OOPS!

So when it comes to interpreting, I KNOW I am competent. For only being 23 years old, I have succeeded at a rate much faster than I thought I would. I am already Utah Level 2 and plan to take the National Interpreting performance exam very soon. Four short years ago I lived in Logan and went to USU to become a Deaf Education major. I quickly realized how much I loved interpreting. While I was there I wanted to interpret (and because of the law in Utah about interpreting, I needed to be certified). I knew I wasn't good enough to pass level 1 because I had no training so I went and took the interpreting provisional exam. I FAILED!! I had a very short sojourn of a year at USU.

Much to my dismay I returned home to California to pursue an Interpreting Preparation Program and I was one of ten people who were accepted out of sixty to apply. Yipee! After 7 months of the program I flew back to Utah to take the Utah written exam and passed. I was DETERMINED to show Utah what I had and before finishing the IPP, I once again returned to Utah to take the Level 1 performance and passed that as well on the first try. I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am, and it has paid off. I am envious of the people that are fortunate enough to have ASL and interpreting come naturally to them. Honestly, you lucky ducks!

Regardless, when I look back on the past 4 years and how I've excelled at interpreting, I must say, I am quite satisfied. I went from NOTHING to Level 2 in no time flat, thanks to the dedication and perseverence I demonstrated. (Please understand I'm not that special, many people succeed in the same amount of time, or even surpass my skill level. All I'm saying is that I am personally satisfied with how I've lead my life and the path I have chosen for my career. I have a long way to go, but for my age, I have arrived at some great milestones that most people don't reach until later in life!)

The rest is pretty much history and I actually didn't intend to give this much background information before getting to the meat of my story today. All that being said, I do have my days where I have my "moments" and begin to doubt my skills. I interpret a class in which I do a lot of voicing (when deaf people sign, I voice for them). On Wednesday I was 100% SURE I had seen this word signed/fingerspelled and I didn't think about what I said when I said it. The IPP I was in taught me to be confident when voicing and not trail off. My teacher said if you say something with confidence, it is very unlikely people will notice the mistake. Not on Wednesday!

I loudly and confidently said "Diuretic." (pronounced di-a-re-tic). I could NOT have been more wrong. The correct term was DIACRITIC. Just a slight slip of the tongue! If you do not know what either of these terms are, let me do you the honor of defining them for you. A Diuretic is tending to increase the excretion of urine. A DIACRITIC (the correct term) is a mark near or through an orthographic or phonetic character or combination of characters indicating a phonetic value different from that given the unmarked or otherwise marked element. Yep, I'm pretty smart, I know what these terms are, now if I could only get it right!!

The entire class roared with laughter and I admit, so did I. Oops, I guess these things are bound to happen especially when working with 2 completely different languages. Why couldn't I have chosen a profession that required less skill? :)