Latest / Found in Interpretation Podcast / Ep. 64 - From Hospital Corridors to Remote Booths: Tech, Sound & the Interpreter's Toolkit

Transcript

Ep. 64 - From Hospital Corridors to Remote Booths: Tech, Sound & the Interpreter's Toolkit · Found in Interpretation Podcast

• 0:00
  At a certain point, if there is a client who just absolutely
• 0:03
  refuses to work with you on what you need, the most fundamental
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  thing that you need is an interpreter.
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  There comes a point where you're you're going to need to to fire
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  that client. Hello, hello and welcome to
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  another episode of Found in Interpretation podcast, the
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  podcast that talks about translation, interpretation, all
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  kinds of interpretation actually, and everything in
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  between AI and all that stuff. Brian, how you doing?
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  I'm doing great. Thank you.
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  And yeah, I'm super excited to to be here again for another
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  episode. And we're also here with Laura
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  Holcomb. How are you, Laura?
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  I'm I'm good, I'm excited to I'm impressed as I said, that you
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  all are still doing these podcasts.
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  It takes a lot of commitment and I love talking about
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  interpretation and getting to be with colleagues.
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  So very. Amazing.
• 0:55
  Amazing. Thank you so much.
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  And everyone, if you want us to continue making podcasts and
• 1:01
  finding interesting guests, you have to like, share, subscribe,
• 1:05
  click on that button. All right, let's kick it.
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  How I got into interpreting was just first, for whatever reason,
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  I just really, I picked a language in high school because
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  you had to pick a language in high school and I studied
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  Spanish and then they ran out of Spanish classes.
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  So they let me join, enroll in the university in the town where
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  I lived so that I could do more Spanish while I was still in
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  high school. And.
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  But I I I didn't think, I mean, I liked it, but I I didn't, I
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  wasn't passionate about it or loved it or always knew I wanted
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  to be an interpreter, always knew I wanted to work in
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  languages at all. You did.
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  But I no, I didn't. I did.
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  Yeah. I didn't.
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  That wasn't, you know, I wasn't one of these people who even
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  knew that there could be a career based on languages or
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  interpretation. But then out of just sheer not
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  knowing what else to do, I continued to study Spanish in
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  college. And as part of the program, you
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  have to study abroad. And like, I think a lot of other
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  people who have a similar story to mine, it was when I, I first
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  left the United States and was able to like live and interact
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  with people who who live, breathe, be very, very
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  differently than the than the way I had grown up, that I was
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  just kind of like hooked. I was fascinated.
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  And I was like, OK, how do I open that door?
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  And the only way to open that door was to like, really try to
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  learn the language and to get pretty obsessive about it, which
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  is exactly what I proceeded to do.
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  You submerge yourself into the culture, the language,
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  everything. Yeah, but it was never an act
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  like an it was never so much just like an, an academic
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  endeavor. It was really like, how do I
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  unlock this door so I get to be part of you and learn from you?
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  And you was South America. And the first place I went, I
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  actually went to the Dominican Republic, was the 1st place that
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  I studied abroad. So OK, and I know the
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  Dominicans, everything they taught me, they were when I was
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  a Spanish toddler, they were my yeah, shout out to.
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  What part of the island were you?
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  I was in the north, so in what they call the Cibao.
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  So you have Santo Domingo that's more in the South and then
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  Santiago is further up north. And I was in a university called
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  Buca Mima, which maybe someone will recognize.
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  And we'll get a comment and say, I was, I was up.
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  Yeah. So that, I mean, that was
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  wonderful because it, it helped me just turn everything on its
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  head for a while because it was just like everything that I had
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  learned that was like, right, Correct.
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  The way things should be. You know, the Dominicans managed
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  to just flip that on its head. And I was like, oh, OK, very
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  cool. And then after that, I studied,
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  I went back and I said, I, you know, like I want to do this
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  again. So much so that I was at school
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  on a, on a soccer scholarship. There's another former life of
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  mine. I was a Division One soccer
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  player for a brief moment. And but I quit so that I could
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  study abroad again. And that's when I went to
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  Valparaiso, into Chile, yeah. And um, and I had, I had my, my
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  obligatory Argentine boyfriend this summer that I spent in
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  Mendoza. So I did all the things you're
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  supposed to do and then I graduated from college and it
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  was really just an exercise in like, what could I do where I
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  could speak Spanish as much as possible just to keep just to
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  get better and better and better and better.
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  I just always wanted to be better and better.
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  And there was no interpretation in mind back then.
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  You just wanted to be better at Spanish.
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  Yeah, I just wanted to be able to speak Spanish.
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  What do I do that I can speak Spanish?
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  I was like, oh, I guess at the hospital they might need someone
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  that speaks Spanish. Maybe there are interpreters at
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  the hospital or they just need Spanish speakers.
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  And so I went to the department where it houses the
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  interpreters, and they were like, yeah, we don't have
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  anything open, but if you want to be a visitor, information
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  assistant will take you. And that's the person who like,
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  when the people walk in and they're like, oh, I need to find
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  my dad. What?
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  You know? And you, you know, say.
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  It again information. Visitor Information Assistant.
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  It is a fancy. Visitor information, it says.
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  I had never heard that term before.
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  Yeah, it even has an acronym. So it was like, really?
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  It was a good start in the world, you know, and then
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  eventually a, a job in like an interpretation spot did open up
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  and it was all housed under the same department.
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  And another shout out, I owe that hospital in that group of
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  interpreters and that manager who was not an interpreter, you
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  know, because we were together with the chaplains, the
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  interpreters and the visitor information assistance.
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  And they paid for me to do the only training like the four, it
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  was called Bridging the Gap. It was a 40.
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  Some of you all will have heard of that.
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  It was a 40 hour healthcare interpreter training.
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  They paid for me to do that. And then they did like six weeks
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  of rigorous in-house hospital training where I got to shadow
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  the teams. Then they shadowed me and that's
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  how I started as and then as a healthcare interpreter 40 hours
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  a week. So yeah, my origin story, I
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  always say like my interpreting heart, I feel like it just got
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  stuck in the hospital, you know, like here I am all this time
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  later, I did a masters degree. I have incredibly high standards
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  for myself and for what we're supposed to be doing as
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  interpreters, especially in the booth and but at the end of the
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  day, it's like, that was the best job I ever had.
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  Because of the interaction? Because you felt you are making
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  a change in people's lives. What aspect?
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  There were so many aspects that I didn't realize, you know, were
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  so inherent to healthcare interpreting that maybe aren't
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  as much a part of conference interpreting.
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  I mean, 1 was just the opportunity to walk, walk around
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  all day from special day to special, to be up and moving and
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  meeting new people. The ability to really feel like
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  you were participating in a team because I was a staff
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  interpreter. So like, you know, I wasn't
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  called in as hired help and the last person on the list, like I
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  was part of the team of nurses and emergency room decks and
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  doctors and, and. That was still in the back.
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  This wasn't no, I wish. And that's the thing, like
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  healthcare interpreting as a field, just really when I moved
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  to Latin America, you, you can't really work as a healthcare
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  interpreter because the legislation just isn't there and
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  the immigration dynamics are very different.
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  So it's not a codified field. No, this was in after college.
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  This was in Georgia. So I started as, yeah, at a
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  Regional Hospital in Georgia. And then when I met my husband,
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  he ended up taking a job in New York.
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  He works in coffee. And so then I worked as a free
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  time, a full time freelancer at NYU Langone Hospital in
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  Manhattan and totally different specialties.
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  So I, I just love that I loved all the different specialties.
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  I loved feeling part of the team.
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  And yes, like I know maybe maybe you all, I'd love to hear your
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  thoughts on this, relate to this.
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  I just, I didn't know how often conference interpreting would
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  feel like such a theoretical exercise.
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  Like I don't know if anyone's listening.
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  I don't even know if they mostly speak English or if they, if
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  they, they really need me to be doing what I'm doing And, and
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  all of that. Like, it isn't even a, a
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  question in healthcare interpreting.
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  Like it's tangible what you're doing.
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  And I, I and the whole field and all the colleagues, it was just
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  always so service oriented. Yeah.
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  No, I really, really. Liked them?
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  The, the whole idea of, of, of feeling useful when you're doing
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  an assignment is, is precious. I, I know that sometimes in
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  conference interpretation, I, I absolutely understand what you
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  mean by sometimes you don't even know if anyone's listening.
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  Like sometimes I feel I'm like on that desert island and
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  there's only me and I have this radio.
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  I don't even know if it works or not.
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  And I'm sending codes to see SOS as the ship going to come and
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  save me. I have no idea, you know.
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  Just there. In case someone is listening,
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  but if no one is, well, I guess that.
