In what ways does watching an ASL storytelling performance advance your interpreting skills and contribute to your professional growth?

Question for interpreters: In what ways does watching an ASL storytelling performance advance your interpreting skills and contribute to your professional growth? Should it be possible to earn CEUs for watching ASL storytelling presentations? How do such authentic cultural presentations enrich your interpreting repertoire? Do you pick up new vocabulary or classifiers? Do you deepen your cultural understanding?

Please kindly send your comments to Trix for use in documenting the value of storytelling performances in regard to CEUs. Thank you.

ASL storytelling presentations demand a lot from voice interpreters.

Message, tone, register, vocabulary selection options, timing, and the storyteller's personal style contend for attention in the mind of the interpreter. The process of conveying all of these storytelling elements from a signed performance to a voiced presentation is highly challenging.

The interpreter must bring the story to listening audiences without losing the ASL presenter's content, flavor, or flair. Interpreters need to keep both Deaf and hearing cultural perspectives in mind. Sometimes a whole string of signs will translate best into a word or short phrase, or a single sign will require a lengthy sentence or two. Studying English Equivalents will help interpreters prepare for work with ASL storytellers.