Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Blind Trust



Jay Krieger discusses blind trust -- how we place so much trust on our lives to folks we do not know and how that compares with placing your trust on interpreters.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes! Definitely!!!

Off the point, word verification is scaring me because I always get it wrong. I wonder if my eyes are screwed up or something. :o)

Aidan

Bacon said...

Yes and No... at my workplace, the interpreters come early a bit so I have chance to have a quick interview and find their weakness on interpreting. When I know their weakness and level, I will adjust my speed and ASL styles to meet their interpreting. CODA - mostly I have no problem at all. Any interpreters graduated from their school that will cause me to do a quick interview before process in the meetings or whatever.

Dennis

Toby Welch said...

You had a good point. I have to if I have a good interpreter. I am full time student at university. They worked out interpreter to be in my class. I sometime wondered if they are good or not. Most of times I had good interpreters. A few interpreters are okay. Interesting what you said about Blind Trust.

David said...

You have to put your faith in pilots no matter who they are. Same with interpreters.

David Kerr

Anonymous said...

Yes, we have to put blind trust on whoever that guides you from point a to point b regardless of travelling or communicating.

Like other commenters before me, I usually meet the interpreters beforehand to gauge their skills and getting comfortable with them before the actual interpretation commences.

We all do blind trust in everyone, Jay. Locomotive engineers (train), pilots (airplanes), ship captain (cruise liner), bus driver (bus), and any expert in any field like HVAC repairman comes in to fix the malfunctioning air conditioner. Blind trust is something we have to practice daily regardless.

Lantana said...

Well, for that matter, we put our faith in blind trust every day of our lives. Even when we cross the street as a pedestrian, we trust the cars to stop and let us by. When we purchase a pound of hamburger at the market, we trust the butcher to sell us fresh hamburger, not riddled with e-coli. And so on it goes.

Anonymous said...

Did any of you take Discovery course like maybe in program Outward Bound or something like that? I took the course at Gallaudet. One activity where one person stand in middle of circle of people. Arms crossed and close eyes and then just fall wherever you go and trust the people around you to catch you. Scary at first, what if they not catch me in time? what if? But that was a test of trust in others. Whew!

Anonymous said...

As interpreters, we are required to render the message truthfully. Sometimes people’s pride gets in the way, and they accept any assignment regardless if they are qualified or not. I take my profession very serious, as do most others. But, it is the other percent of interpreters that causes mistrust between deaf and interpreters.

mishkazena said...

I don't share the blind trust with interpreters. The pilots went through rigorous training and extensive experience before they assumed the responsibility of a commerical plane. Not all interpreters have the same training, so it depends on the qualifications of the interpreter. A highly qualified interpreter, yes, but otherwise, no as I am aware of their weaknesses.

Anonymous said...

Some underqualified (yes - certified!) interpreters are quite scary but I sometimes have to put blind trust them. As a warm up, I must to get to know one of the interpreters and his or her signing styles first until we are ready to go. I do the blind trust on top notched interpreters for my doctor appointments and important work meetings. I know a few of them. I will probably do blind trust the most of the interpreters in the social events like family/friend gatherings and sometimes general meetings at work.

Anonymous said...

Interesting topic - I never thought whether I trust pilot or not. Maybe next time I get on the plane, I will feel more nervous. If so, I will hold you responsible. :)

As for interpreters, I can sense if I should trust interpreters by looking at their signing, body language, spelling, and most importantly, if they understood my signing. From there, I will be able to judge the degree of trust in that interpreter!

I think I have more sense of trust with

ASL said...

Good topic! Pilots can do only 2 things compare with interpreters can do numerous diversities.
Pilots has 2 know is land on and take off.
Interpreter has know in general for basically, that's individual of them who has experience in mechanical, medical, technology and so on.
You need to speak with them that you request an interpreter who has outstanding in technology ASL for back up few interpreters.

Oscar Chacon said...

Someone said something about rigorous training.

Well, that mean you trust the trainers as the group to train the pilot right away. How do you know that there is NO conspiracy for one day when the group of pilots agree to drive people crazy and crash at the same time? Or when interpreters will agree to mock deaf's all efforts to be involved by screwing? Haha. Yes it is very hypothetical and very unlikely but it is still trust, blind or otherwise.

That is why horror genre in all forms are popular because basically they depend on dread....

Anonymous said...

What?? Why is Jay smiling ?!?!? I am NOT sure I trust him! :) :) :)

Seriously, we often do place a lot of trust in people. I think that its healthy to give SOME trust, and let it build over time.

But, I don't go every minute of my day NOT trusting someone. It takes too much time and energy. I place a trust until there is reason that it gets broken.

*talks to other deafreaders....* do you think we should TRUST, Jay?? I wonder.

heh.

John Lestina --- said...

http://my.videoegg.com/video/dKwUuX

Anonymous said...

Blind spot on interpreter...it can be how it goes among many interpreter who doesnt live up to code ethics. Lot of them would repeat and names of what was happening during their interpreting experiences. No confidence among those interpreters which we tend to doubt them afterwards. Too much of audism coming from interpreters to the deaf community as they take advantanges since we can not hear or understand what was going on or said to us. Lot of Codas are behaving like that due to their upbrings among their deaf folks who are simple minded people and allow their hearing children to control their lives just because they are hearings.

Judge said...

Ha..

There are many many situations I can tell you -- Let me show my vlog msg.

http://my.videoegg.com/video/dKxQuV

Don't hold me for any kind of responsibility on your nervous breakdown. :)

Jay said...

I wonder if its easier to blind-trust a complete stranger than to trust someone you see or work with you?

Easy to blind-trust pilots, train engineers, other drivers, and many other examples you gave me, but it appears harder to trust people that are closer to you, introduced to you, work with you, etc.?

Anonymous said...

What are you laughing about? Curious me! Anyway, I understand what you mean by blind trust. For airlines or whatever, they have a group of people working together, it is not like a lone pilot flying an airplane by himself, I think that would scare alot of people away. For an interpreter, they usually come alone, they don't have the support system right there to guide them, doctors have a team for surgery where they have people working together to make sure the surgery goes well. I notice when there is a team of people, it is much easier to put your trust in them. Like if you are dealing with a well-known interpreter agency, you may have more trust in them because you know that there are people working together but if there is a freelance interpreter working on her/his own, then it may be a little harder to trust because you don't know if that interpreter is geniune or good or whatever. Then it is much harder to file a complaint against an individual interpreter versus an interpreter agency.

Anonymous said...

As usual, you give insightful thoughts!

Here are my thoughts:

On an airplane, it might be different because you are with PEOPLE for the same "purpose" - which is getting on the airplane and by watching or feeling others' behaviors or body language, they feel "safe".


Now...with an interpreter:

Most cases you are the only one with an interpreter, not sharing with other people in the room.

So, yeah - if that interpreter is not known in the community, there's strain, either between the two parties, or just the deaf person.

If an interpreter was there with a group of people and that terp did well, we'd trust that person - regardless if she/he might have screwed up the interpretations from ASL to English, or vice versa.

Same thing with the pilot, I guess.

Trust is funny, but rightfully earned, whether you might screw up or not.

:D

todos la vie said...

oh is this the one where someone was watching? :-) What a riot!