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  Was sometimes I just listen to my booth partner just so my
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  booth partner feels that someone's listening.
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  Service. That's great.
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  But no, I mean, I wouldn't feel bad either, but like not having
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  interpretation as like the when you started like I I wanted to
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  be a doctor, I didn't have no idea about interpretation
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  either. You wanted to be a doctor.
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  Yeah, my first year university I took five classes, 4 science
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  classes and 1 French, 30 year French and my best mark was in
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  30 year French. And then my second year I took 4
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  sciences and 2nd year Spanish, and my best grade was in second
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  year Spanish. So I think after third year I
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  kind of caught on. I'm like, yeah, let's maybe
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  switch to languages. And then I became a translator
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  and then after that an interpreter at schools and
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  hospitals. And then after that finally in a
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  conference interpreter. Do you ever get stuck on the on
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  the doctor thing? Like, do you ever think like
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  that would have been? No.
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  Cool, no? Not really well, The thing is
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  that my my uncle is a doctor in Mexico and I followed it.
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  I kind of shadowed him after my first year university to see if
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  this is something that I wanted to do.
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  And his day started at 4:30 in the morning and ended at 10:00
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  at night. And I'm like, this is not for
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  me. Like you just go, go go nonstop.
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  And it's like tragedy after tragedy.
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  And then I mean it, it is rewarding when you see your
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  patients like get better and everything.
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  But there's also the on the flip side.
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  And I thought, no, those hours weren't for me.
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  So I decided to be an entrepreneur and actually work
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  the same amount of hours, but but trying to build the
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  business, right. So.
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  But now I don't have to anymore and he still does so.
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  So did you, did you start go straight into building a
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  business after you graduated? No, I was a translator in house
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  for a company for about a year and a half and we had to do
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  automotive parts like the most intricate little parts of a
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  vehicle. Like we had to translate every
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  single little part of it for every vehicle, every make model,
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  because this was going into dealerships and they had to
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  compare say like a BMW 3 Series with like a Chrysler Sebring.
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  So like you had to translate everything from every car
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  manufacturer, which was kind of. Boring from English to French,
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  right? Yeah, English to French, but it
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  was a good, I mean, it was solid base because I did some
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  automotive conferences later and I'm like, Oh yeah, this is this
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  goes quit. This goes real, real, real easy.
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  And then, yeah, I switched to becoming an entrepreneur when I
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  moved to Mississauga. And when you studied Friendship
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  University, it was like an academic language.
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  Or do you know someone a? Parent who speaks French and
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  Spanish, but my mom's half French, half Mexican.
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  So yeah, I grew up as an interpreter when we moved to
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  different countries, America, not knowing that it was my
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  calling in life. Oh man, that's.
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  Really noticed then that you can't do anything else right?
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  I know this is this. Is you were born with it.
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  Yeah, you finish a conference and you turn the radio on, and
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  if it's the news, you're interpreting the news, you're
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  just never stops. I don't want to repeat myself,
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  but that's why I watch pro wrestling.
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  This is the only thing I don't do interpretation of after a
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  long gig. Just purely enjoy.
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  Or watch or watch hockey as well hockey.
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  Yeah, it's too. Fast.
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  I don't do it for beating. Each other up.
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  Exactly. You know there's a similarity
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  here. Yeah, I see of this system.
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  No kidding. So none of it in person, by the
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  way. Yeah.
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  No, I've never channel. I don't get angry.
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  So that's I've seen you go on rants but never get angry.
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  Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you gotta, you
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  gotta let some steam. Out.
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  Yeah, that's why you have your healthy hockey habit.
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  I like. Exactly, exactly.
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  So coming back to your healthcare career, how long did
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  it last? I was in healthcare interpreting
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  between the two places for a decade, probably close to a
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  decade. Yeah, as a practitioner.
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  And I loved, I loved how when the day was over, the day was
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  over, right? It was.
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  It's the type of work that you didn't unless you brought it
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  home emotionally. And I was.
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  So I was fortunate to be young enough in a weird way to to
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  still think I was invincible, right?
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  And. So in your 20s, right?
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  Yeah, I was in my 20s and 30s, right?
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  And that's the perfect time to do this.
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  If I were to try to go back to the hospital now, I just think I
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  would leave in tears every, you know, every day.
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  But it was, it was really, it was really an honor to do back
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  then. And I and I loved it and I found
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  it so challenging and, um, so fulfilling at the same time.
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  But anyway, but after a decade, I just kind of was like, oh, I
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  just got curious. I was like, oh, if if someone
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  wanted me to do an assignment in the booth, like how, how does
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  that, how would I do that? And I didn't know.
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  And. So you were doubting your own
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  skills, although you had so much experience.
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  Yeah, it never worked in IT. I mean, hospital interpreters,
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  we don't work in booths, right? And so I never worked in a booth
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  and I just thought I wouldn't you know someone.
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  I mean, those are you got you all know that these are very
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  separate worlds in the United States.
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  The healthcare interpreter and conference interpreters might
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  never meet. They might have 40 year careers
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  and never meet each other. And but there's.
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  There's a special set of basic skills that we can't we share
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  though. So I don't think I would, yeah,
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  I don't think the the my English, French leagues in
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  Toronto that work in hospitals I would ever meet at a conference
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  and vice versa. And not.
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  But do you think some of them would have the skills to do it
• 16:08
  anyway? Because basically comes to a
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  career choice like I don't have, I'm not trained to be well, a
• 16:16
  little bit because of the Glendon course that I did, but
• 16:19
  to be slightly familiar with it. But of course, I don't compare
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  to someone who has experience. But at least with my language
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  skills and my experience as a conference interpreter, I think
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  that the learning curve is not as bad as if I had no experience
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  as an interpreter at all. Well, mine is kind of like
• 16:35
  baptism by fire. So I can't, I can't speak for
• 16:38
  others because. I am so jealous of the people
• 16:40
  who had the baptism by fire entry into the because it was
• 16:45
  like someone needed you to do it.
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  And my experience of conference interpreting was always just
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  like, OK. Does anyone need me?
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  To do this like who's gonna? I'm trained and that had to do
• 16:58
  with just kind of, I realized overtime that I had kind of
• 17:03
  after graduating, put myself in impossible circumstances to be
• 17:07
  able to actually make a successful career out of it.
• 17:10
  But yeah, anyway. Skipping forward ended up.
• 17:13
  What do you mean by impossible circumstances?
• 17:15
  Well, you know, I, I went from healthcare interpreting and
• 17:20
  right as I was looking at studying conference
• 17:22
  interpreting, just to know what I was doing and to figure out
• 17:25
  what it was all about and kind of just take a next step out of
• 17:29
  pure thrill and curiosity. We also at that same time, we
• 17:33
  decided to move to Brazil. My husband had, he works in
• 17:36
  coffee and he was, he, he had been asked to take to, to be in
• 17:40
  charge of two coffee farms in Brazil.
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  And, and so we moved to Brazil and I started Glendon from
• 17:49
  Brazil the same year that we moved.
• 17:53
  So I'm in Brazil trying to learn Portuguese.
• 17:57
  Getting are we allowed to what? What words are we allowed to say
• 18:00
  on this podcast? I'm I was getting my.
• 18:02
  Butt anything masters you don't like it that if if you'd like I
• 18:05
  can cut it later. OK, cool.
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  But anyway, like it was already hard enough when you go and you
• 18:11
  do a degree in conference interpreting, like, you know,
• 18:14
  there's already so much that you need to improve on from day one,
• 18:18
  right? And so I was doing that in
• 18:19
  Spanish, English, trying to learn Portuguese, finished a
• 18:24
  degree in Canada and then promptly left a place.
• 18:26
  Degrees are really great for learning skills, but they're
• 18:29
  also really fundamental for having a network when you come
• 18:32
  out of school. But what I did is I finished and
• 18:35
  I was not like I didn't have that.
• 18:37
  I left, I didn't have that network at all and I went back
• 18:41
  to Brazil to a farm 4 or 4 hours away.
• 18:45
  This is pre COVID pre so when you would.
• 18:48
  Interpret England. When you were teaching me remote
• 18:50
  at Glendon, you were on a farm in Brazil.
• 18:53
  Yeah. Wow.
• 18:55
  See, I had to be honest with you.
• 18:57
  I had no not only no idea. When I first heard that you were
• 19:00
  in Brazil, I thought you were Brazilian.
• 19:03
  And I was like, wow, her English is pretty good.
• 19:05
  Thank you, Sir. I had no idea.
• 19:07
  I had no idea. You know I have no idea who came
• 19:10
  from Georgia because you said I'm in Brazil, right?
• 19:13
  And I don't think. That I don't think that I don't
• 19:15
  remember actually or that you maybe was written somewhere, but
• 19:20
  I didn't read it. Of course that you're American.
