beginning
, especially the first school Iwas in.
Well, it became quite apparentto me at the beginning,
especially the first school Iwas in, that there were no
interpreters in the office oranywhere nearby.
I mean, I was the closestclassroom where they could find
a bilingual person and so I wascalled in there quite a bit
during that year and it wasn'tpleasant for me to be called out
(18:19):
of a classroom when I'm in themiddle of teaching a lesson and
trying to calm down the studentsand getting them all in their
proper reading groups andeverything else that's happening
in the morning.
So I would say that the schoolwas not entirely aware that
there was a big need forinterpreting services and at
(18:44):
times anybody that had takenmaybe two courses in Spanish
would go in there and act as aninterpreter too, and it wasn't
the greatest way to handle theneeds of the parents.
When I became a bilingualresource teacher, I had a little
more flexibility because I wasable to interpret for teachers
(19:05):
during the conferences, iepmeetings, and that all of a
sudden changed for me because Ifelt truly helpful.
And you asked about the contrastbetween court and schools.
Well, obviously I was applyingsome of my knowledge from my
court situations to the schoolsettings, which I really should
(19:31):
do, like every interpretershould do, and treating
everybody with respect andacting as a professional,
signing up for the exchangethat's going to take place.
So I was very aware of what hadto happen in the schools, and
(19:52):
at one point I approached the HRperson in the district this is
a district that had about 13schools and I said you know,
there are some potentialinterpreters in schools.
Why don't we set up aassessment to see who's
(20:12):
qualified?
And so I was asked to createthis assessment so that those
that were interested could takepart in this assessment and then
, at the same time, if theypassed they're the salary would
be bumped a little bit.
So that I did create, and Ithink that was an important step
(20:34):
forward.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Yes, that mirrored the general population sphere.
You know, everything about AIis extremes.
I think that's part of part ofthat is just the media hype.
Anything that you put out therehas to scream at you to get it
get in front of people'seyeballs.
So it was either AI is going tosave the world it's the next
coming of Jesus or AI is thedevil and it's going to put us
all into this dystopian hell.
(20:57):
So that was kind of why I sortof got involved in SafeAI.
When I found it, I was like, oh, this is perfect.
I need more information to beable to make an informed
decision about what I'm going tobe talking to my clients about,
because they were coming to megoing this Gen AI thing.
It's great.
You know a lot of the schooldistricts and I was like hold
the boat.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Wait a minute, because you do not know how this
works and you do not know ifit's secure.
Do not be running your IEPsthrough that.
Translate them please, you know,but you get that in the
industry, right, you have to doa lot of client education before
before they get to realize like, yeah, if it's free, then you
(21:38):
are the product, not the thingthat you're translating.
They are using your materials,as you know information, to
train their, train their bot andthat's their public information
.
Then and it's like, oh, that'snot what you want to be putting
anybody's private information inthere for.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
For example, there have been situations where maybe
they're organizing an event ina way that interpretation is not
going to work call it weather,call it placing, call it
whatever but when we're doingthe tryout, we're trying to
start the system, we see thatsomething is not going to work
before the meeting.
So we immediately alert ourclient and there's been
(22:18):
situations when people have beenbrushed off like ah, who cares?
But we immediately go to ourclient we say, hey, this is not
your values, this is not whatyou stand for.
You're here and you know thatthe only way that something is
going to work is that everybodyis involved, because they hear
the community voices, they heareverybody and that's the way
it's going to work.
So we have stood up to clients,we have stood up to people.
(22:41):
We have told them hey, this isnot going to work, something is
missing, we need this, we needthat, and we give them the
feedback.
And and maybe at the beginningwe did have like a very bad
experience where we feel like weweren't able to do our job.
And that's when I tell you,when something goes wrong, where
, for example, we're situated or, you know, in a place where
(23:02):
maybe the bad, you know, theequipment is not, we're not
going to be able, it's not goingto be able to reach, because
maybe we're at a wall that isnot allowing the, the sound to
go out.
Jordy can explain that betterthan I.
But when that happens, nobody'sgonna say, oh, you know what.
They were placed against thatwall.
Most likely that's why it not.
No, they're gonna sayinterpreting.
Interpretation did not work, wedid not hear and, as you say,
(23:26):
having a bad interpretation islike not having anything, so
we're not giving languagejustice.
So that's when we really have tothink do I really want to
continue working with somebodythat is going to not really, you
know, just do it to check theboxes and nobody's going to
really hear what we're saying.
So, yeah, we do stand up, we dotell them this is not going to
work.
We should do this.
(23:46):
Your values are always thateverybody should understand.
And an interesting thing Iremember sometimes we say we
give voice to people that don'thave voices, but that's not true
.
We don't give voices to peoplethat don't have voices.
We've given voices to thepeople that haven't been heard
in the past.
They've always had a lot to say, but they haven't been heard.
(24:06):
So that's really important forus that they really hear them.
Speaker 9 (24:11):
You know, I think it's a couple of components
right.
So earlier I teased the conceptof academic return on
investment right, dollarsinvested for dollars for student
growth, and you know that's.
I think that's an importantcomponent for school leaders to
understand and be able tomeasure and quantify.
You know, how the investment isimpacting students.
I think that's critical.
We want to understand whatwe're spending the money on and
(24:32):
we want to understand what weget out of it.
And taking a look at data andtaking a look at the dollars
spent and seeing where you'respending the money and seeing
what you get for it, I think isan incredibly important
component.
And, of course, differentdistricts have different tools
in place to measure studentgrowth and to look at student
data.
There's a lot of greatcompanies out there who do that
kind of work.
But then to be able to attachsome sort of growth metric to
(24:56):
measure what do we get out ofthis investment, of course we
made the investment, we spent Xamount of dollars, but how much
growth did that lead to for ourmultilingual families?
So I really think having asystem in place that allows you
to measure your impact is reallyimportant.
Now I mentioned a critical wordand I've done it a couple of
times and that's impact.
So the other thing that I talkabout with school leaders, as it
(25:18):
relates to academic return oninvestment and the work that we
do in K-12 schools, is, you know, it's not about the output,
right, it's about the impact.
So, when you're thinking aboutthe role of an interpreter,
right and I oftentimes don'tthink school leaders really
understand what the role of aninterpreter is or how that works
but you got to think less aboutthe output understanding.
They think too much.
It's all.
We just need to understand eachother.
(25:39):
We need to understand eachother.
Well, it's not always aboutunderstanding.
You think about the role of aninterpreter in a special
education setting.
It's important to develop anunderstanding.
There's lots of ways that wecan go about getting an
understanding from one another,right.
There's tools, there'stechnologies, there's
interpreters, there's all thesedifferent ways.
But one of the important thingsthat we're trying to do within
(26:00):
that special education settingis establish credibility and
trust with the family.
That's so, so incrediblyimportant in special education,
especially as you start talkingabout.
You know outplace services, oryou know different things that
you want.
You know families to react toor sign off on, or you know,
allow their student to, you know, take advantage of the best of
what your district has to offer.
You're going to need to getbuy-in from that family and you
(26:23):
know allowing them to, you know,limp their way through a
conversation in broken Englishis not allowing them to have
meaningful participation intheir son or daughter's
education.
It's just not so, you know,when you think about that and
you think about, you know,academic return on investment
and what we get out of it.
I encourage school leaders tothink about the output instead
of the impact you.
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