It’s Sunday afternoon!
I usually start looking at the week ahead, at all the places where agencies will send me to interpret. Every week I review new strategies, new hours, new topics, new routes, different cities, different states, and new people to work with.
Before each assignment I go over my checklist on what’s in my bag: work orderers, steno pads and 4-6 pens, phone charger, travel tickets, business cards, terminology notes (medical, legal, court), dictionary, smartphone, a binder full of different invoices, notes, credit cards, badges, snacks, drinking water and of course… my Tic Tac mints 😉
My name is Siang Siang and I am an Indonesian interpreter based in Philadelphia. I know most of my fellow interpreters love this profession as i do. We get to meet different peoople and go to different places.
The amount of preparation for each assignment is based on the total work time the assignment would take.
I have to be mentally ready for any terminology relevant for every particular case. I prepare for the types of environments people, and unexpected incidents that I might encounter.
It takes calmness and self-control knowing what is right to do as an interpreter while staying within protocol.
Sometimes it is normal to find myself stranded in an airport because of weather…
or I may bounce from bus to bus, hotel to hotel, train to rain, to and from assignments.
Some people feel sorry for me working with such unpredictability and complexity. But I bend and flow with each situation. I have trouble describing this feeling to others, how alive I feel, living a life like this. It is especially wonderful when the patient, counsel, or a judge appreciate my effort to deliver the messages as accurately as I can.
Thank you for talking your time to let me share!
I’m planning to keep interpreting as long as I can, it has been good to me and it has made me grow into a better communicator.
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