• 19:23
  So I I had no, I thought you were from, you know, you're in
• 19:27
  Brazil. I thought you were from Brazil.
• 19:28
  I was like. I love you.
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  Thanks for the benefit of the doubt there, but that was part
• 19:33
  of the problem that like I had moved my active combination with
• 19:38
  Spanish English and I put myself 4 hours from Sao Paulo in a
• 19:43
  highly bio active market with a Portuguese sea English A Spanish
• 19:51
  B and you know I just thought well this will work because
• 19:56
  things workout thank you mom. She didn't like I suffer from
• 19:59
  this, but it's also a gift she gave me right that it's just
• 20:02
  like you know it'll work out everything will workout plan AB
• 20:05
  and C&D. But guess what, guys?
• 20:08
  It wasn't working out. I mean, it did ultimately work
• 20:10
  out, but it that was I couldn't, I couldn't get work.
• 20:15
  And so then. I mean, I'm scrappy.
• 20:18
  So then I started teaching. Someone hired me to do some
• 20:21
  research in Mexico. I maybe was able to finagle one
• 20:26
  or two events a year where where, but I had to find them
• 20:30
  myself. You know, it wasn't an easy,
• 20:32
  it's not an easy market to break into as an outsider and
• 20:35
  especially under the circumstances I was I was in.
• 20:39
  So yeah, that was that was my experience following the.
• 20:46
  Lack of the lack of work was mostly due to the fact that your
• 20:52
  Portuguese was AC. I think so.
• 20:55
  And when you're a foreigner in a, in a, in a, in a place, I
• 21:00
  think, yeah, anytime you have to come into a new market, whether
• 21:04
  it's because you just graduated or because you moved, I think
• 21:07
  that's hard as well when you're trying to get clients outside
• 21:10
  of, I think it's a, I didn't grow up bilingual or bicultural.
• 21:14
  I have one. I'm like Anglo through.
• 21:19
  I'm like Anglo trying to be Dominican every day through and
• 21:24
  through, right. And so I also came to respect
• 21:27
  how hard, how hard it is to to actually maneuver culturally and
• 21:33
  get clients. It sounds like a movie, The
• 21:35
  American Boricua. Yeah, totally, 100%.
• 21:41
  So it was the language combination, it was the fact
• 21:44
  that, I mean, it's just all the, it's just all those small things
• 21:48
  that added up to being really hard to find work.
• 21:51
  And I can see that now. But at the time, I just thought
• 21:55
  a time. At the first it was like, oh, I
• 21:56
  knew this was going to be slow. And then overtime it was like,
• 21:59
  oh, I'm like, I'm not. I must not be cut out for this
• 22:03
  or. I must not be made for this or,
• 22:05
  and, and so I, I honestly, I don't, you know, here we are in
• 22:11
  a podcast like found and interpretation.
• 22:13
  I could not have found, I could not have felt less found in
• 22:16
  interpretation than after the, the masters degree.
• 22:20
  And I, I actually kind of think it did all work out.
• 22:24
  Mom was right, but certainly not in the way that I expected.
• 22:29
  It so how did did workout after? Because you said that at first
• 22:32
  it didn't but later on it did. So what happened?
• 22:38
  And look where and look where I am now.
• 22:40
  It's it's I do I like my job the way that the way that it's
• 22:44
  turned out. I think it's turned out OK, but
• 22:49
  it's circling back around to tech because I didn't have any
• 22:52
  the work that I wanted to do, which was conference
• 22:55
  interpreting, I had to figure out something else.
• 22:59
  And so I first really deeply started to to look into remote
• 23:04
  platforms first for teaching purposes.
• 23:06
  I just needed to be able to teach.
• 23:08
  So that was the other thing that I think I just this year had a
• 23:11
  moment of regret that like, man, I wish I ended up going straight
• 23:15
  out of school into a teaching position, like into a teaching
• 23:19
  position which is a little bit of a place of authority.
• 23:21
  And so I feel like I missed this whole like this whole process
• 23:28
  that maybe other people get to go through where you get to like
• 23:30
  build experience and flounder and just fall on your face, but
• 23:34
  you're new because it's OK. And I went straight to into
• 23:36
  teaching and um. Are you saying this because you
• 23:40
  go from giving knowledge to also have the authority to give
• 23:44
  knowledge? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I, I
• 23:48
  whenever I teach, like it's a very colleague to colleague sort
• 23:52
  of thing. But but I can't deny that it
• 23:56
  like someone is giving, they're lending me a position of
• 23:59
  authority for the time that we're together.
• 24:01
  They're willing to listen to me. They're willing to trust me.
• 24:06
  And yeah. And so, yeah, I just kind of
• 24:11
  realized this year especially like, I don't know, the other
• 24:13
  day I was in the booth and I was very unhappy with the work that
• 24:16
  I did. And you know, I came out and I
• 24:19
  was just like, man, I, I wish I had had my own beginners runway
• 24:30
  and instead it's been all mixed up.
• 24:34
  And I feel it's it's different in South America too, because we
• 24:37
  we did interview a couple of interpreters from Argentina for
• 24:41
  50th episode. Cool.
• 24:43
  And they were telling us that there's no such thing as an
• 24:46
  interpreting agency in South America.
• 24:49
  Really like it all works through the associations.
• 24:52
  So unless you know that, then odds are you're not going to get
• 24:56
  as much work as someone who is in the associations and, and
• 25:01
  meets other colleagues and refers one another like it's a,
• 25:05
  it's a circle that you need to kind of break into to be able
• 25:08
  to, to make it. And you have to know, you have
• 25:11
  to know. And there's a lot of
• 25:12
  collectives, particularly in Brazil.
• 25:14
  I love that they have a lot of, they have a lot of like
• 25:16
  cooperative collective models. A lot of it is through AV
• 25:20
  companies, that sort of thing. Yeah.
• 25:24
  So I had to learn. I had to learn all that, but I
• 25:26
  really just didn't have the right combination for Brazil and
• 25:29
  didn't realize it until much later in the game.
• 25:33
  So it was, it was a difficult experience, but like I said, it
• 25:36
  turned out for the best because I ended up really learning tech
• 25:39
  backwards, forwards, front and back.
• 25:42
  What's the same thing? Twice are we talking about?
• 25:45
  Just basically being able to manage a bunch of interpreters
• 25:49
  on online platforms and help them get what they need.
• 25:53
  So this would be like because of COVID I'm assuming because.
• 25:57
  Before COVID, yeah, yeah, there were platforms prior to COVID,
• 26:02
  but they weren't widely adopted for any sort of commercial use.
• 26:05
  But we were already starting to you, I mean voice boxer, Quaqua.
• 26:09
  Later on, Kudo came online, you know, and all of that was
• 26:11
  actually prior to Zoom adding language channels.
• 26:15
  And so though that I was, I was fascinated by these and I needed
• 26:18
  to learn them to be able to, to effectively run, you know, I
• 26:23
  don't know, whatever, you know, mock whatever for students.
• 26:27
  Um, and so I learned a lot. About the course that I did in
• 26:30
  the summer with you right, the healthcare with Tech I.
• 26:33
  Think yeah, hip. And we really tried to put a
• 26:35
  tech exactly. And we really tried to put a
• 26:38
  tech focus on things long before it was widely adopted.
• 26:41
  And even though it was the healthcare setting, which has
• 26:43
  different needs than these conference platforms, but I
• 26:47
  couldn't see, you know, that was, and I wanted to work
• 26:50
  online. It would have been perfect for
• 26:52
  me to work remotely from Minas Gerais, Brazil, right?
• 26:56
  So that I could do work in, in maybe the language combination
• 27:00
  that I was most suited for, you know, from where I was.
• 27:05
  But like, no one wanted, you know, no one was interested.
• 27:08
  Everyone was like, why? Like we have booths for this?
• 27:11
  Like we're what? What no one could see.
• 27:14
  I mean, it just wasn't widely adopted.
• 27:17
  And then along comes the pandemic.
• 27:21
  And. Everything had warm.
• 27:23
  I had more work than I had ever had, yeah, in my life as a
• 27:28
  conference interpreter. Whether it was just helping
• 27:30
  interpreters get up to speed, whether it was people wanting to
• 27:34
  do what they had previously done in person, run summits, and now
• 27:37
  they needed to run these summits online.
• 27:41
  And so you know, I into where I am now which which didn't come
• 27:46
  out in the in the bio, but yeah, I run string and can which is a
• 27:50
  very small business where we focus on remote and hybrid work
• 27:57
  and I get more. Like an agency type?
• 27:59
  Or yeah, I always was like scared to call myself an agency
• 28:03
  because sometimes there's just such a a bat, like a negative.
