My mentor for my practicum this semester is a staff interpreter at a location with several other staff interpreters. The interpreting office also had its own microwave, and many non-interpreting staff members would come in to se it or simply chat. This allowed me to see the layers of confidentiality such as sharing information about communication styles or preferences with other staff interpreters while avoiding specific details of interpreted information. There was a tighter approach to information sharing that involved minimal specifics when non-interpreting staff was present. Additionally, I bumped into staff and interpreters outside of practicum hours, and had to chat with fewer details due to people with no affiliation to my practicum site being preset.

I asked for this practicum location specifically because I have worked in similar environments before. However, I was not an interpreter in those situations, and the language usage at this location varied from what I previously experienced. This meant that my prior skills an knowledge provided me with a strong foundation on which I could build new interpreting skills, that in turn has broadened my skills and knowledge for future assignments.

This was the most challenging tenet for me due to the prior experience covered in Tenet 2. It was tricky to remember my role was “interpreter” not “staff” in some situations because there was occasionally overlap in some of the responsibilities, and I was so used to behaving as “staff” in those situations. Over time, I developed a better radar for finding where boundaries could be more flexible an where they needed to remain rigid.

Due to the wide variety of communication preferences across the large number of consumers at my practicum site, I constantly monitor how well the interpretation was being received and modify as needed due to ability (or lack thereof) of consumers to clearly advocate for their preferences. I also supported the interaction and independence of consumers by staying back at times and monitoring conversations with hearing people who had varying levels of American Sign Language skills and only interjecting if major miscommunications occurred. This led to more bonding moments between them because they were able to communicate directly to each other instead of having their communication reroute through me.

In general, this was easy to maintain. Because most of the colleagues I interacted with were staff interpreters, there was a previously established consent for interns being present, and we made sure to ask any outside interpreters before observing. No issues came up that required private discussions, and it was a very supportive and collaborative environment.

Due to this being a practicum for school credit, there were no business practices related to finances present. I did make sure to honor commitments to scheduled hours and volunteer for hours outside of previously established schedule.

I engaged in higher education by attending my regular classes every week, as well as attending workshops outside of my practicum. Additionally, I had opportunities through my practicum to attend a more site-specific workshop and collaborated with another intern present to provide a mutual exchange of feedback and peer mentoring.