anyone studying to become an interpreter for the deaf?

Thats my major, and i was wondering if anyone else is also studying to become an interpreter.

 

So you are learning sign language, or what? Can you give some more information? I know this wasn't the intent of your thread...but I'm curious now.

 

yeah. you study american sign language, and deaf culture. basically what i will be doing is .. translating for the deaf, at schools, hospitals, shopping, anything they need an interpreter for. you can actually be assigned a child at a school. you make a LOT of money doing this, and the need is very great. it takes awhile to learn the language, cus its hand signs for everything, theyre sentences are formed differently than english.

example : i like the dog
in sign language you sign : dog i like i

english: i like the red book
sign: book i like i red.

pretty confusing, huh.
its really hard to find schooling for it locally. but you should look into it if your interested. you can just take continuing education classes, which is one class one night a week. cus you dont need to learn science, math, etc. and to become certified, all you do is go to take a test. depending on how good you do, your givin a level and that is what will determin on what you can intepret.,like hospitals are the higher level. but you can always retake the test and get the highest level eventually. hope that helps. if you have any other questions, let me know.

 

Wow, that's cool...I think the college class book thing I got the other day has some sign language interpreter stuff in it. What's the Deaf Culture?

 

check out http://www.signmedia.com/info/adc.htm that tells you a bit about deaf culture. basically theres Deaf ppl and deaf ppl (capital D and non).

 

My father sometimes volunteers as an interpreter for the deaf. He's becoming deaf himself so I should study more. When I was little he used to teach me signs, I loved it, it was like a game for me

 

That sounds like really interesting work, and also really.. sorta.. satisfying! That's awesome. I think that it's neat that people want to integrate those that speak with their hands, and those that speak with their mouths... to me, it feels like each group has only been able to stick to themselves.

I wanted to do a linguistics course with deaf studies, but i wasn't in the right frame of mind, i suppose. I think a local high school offers evening courses in sign language though.

 

i take evening classes at the university.