• 28:07
  And I know I'm sitting right here with you, Brian, but there
• 28:10
  can be like a really negative stereotype.
• 28:13
  It depends on the market and the Canadian market.
• 28:15
  I don't think that anyone has any issue with the with the term
• 28:18
  agency as far as I know, Brian, right.
• 28:21
  It depends on the agency. Right, No, I.
• 28:24
  Mean in general, but the term agency itself.
• 28:27
  Yeah, no, the term's fine. Yeah, It's just when what you do
• 28:30
  with the agency is where things come into play.
• 28:34
  A really good agencies and they add a lot of value, but then
• 28:37
  there's also agencies that interpreters are not fond of it
• 28:40
  all that forget to pay or don't get the conditions that
• 28:44
  interpreters need or have no idea what interpreters need or
• 28:47
  take way more of the percentage than maybe the interpreter was
• 28:50
  prepared to accept and you know these sorts of things anyway.
• 28:54
  But yeah, what it is is isn't, is an, is a very small agency,
• 29:01
  um, company enterprise project. Business.
• 29:07
  Business in which, you know, like I have a team of trusted
• 29:14
  collaborators that I've built over time.
• 29:18
  It's not big. I'm not trying to make it big.
• 29:19
  I'm not trying to do volume. I'm trying to do things small
• 29:23
  and well and in the way that I like to do them.
• 29:26
  And so finally, after all this time, yeah.
• 29:31
  I'm sorry. I said it sounds familiar.
• 29:34
  Yeah, quality is important, man. Yeah, not.
• 29:38
  And I mean, like people like Laura are the people who make us
• 29:41
  sound good, too. Like, they're, they're the ones
• 29:44
  who like, I mean, we bring the skill of interpretation.
• 29:47
  But Laura is going to make sure that nothing messes up and that
• 29:50
  the sound goes through and that everyone gets clear, clear feed.
• 29:54
  Like, yeah, if it wasn't for people like Laura, we would be
• 29:58
  up shits Creek. Yeah.
• 30:00
  But I have a question about that business model when it comes to
• 30:03
  a tech side, because before you work sort of at the right place
• 30:08
  at the right time, being prepared, although you didn't
• 30:10
  know, nobody knew the pandemic would come because if you had
• 30:13
  started that five years earlier, maybe you would have moved down
• 30:16
  to something else. So the pandemic comes in, you're
• 30:21
  able to work and introduce these novel ways of working.
• 30:26
  But now do you feel that there is a shift because a lot of
• 30:32
  people now have learned to open up Zoom conferences, how to use
• 30:38
  the interpretation features and all of that.
• 30:41
  So do you feel that after about 5 or 6 years things are shifting
• 30:46
  in a different way? That's such a good question.
• 30:50
  I love this question because there was a moment was like, OK,
• 30:53
  I think everyone's figure this out.
• 30:54
  Like I can hang up my shoes and go home now, right?
• 30:59
  And, and yes, like no one is falling into the same trap of
• 31:03
  like, Oh my God, I've, you know, I used my, my personal meeting
• 31:09
  ID and Zoom and I sent it out to everyone and now there's no way
• 31:13
  to enable interpretation on this.
• 31:15
  Like what? So like there were some major
• 31:18
  pitfalls that were simple but major that, you know, that we
• 31:22
  had to work through and that I was able to add a lot of value
• 31:25
  on. And then people did start to get
• 31:29
  good at that. And so now I get to take it to
• 31:31
  the next level. Like it doesn't feel like crisis
• 31:35
  management anymore. Like now we can produce events
• 31:37
  online that are that are worthy of people's time.
• 31:42
  And so now I get to focus on, yeah, making sure everyone has a
• 31:48
  great sound. We send microphones now.
• 31:52
  I I remember the first time that one of my regular clients said
• 31:55
  we have an event. We don't need interpretation,
• 31:58
  but we produce it for us. Like will you teach it for us
• 32:02
  with no. And, and I was like, of course.
• 32:04
  And so little by little, I continued to, to build my skills
• 32:08
  and, and so that sometimes I produce events that aren't
• 32:11
  interpreted right. And that's everything from like
• 32:14
  managing registration, getting speakers still, still have that.
• 32:18
  We want them to have good sound, a good connection, good framing,
• 32:21
  just like we're doing. For this podcast.
• 32:24
  Exactly. And then it's a lot of because I
• 32:27
  work a lot with documentary film clients, it's a lot of, you
• 32:30
  know, asset sharing the right thing at the right time, making
• 32:32
  sure that the interaction is is happening in a way where nothing
• 32:35
  is slowed down. It can, you know, clip, clip,
• 32:38
  clip along at a nice pace and just handling a bunch of things
• 32:41
  that the people who are focusing on content don't want to have to
• 32:46
  manage. So there's still there's still a
• 32:49
  lot to be done. And I really think that even now
• 32:52
  that interpreters deserve tech to events and by techs who
• 32:59
  understand the kind of support that they need.
• 33:04
  Yeah, right. No, I agree.
• 33:05
  Too many people aren't getting that.
• 33:08
  And, and people don't realize how much work is involved before
• 33:11
  the actual events, like how much planning there is that from the
• 33:14
  AV company, the tech people, the venue, the like, there's so
• 33:20
  much, so many different things that, that, that conference
• 33:23
  planners that have to, to, you know, prepare for in order for
• 33:28
  this to be a success. And and your segment is
• 33:32
  especially when it's virtual, that's probably one of the most
• 33:35
  important ones I'd say, if not the most important one is for
• 33:38
  everybody to be able to to hear one another.
• 33:42
  Yeah, it it does. I mean, it's, I think we all
• 33:45
  know it, so I don't much have to say it out loud, but it is the
• 33:47
  basics of like when you're on site, it's 1 AV system, one set
• 33:52
  of microphones, you dial that in and everyone can use it, right?
• 33:57
  But when you're online, you know, you have someone I don't
• 34:01
  know in Lima in a room with rather than drywall, they have
• 34:06
  concrete. Um, on a PC with a built in
• 34:12
  micro, you know, it's just like you have to think of everyone's
• 34:15
  environment, everyone's accessibility as far as how am I
• 34:18
  going to get this person the equipment that they need in time
• 34:22
  and then helping them get it dialed in for their particular
• 34:27
  machine. What ports do they have on their
• 34:29
  computer, right? If I send them, you know, if I
• 34:32
  send them a fee, fine, which is what we end up sending a lot.
• 34:36
  You know, I've made all the mistakes.
• 34:37
  If I send him a few fine and then they say Laura all I have
• 34:41
  are USB C ports. Right.
• 34:43
  Oh my goodness. Yeah.
• 34:45
  And now we're 24 hours out from the conference, right?
• 34:48
  Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you go get an adapt?
• 34:51
  Well, now I know. And I ask about ports ahead of
• 34:53
  time and I send an adapter if they needed an adapter as well.
• 34:56
  You know, it's just, it's, it's things like that that, um,
• 35:01
  through a lot of I owe this to the collaborators who, to my
• 35:05
  clients really who have. Allowed me to be on the inside.
• 35:09
  I gotta say, this is the best, most obvious idea.
• 35:14
  Never I ever. I never never thought about
• 35:16
  that. But right.
• 35:17
  You're so right. Why not send them a microphone?
• 35:23
  You know, because so many times when when we work in so many
• 35:27
  different kinds of conferences and I'm like another laptop
• 35:30
  microphone from a, some Asus or a ThinkPad, ThinkPad.
• 35:35
  What did they call from 15 years ago that was basically?
• 35:40
  It's really bad. And then it's terrible.
• 35:43
  And I'm like, why nobody thought about that?
• 35:45
  But that's a very good idea. It's very simple, but actually
• 35:48
  it's pretty effective, just said.
• 35:50
  It's, it's, it's really, and I know, you know, the I'm, I'm not
• 35:52
  going to pretend that like everyone is in this position to
• 35:56
  even be able to have the trust that I have with the people that
• 36:00
  I work with to even make that happen.
• 36:02
  But I did that was that was my particular evolution.
• 36:06
  And fortunately, I made all the mistakes along the way to figure
• 36:10
  out like a, a formula. And it started really with when
• 36:16
  I was in the booth. And I was like, OK, there's 2
• 36:19
  speakers, I'm going to be listening them for two hours.
• 36:22
  Would I rather make $80 more with bad sound or $80 less?
• 36:28
  And the two of them have microphones.
• 36:30
  And that's how I started. I was like, you know, I, I, I
• 36:34
  didn't say, will you please use that?
• 36:36
  You know, I was like, I'll send you a microphone.
• 36:39
  Oh, there's no budget. That's fine.
• 36:40
  I'll pay for it, right. And I don't, you know, I don't
• 36:44
  do that consistently. And then, you know, and then I
• 36:46
  was like, OK, this is working. So now maybe I should, when I
• 36:50
  price out my services, maybe I should take into account that
• 36:53
  I'm going to need to send, I might need to send a microphone.
• 36:56
  So, umm, you know, it was like a, it was, it was just an inch
• 37:01
  by inch feeling my way forward on trying to get interpreters
• 37:07
  what they need. Um, while, while making sure it
• 37:15
  wasn't, I wasn't adding more to the plates of the people that I
• 37:19
  work with who have their own responsibilities, you know?
• 37:23
  And so that's the way you really lightened their load because I
• 37:27
  mean. That's what I was gonna say.
• 37:28
  Yeah, Today, in 2026, you still have people saying, oh, you're
• 37:32
  on mute, you know, or you still have people that are speaking
• 37:35
  into their laptop instead of using the headphone, right?
• 37:39
  Like, so yeah, no, this is still valuable 2026 and probably will
• 37:44
  be for the next 10 years, despite what people may think
• 37:48
  that, you know, Zoom has been out for 78 years since the
• 37:51
  pandemic and people should already have their headset,
• 37:55
  headphones and microphones and they're set up for virtual
• 37:58
  obedience, but they still don't after 7-8 years, a lot of.
• 38:01
  Times they don't because they've been on so many and it's worked
• 38:04
  fine with there. And sometimes I get that, that,
• 38:06
  you know, people who are busy and frustrated and they're just
• 38:09
  like, I don't understand, like this has worked for every other
• 38:12
  meeting. And I'm like, I know it's good
• 38:14
  for most meetings, but like this is going to be interpreted and
• 38:18
  there's gonna be people listening to you and talking at
• 38:19
  the same time. And I also want you to sound
• 38:22
  great for the audience that's listening to you directly.
• 38:25
  Like you just like what what the time you're putting in to what
• 38:30
  you're going to present like deserves good sound.
• 38:34
  So, so take this. We're going to send you a
• 38:35
  microphone. I just needed delivery address
• 38:37
  and I need to know your ports. We're going to send it to you.
• 38:40
  And then the only thing I ask is that you keep using it for all
• 38:43
  you know, for all your online work.
• 38:47
  And I do find that the laptop makes it a lot more difficult
• 38:50
  for you too, because like you're, you don't even know
• 38:53
  where the presenter is going to be because maybe they'll be in a
• 38:55
  conference room, maybe they'll be in their home, maybe they'll
• 38:58
  be at their office, maybe they'll get a cubicle or like a
• 39:01
  in the hallway. That's really echoey.
• 39:04
  So you never know, right? So you, you know, like what the
• 39:10
  person needs no matter what the circumstance is, right?
• 39:14
  Yeah, it's a lot of detective work, but it it's also just
• 39:17
  like, how do I make this easy on you?
• 39:19
  So I'm going to send you a microphone.
• 39:22
  Oh, there's no money. OK, we'll pay for it.
• 39:24
  You know, I mean, the people I work with now, they know that
• 39:26
  it's going to that's part of the budget.
• 39:27
  And I put like a sample unit on the quote and talk to them about
• 39:31
  like about how, you know, remote is awesome because you get to
• 39:36
  save a lot of money on travel and venues and it's so
• 39:40
  convenient. You can do things that you
• 39:41
  wouldn't do. But the downside is that like I
• 39:45
  have to like, if it's going to be interpreted, I have to send
• 39:48
  microphones to people. Like everyone needs a
• 39:50
  microphone. And I just present that is like,
• 39:53
  but it's, you know, I present that to say like, it's not a
• 39:56
  terrible trade off, right? We're getting to do this.
• 40:00
  Everyone is not being flown in from I don't know where.
• 40:03
  Right. And the only thing that we have
• 40:05
  to pay for really are these microphones.
• 40:07
  So it's not optional. I don't present it as ever.
• 40:10
  Like it would be great if you all could use headsets.
• 40:13
  I just present it as like for simultaneous in order to do the
• 40:18
  job we were hired for. Like people have to use
• 40:21
  microphones. Yeah, and we'll send those.
• 40:24
  Do you think people forget like sometimes, you know, pre
• 40:28
  pandemic you have a an international meeting with 50
• 40:31
  people, like 45 of them have to be flown in and then you have to
• 40:35
  pay for their hotel rooms and the travel and the venue and the
• 40:39
  space and the AV. And then post pandemic you're
• 40:43
  get 50 people in a conference like that are joining in
• 40:46
  virtually. There's no travel expenses
• 40:49
  anymore. Do you think people forget that
• 40:52
  you know that they're saving so much money by not having 50
• 40:55
  people on site? I think, I think that's entirely
• 40:58
  possible And you know, and what I find is I think people, and
• 41:03
  maybe I'm ignorant of, I'm sure I haven't experienced everything
• 41:06
  out there, right? There's so many different
• 41:08
  meetings setups and so many different needs.
• 41:11
  But what I find for online work is it's rare that you would
• 41:15
  actually need to mic all fifty of those people because they're
• 41:19
  not, they're not all going to talk evenly.
• 41:21
  You know, if it's an online event, it's generally going to
• 41:23
  be a shorter event. People are not doing full day
• 41:26
  events online because they know it doesn't work, that people
• 41:30
  can't tolerate that. So these are shorter events and
• 41:34
  generally, even if you have 50 people on this call, there's
• 41:37
  going to be 1/2 at most 12 people who are really doing the
• 41:46
  bulk of the speaking. Am I going to send the
• 41:48
  microphone to one person who is going to take one question?
• 41:53
  No, I'm not, you know, like I I do have.
• 41:56
  I'm not I'm not that much like I am pragmatic to a certain I'm
• 41:59
  not that what I can, what I say around tech can sound very
• 42:03
  idealistic and, you know, pie in the sky.
• 42:06
  It's a good starting point. Yeah, but generally for online
• 42:10
  meetings, like if you can prioritize your 1234 main
• 42:14
  speakers, get them their microphones, offer them my
• 42:18
  calendar link, we're just going to take 15 minutes to do on
• 42:21
  one-on-one so that we can get this out of the way.
• 42:23
  I'll help you dial in that new microphone that I sent you.
• 42:26
  Generally. I mean, of course, is there the
• 42:29
  one person who's grumpy that they have to, you know, take 15
• 42:32
  minutes with me to dial in the new microphone that I sent them
• 42:35
  for free? Yeah, there's one the past six
• 42:39
  years. Your message.
• 42:40
  I mean, if we don't understand you, well, then you worked years
• 42:45
  on your message. You're getting paid for this?
• 42:47
  Probably. Yeah.
• 42:49
  And why wouldn't you want it to sound great to the people
• 42:53
  working with your? Contacts I have no there's.
• 42:57
  Nothing. There's nothing more frustrating
• 42:59
  for me when I hear bad sounds. Sometimes it's not even
• 43:03
  frustrating as an interpreter for what I'm trying to convey as
• 43:07
  a message. But I'm like, don't they care?
• 43:11
  Don't they care about their own message?
• 43:13
  I mean, who are they talking to if they're using a shitty
• 43:17
  microphone? But they can't hear themselves,
• 43:20
  right? And that that's where the that's
• 43:22
  where. Nobody has told them I'm like.
• 43:25
  I don't know, right? Dear girl, now I don't want to
• 43:29
  get into one of my rants that Brian was telling me.
• 43:32
  Yes, I recorded the media and then listen to yourself later
• 43:34
  and see if you can hear yourself.
• 43:35
  Yeah, yeah. But I guess people don't do.
• 43:37
  That, yeah, people don't. And if you're not trying to use
• 43:40
  sound in the way that we are as interpreters, it it really, it's
• 43:43
  hard to even like I have, I have sympathy for people.
• 43:47
  It is hard to understand those gradations, which is like, OK,
• 43:49
  it's not your job to understand what kind of sound we need, but
• 43:56
  it, it is. It is.
• 43:59
  And that's what I, at some point it's like, I know we all need,
• 44:03
  we all need work, right? And um, so I do understand that.
• 44:09
  But what I was talking like in, in a sound workshop that I, that
• 44:13
  I gave the other day with a small group of people, which was
• 44:15
  so fun and so great. There does like, we'll talk
• 44:18
  through all the pragmatics about how to get good sound, right?
• 44:21
  And there's so many different ways to approach it and it is
• 44:24
  doable. And then at a certain point, if
• 44:27
  there is a client who just absolutely refuses to work with
• 44:31
  you on what you need, the most fundamental thing that you need
• 44:34
  is an interpreter. There comes a point where you're
• 44:37
  you're going to need to to fire that client, you know?
• 44:42
  You can't work with them. Yeah, it happens.
• 44:46
  I think I've had one client who really just I, you know, and it
• 44:55
  and it comes down to like they were just such poor planners on
• 44:59
  all fronts and just totally unwilling to even accept like to
• 45:03
  give me the the minimum bit of in to even send people at no
• 45:08
  cost microphones. And that when this happens
• 45:12
  repeatedly, not just like, oh, we plan bad and I'm sorry.
• 45:14
  And you know, when that happens repeatedly, it's like, OK, like,
• 45:19
  I, I don't know, I compare it to like, I don't know, like sending
• 45:25
  a surgeon in with a butter knife.
• 45:27
  It's like, can it be done? I mean, I guess technically, but
• 45:32
  like. You know, I mean, we don't want
• 45:34
  to be that patient. Yeah.
• 45:38
  Like like, yeah, I think I just some sort of analogy to make the
• 45:43
  point that like you're, you're really you're really doing us a
• 45:47
  disservice. If you if you like this is we're
• 45:50
  not, you know, this is something that we need and we're going to
• 45:52
  make it easy for you. And so if there's really a
• 45:54
  client who who can't, um, like I understand, right, Yeah.
• 46:02
  Yeah, I have a couple of difficult clients, maybe not to
• 46:06
  that point, but like to like that.
• 46:08
  Yeah, you tell them over and over this is what I need in
• 46:11
  order for this to happen and they still don't do it.
• 46:14
  Yeah, it's they're, those are the clients that take most of
• 46:17
  your time too. So it's um, yeah, there comes a
• 46:22
  point where you got to say like, that's.
• 46:23
  And they may be the ones. Also the they may be the first
• 46:27
  one complaining too. Like sometimes.
• 46:30
  Why doesn't it work? The more difficult they are, the
• 46:33
  more they complain and the later they pay.
• 46:36
  You know, there's a, there's a whole goes into the same
• 46:40
  category I think sometimes. So.
• 46:44
  Sorry, go ahead. No.
• 46:48
  So you have a question, I have a question that I have a follow up
• 46:51
  question, but my my, my first my question is, so you, you train
• 46:56
  the interpreters as well in terms of what they need for
• 46:59
  tech, right? Yeah, we sometimes do tech
• 47:02
  training. I also, um, I've done some like
• 47:05
  English retour work with interpreters, but we always,
• 47:09
  inevitably, I always try to get a tech moment in there.
• 47:14
  So yeah, I'll, I'll stop there before I before I expand because
• 47:20
  there might be a nice follow up question.
• 47:21
  Because my follow up question is, say you're an interpreter
• 47:25
  and you have an unlimited budget to be able to get whatever tech
• 47:28
  you wanted to be able to make yourself the best sound.
• 47:31
  What would you recommend? An Ethernet connection.
• 47:37
  Ah yeah, that's a good one. Um.
• 47:43
  I thought it worked. I'm looking at like a.
• 47:45
  Z, I'll give you the real answer.
• 47:47
  I was just trying to surprise you a little bit with my answer
• 47:50
  that, you know, I, I, you know, before people go and spend a
• 47:53
  bunch of money on equipment and then, you know, they're working
• 47:56
  on Wi-Fi. I'm just kind of like.
• 47:59
  That's the purpose. Yeah, let's put the and I know a
• 48:03
  lot of times in a lot of places there is Wi-Fi that works
• 48:06
  perfectly seamlessly, which is why people are like, oh, why do
• 48:08
  I have to plug in an Ethernet cable?
• 48:10
  But I really do feel like. Until it.
• 48:13
  Doesn't. It doesn't, yeah.
• 48:16
  It's just one of those things that's like a do a due diligence
• 48:20
  with an unlimited budget. I mean, there's still going to
• 48:24
  be preferences, but in, in my experience, by and large, there
• 48:28
  are exceptions. There are headsets with decent
• 48:30
  microphones, but you really have to look for them.
• 48:34
  Headsets are really nice for interpreters because the mic is
• 48:38
  always positioned in the right place.
• 48:39
  So if you tend to move a lot, you know it is really nice to
• 48:42
  have a headset, even if the sound isn't as good as what it
• 48:46
  would be with most standalone microphones, right?
• 48:51
  What are you using right now? This is, and it's funny, you
• 48:54
  know, like I haven't. Got a headset for those who are
• 48:57
  just listening on the on the audio version you have a boom
• 49:04
  boom stick with a microphone and you also have a headset to
• 49:08
  listen to us right now. So it can you describe what both
• 49:11
  of them what you have right now? Yeah, so I I do a lot of remote
• 49:16
  work either in the booth or I'm listening to speaker sound,
• 49:21
  interpreter sound and trying to dial it in.
• 49:23
  So I need to be able to hear sound well, right, just like
• 49:26
  interpreters do. I also want to model really good
• 49:29
  sound. And I'll just slide this in
• 49:31
  right now that it is one of the things that drives me crazy is
• 49:35
  when interpreters themselves, who I work so hard to get good
• 49:39
  sound for, and I put so much skin in that game.
• 49:42
  And then when interpreters themselves don't have the proper
• 49:45
  equipment, I lose my, my temper, which looks, I mean with me it
• 49:49
  looks like, I don't know, like a frown or something.
• 49:52
  But imagine you're losing. Your temper.
• 49:54
  I internally lose my temper, you know, So yeah, that's my message
• 50:01
  to say I think most interpreters do have good sound, but
• 50:04
  interpreters like you need to be bringing the game for good
• 50:08
  sound. And I know some people only work
• 50:10
  occasionally remotely, but like if you're doing remote work,
• 50:13
  like you have to do the tool, you have to you have to invest
• 50:15
  in the tools to do remote work. And for those who are just
• 50:18
  listening for like some of my preferences that I've come to
• 50:21
  over time 1, I really, I really like the these.
• 50:27
  I think most people see these are over ear.
• 50:29
  If you're watching, you would see that these are these are
• 50:31
  over. It's a headset, which I got
• 50:32
  first, and the mic on this on the boom is OK.
• 50:36
  It's fine. It's serviceable.
• 50:37
  No one's gonna complain. It's clear, but it's not great
• 50:42
  sound by any means, which is why I have this separate mic, which
• 50:45
  is actually a fine. It's just a basic podcast, you
• 50:51
  know, diaphragm condenser microphone.
• 50:55
  And then I also have a Yeti back here, which I always had a
• 50:57
  really hard time dialing in, in the environment that I was in.
• 51:00
  And I could never really make it sound like I like.
• 51:02
  I think today I would. I feel that the Yeti is is it
• 51:05
  cat like? Although there are some settings
• 51:07
  in the back, I feel that it's very echoey.
• 51:10
  It's boomy right? It's like echoey, like sometimes
• 51:13
  it bring it brings in a lot of room noise despite you trying to
• 51:16
  bring down the game and I don't know, pad up around your.
• 51:19
  So this is a this is a simpler mic that does better for me in a
• 51:24
  non studio environment. I'm sure if you put a Yeti in a
• 51:26
  studio environment, it would sound awesome, right?
• 51:29
  But for the environment that I'm in, which is not a studio, this
• 51:32
  is this is just like the a basic condenser podcast.
• 51:39
  I love the arm. So if you get a standalone mic,
• 51:43
  like going ahead and getting an arm to go with it so that it's
• 51:47
  not in your way. There's so much that you have to
• 51:49
  be doing when you're interpreting things.
• 51:51
  You need to access buttons, you need to push things on the
• 51:54
  slide, you need to be able to see.
• 51:55
  So go ahead and get an arm so it's not in your way.
• 51:59
  You're right, when I had when I, when I used to you like when I,
• 52:02
  if I use this, this is with a how do you call this like a
• 52:06
  little stick that comes out of your your headphones?
• 52:11
  Some I used to sometimes hit it with me.
• 52:14
  Sometimes I do interpretation and I just hit it by accident.
• 52:18
  I would bump into it. So I'd rather have like like
• 52:22
  it's a standalone microphone in my case.
• 52:26
  Oh cool, I hadn't thought about that as a reason.
• 52:28
  Another reason to have a standalone microphone.
• 52:30
  Generally the sound is going to be better and then also that
• 52:33
  means I'm also I spend a lot of time in my headphones.
• 52:39
  So anyway, I really use the mic that is in on this headset, but
• 52:43
  I do love these headphones. These are open backed
• 52:46
  headphones, right And. So OK.
• 52:49
  You as well. OK, so you guys are fans.
• 52:51
  I don't know, this is a Sennheiser game one which is now
• 52:56
  epos audio. All yours.
• 52:58
  OK, cool. Brian is showing the Audio
• 53:01
  Technica AT H-R70X which is my favorite headphone.
• 53:09
  Like if you've never tried it, this is do you interpret?
• 53:11
  One, do you interpret with those and you like the open back?
• 53:15
  There are times where I'm like maybe you know, I've been using
• 53:18
  an open back. I really love it so that I can
• 53:20
  hear my voice. I still sometimes actually
• 53:22
  uncover a year for whatever reason, maybe out of habit or
• 53:26
  just to be able to hear a tiny bit more, but it is the the cool
• 53:30
  thing is I really can. Whether this is on or off, I can
• 53:33
  hear my voice at the same volume, which might be off
• 53:35
  putting to some people, but I think it's great.
• 53:39
  But in my case I find it very tiring to do this and I can
• 53:42
  just. It's just a maybe a matter of
• 53:45
  habit. It does.
• 53:46
  It can start to hurt your. Head my ear and I find it a bit,
• 53:50
  you know, I don't find it as comfortable.
• 53:52
  Yeah, I used to do it all the time when I was in the booth
• 53:55
  because you don't never knew what had said you were gonna
• 53:58
  get. And then like, yeah, it allows
• 54:00
  you to also hear your colleague, too.
• 54:02
  And yeah, with any other headphones, because most aren't
• 54:06
  open backed, yeah, definitely uncover in year, but with open
• 54:09
  backed headphones, I feel like you you can decide because you
• 54:13
  can hear yourself, which I find crucial in interpreting to be
• 54:15
  able to hear yourself. So and they're and yeah, so I
• 54:18
  would I go with like with something that you all are using
• 54:22
  like a really comfortable high quality.
• 54:26
  I think over year with an open back are more comfortable than
• 54:29
  any on ear headset, though I understand the case for on ear
• 54:32
  for wanting to hear yourself or wanting to push one back or or
• 54:35
  whatever. But yeah, I would encourage
• 54:38
  people to try and open back or a semi open back headphone that's
• 54:41
  high quality because of the I mean, the comfort is unbeatable.
• 54:47
  I don't know if you all feel like you could wear yours.
• 54:50
  Like well, this one, this model specifically is really light
• 54:55
  because it's not made here, is made of metal and has a great
• 54:59
  has a grid. And I used to have, after very
• 55:04
  long days, I used to feel that other headphones were after a
• 55:08
  while, especially the cheaper ones, squeezing my head and
• 55:12
  especially in hot summers, I would get, I would get sweaty
• 55:15
  and it would squeeze my head And it, I started to have headaches,
• 55:19
  especially in the beginning from wearing cheaper over the year's
• 55:26
  headphones. And after that I went shopping
• 55:28
  and I tried a few models. And since I found this Audio
• 55:32
  Technica I've I've recommended I know what their price either
• 55:35
  like $400.00 or something, but they're by far, at least to me,
• 55:41
  the lightest and the best headphones you could find on the
• 55:45
  market, usually when you're doing for long gigs.
• 55:50
  Great. Yeah.
• 55:51
  So everyone try your open back your simulator.
• 55:53
  Not sponsored, we're not. Sponsored no, not at all.
• 55:56
  We just I just want people to be comfortable for RSI.
• 55:58
  I think that's another reason, you know, people are like, oh,
• 56:00
  there are so many people who have kind of because they
• 56:03
  haven't been properly taken care of in the RSI setting.
• 56:06
  They're just like, I hate Rs. I never want to do RSI, which is
• 56:10
  fine, that's fine, more work for me.
• 56:12
  But I I also just feel like they haven't, they haven't gotten,
• 56:17
  they haven't been properly, they haven't set themselves up
• 56:19
  properly and they haven't been set up for success by the people
• 56:24
  who hired them. Yeah.
• 56:27
  But do you know what the there? I think that there was a shift.
• 56:33
  The interpreters used to be in the booth and everything was
• 56:37
  taken care of. And depending on the agency or
• 56:41
  the tech company that you're dealing with, it was to a
• 56:45
  certain degree more or less comfortable.
• 56:47
  But now it is our responsibility to make sure that we have great
• 56:50
  sound, that we have the right headset, that we have the most
• 56:53
  comfortable chair that we can have like a desk that come comes
• 56:58
  up and down. If you're tired, you can just
• 57:00
  get up and keep interpreting. And, and I think that it's our
• 57:05
  responsibility now to do that. And it is on our own side.
• 57:09
  It's one of the. Yeah, The only thing missing for
• 57:13
  me, I mean, I love my studio. I have the most comfortable
• 57:17
  place of work I could make. Like I've invested thousands of
• 57:23
  dollars into this place, not only because I've got a podcast,
• 57:27
  but way before because I I want to be comfortable.
• 57:30
  The only thing that I miss is the connection.
• 57:35
  Meeting people for real. Yeah, but if it.
• 57:37
  Wasn't for meeting people for real every every other variable
• 57:42
  can be upgraded by having your own studio at.
• 57:45
  Home. That's the amazing part you get
• 57:48
  like, I mean, am I a control freak?
• 57:52
  Maybe. We share that.
• 57:56
  But that's the cool thing. Like you can, you're not at the,
• 57:59
  you're not at the whim of whatever, whatever booth they
• 58:03
  hired for you. Um, you know, you get to set it
• 58:07
  up how you want to set it up. And what I want to say about
• 58:10
  other people's sound is it's a lot of work.
• 58:15
  It's a lot of work to get good sound for remote.
• 58:18
  And there have been times where I've tried to to play that role
• 58:21
  like be the tech and the event organizer and also be in the
• 58:25
  booth. That is very difficult because
• 58:29
  they require kind of deploying different skill sets all at the
• 58:33
  same time. And I don't know.
• 58:38
  And I'm also very demanding with myself in the booth.
• 58:40
  And so they're kind of like to to do what you need to be doing
• 58:44
  in the booth. You can't be distracted by
• 58:47
  everything else that's happening outside of the booth and around
• 58:51
  the booth and with sound. So I would say, yeah, I don't
• 58:55
  want to put it on on interpreters, individual
• 58:57
  interpreters to get good sound for themselves like to to get
• 59:02
  that should be someone else's responsibility.
• 59:07
  You need to be educated to help make that happen, right.
• 59:11
  But I think people who are sitting on the other side of
• 59:13
  RSI, it's the same thing I would tell to clients like there are
• 59:16
  as an interpreter, there are so many advantages for me as a
• 59:20
  remote interpreter, like I don't have to go find parking.
• 59:23
  I don't have to fight two hours of Guatemala traffic.
• 59:26
  I get to have hotel food. Yeah.
• 59:30
  I get to go to my kitchen and have snacks in the 10 minute
• 59:32
  coffee break, right? I can at lunch, run down to the
• 59:37
  gym. I mean, there's so many ways
• 59:38
  that I can keep myself well and so many advantages I have to
• 59:44
  working remotely, but it comes with responsibilities, right?
• 59:47
  And so I do. I do think I understand that not
• 59:50
  everyone has disposable income to spend thousands of dollars on
• 59:53
  their setup, but you can spend, you know, what you might earn in
• 59:58
  a day in one job at a minimum on a setup.
• 1:00:03
  And I really think I understand if you really like if.
• 1:00:06
  You want to successful business, you have to invest.
• 1:00:09
  Yeah. That's something.
• 1:00:10
  It's not an expense, it's an investment.
• 1:00:14
  It's not type of work, yeah. It's not a toy, it's, it's for
• 1:00:18
  professional reasons and you want the best.
• 1:00:22
  And then the client and everyone who you, who you get to work
• 1:00:26
  with will notice that this interpreter always has a higher
• 1:00:30
  standard and it shows and it sounds.
• 1:00:33
  And if you're, if you've invested a lot in all of that,
• 1:00:37
  you've probably also invested a lot in the quality of your
• 1:00:40
  interpretation. Because I haven't met an
• 1:00:42
  interpreter who invested a lot in his setting who's that
• 1:00:45
  happens to be also a terrible interpreter.
• 1:00:47
  You know, kind of. Yeah, it kind of fits, right.
• 1:00:51
  So. Yeah, so that's what for those
• 1:00:54
  listening, I would sum up by saying like if you want to do
• 1:00:56
  remote work, go ahead and get, unless you really like a find a
• 1:01:00
  like a headset. If you really like headsets and
• 1:01:04
  you like how the mic sits at the right place always and you don't
• 1:01:07
  want to fool with a separate mic, I get it.
• 1:01:10
  Try to find one with a really good mic.
• 1:01:12
  Listen to it, know it, make sure it sounds good.
• 1:01:15
  Does it sound you would want to work from?
• 1:01:16
  Is it sound that you would want to listen to all day?
• 1:01:19
  Right? And if that passes the test, go
• 1:01:21
  for it. For the vast majority, it's
• 1:01:24
  going to be easier. You're going to sound better
• 1:01:25
  with a standalone mic. You're going to be able to then
• 1:01:28
  not be because maybe if you find one with a good mic on a
• 1:01:32
  headset, like maybe it's not very comfortable, right?
• 1:01:35
  Or maybe the sound quality of what's coming into your ears
• 1:01:38
  isn't that great. So when you separate the two,
• 1:01:40
  you can really optimize the two, I guess is what I'm saying.
• 1:01:43
  And then from there to do remote work.
• 1:01:45
  I'm not saying anything you all don't know, but like for anyone
• 1:01:48
  who happens to be listening like you need a second screen, like
• 1:01:53
  you need real estate like there are like and connect to you.
• 1:01:58
  I mean this is no one wants to do it anymore.
• 1:02:00
  But as a person who hires interpreters like I really wish
• 1:02:03
  people would use video back channels and not just be
• 1:02:07
  switching on WhatsApp. As someone who texts for
• 1:02:09
  interpreters, as someone who's been a remote interpreter, like
• 1:02:14
  be with your Booth mate, you can support each other much better.
• 1:02:17
  The handoffs are cleaner. You're cutting down on this
• 1:02:20
  sense of isolation that is one of the highest risks of doing
• 1:02:23
  remote work. I mean, there's just, and to do
• 1:02:27
  that, you need a second screen to do it comfortably.
• 1:02:29
  And then from there, from a printer, like go ahead and get
• 1:02:33
  yourself a printer. You have three screens.
• 1:02:35
  I know I often have 3. Screens open my laptop screen
• 1:02:38
  and I have like a 47 inch and a 42 inch here, so I look like
• 1:02:45
  NASA here. It's nice.
• 1:02:48
  It's so nice to. Be comfortable just said you
• 1:02:52
  just said that you wish people had a video feed to do the
• 1:02:58
  microphones to do the back channel thing.
• 1:03:01
  To be honest, in my case, I, I find that a lot of I had to cut
• 1:03:07
  lots of distractions over time. Like I feel that if I'm
• 1:03:12
  interpreting and it's a, it's something that you know, some
• 1:03:16
  depending on the theme. Sometimes you're more familiar
• 1:03:18
  than you. Maybe you can spare some brain
• 1:03:20
  energy on other things, but sometimes you're so focused
• 1:03:25
  because of the difficulty of the speaker or with the theme or
• 1:03:28
  whatever reason that I wouldn't, I would find it maybe
• 1:03:32
  distracting to have, Oh, I have to take care of that video feed.
• 1:03:37
  Then when we agreed, for instance, now the zoo passing
• 1:03:40
  the microphone on Zoom is basically I'm watching if have
• 1:03:44
  you turned off your microphone? You've turned it off.
• 1:03:46
  OK, I know I can go now. Like I think that's the that's
• 1:03:51
  nobody really had a big meeting to agree on this, but this is
• 1:03:56
  the way we all do it now. Do the switch now, right?
• 1:03:59
  Two minutes, watch ready, watching your microphone.
• 1:04:02
  And then I don't even need to go OK, the mics off.
• 1:04:06
  I know I can go in. So I found that it uses less
• 1:04:11
  brain power and it helps me focus more on what I'm doing
• 1:04:15
  performing. Personally, I would be reluctant
• 1:04:17
  to be honest with you. I understand the isolation talk
• 1:04:20
  before, I talk after. Sometimes I do a little video
• 1:04:22
  chat just to be nice, but I'm I wouldn't want it necessarily
• 1:04:27
  during the interpretation because I would feel it's one
• 1:04:29
  more distraction. I, I love that you shared that
• 1:04:33
  because I'm, I am, I'm I'm trying to keep under.
• 1:04:35
  I mean, a lot of people don't use video back channels because
• 1:04:39
  they don't understand they can be set up on the same device.
• 1:04:42
  And so they're using two separate devices and so then
• 1:04:44
  they're managing 2 separate like headphones basically, or they're
• 1:04:50
  talking into a speakerphone often on 2 devices, then one of
• 1:04:55
  your devices on Wi-Fi. So it's not as stable as your
• 1:04:57
  wired device. So like, and many people don't
• 1:05:01
  have external monitors. And so they're like, how do I
• 1:05:03
  fit all this on my screen? Like a video back channel with
• 1:05:05
  my, you know, so I am always trying to figure out why when we
• 1:05:10
  started so strong with video back channels to recreate the
• 1:05:13
  booth experience, Why, why now almost it seems like unanimously
• 1:05:18
  across the board, no one wants to do it anymore.
• 1:05:22
  So that's very helpful that it's like a distraction, uh, thing.
• 1:05:27
  I I think, I think The thing is, is like if you're not connected
• 1:05:32
  via a, a good video audio back channel, like how are you?
• 1:05:39
  I don't know. I was and maybe I'm an idealist.
• 1:05:41
  I was trained in teamwork and I bought it, man, I bought it.
• 1:05:44
  I bought with the professor said of like no, like take your
• 1:05:48
  breaks when you need them, but like you're there to listen to
• 1:05:50
  support your booth mate to come. And but I find it was like a
• 1:05:54
  bucket of cold water going out in the field and realizing like
• 1:05:57
  barely anyone does that. Some people hate that, right?
• 1:06:04
  Yeah, so, but I I still believe in it.
• 1:06:06
  I'm like, here I am. I still believe in it.
• 1:06:08
  And I wanna I wanna be able to work with.
• 1:06:10
  My teammates to someone and getting a notification while
• 1:06:14
  you're interpreting. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:06:16
  For instance, if I'm, if I'm interpreting and sometimes I've
• 1:06:22
  got I've got my Apple Watch right and I forgot to put it on
• 1:06:25
  Do not Disturb mode. And then suddenly I'm focusing
• 1:06:28
  on something I'm interpreting, and then I'm like, what's that?
• 1:06:32
  Yeah, no good. And then?
• 1:06:33
  There's a term, Oh, I missed it by a degree.
• 1:06:36
  OK, like like, oh, there's a there was one-on-one more like
• 1:06:40
  I'm like. An acronym or whatever.
• 1:06:42
  Exactly like I've I've I was able, or maybe I was gonna say
• 1:06:46
  it later. I was gonna listen to it.
• 1:06:47
  I'm so, you know, like there, there are so many ways, but then
• 1:06:50
  suddenly some people are just writing them like, and I'm not
• 1:06:53
  I'm sorry. I'm like, shut up.
• 1:06:54
  I don't want to. Hear you.
• 1:06:57
  After, tell me after, maybe during the during the break,
• 1:07:00
  tell me next time it's that and I'll be thankful.
• 1:07:02
  If you think tell me after, I'll be thankful because I won't
• 1:07:05
  repeat the same mistake. I don't repeat the same mistake
• 1:07:07
  twice, but during my interpretation, it's sacred time
• 1:07:11
  for me. Like, I get it.
• 1:07:13
  I don't disturb me as soon as I say that.
• 1:07:16
  I also have a hard time sometimes making use of support
• 1:07:20
  in the moment, but I have I have been able to.
• 1:07:23
  And that kind of sort of like intimate collaboration and
• 1:07:26
  timing is impossible without it. Like, you know, you can't do it
• 1:07:29
  without a video channel. I mean, like you can barely do
• 1:07:32
  it in the booth and it requires like a delicate dance when
• 1:07:35
  you're on site, right? Or clear communication about
• 1:07:38
  what's helpful to people and what's not ahead of time.
• 1:07:42
  But if people are are not using video back channels, no, it's
• 1:07:46
  like, it's like impossible. You you can't.
• 1:07:49
  So yeah, you have to know how to properly deploy a video back
• 1:07:54
  channel so that it's not a distraction.
• 1:07:56
  And so that is helpful. But I totally understand that
• 1:08:00
  some people are just like, Nope, I can't do this.
• 1:08:02
  Puts me over the top and I get that too.
• 1:08:06
  Yeah. I mean, it's almost like trying
• 1:08:09
  to find a replacement for when you were always in the booth
• 1:08:11
  because when you're in the booth, like you do have that
• 1:08:14
  visual contact with your partner.
• 1:08:17
  So in in a way, like trying to recreate that is, is something
• 1:08:20
  to be like a great aspiration to have.
• 1:08:24
  But at the same time, when we were looking at our partners
• 1:08:27
  that we always had like a notepad between the two of us so
• 1:08:30
  that if we didn't know a term, we could write it down for our
• 1:08:33
  partner. And then when they had a minute,
• 1:08:35
  they can go and look and say, oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:37
  OK. The, you know, the acronym for
• 1:08:39
  AF is FAA or something like that.
• 1:08:42
  So they would be able to see that on their own time later or
• 1:08:46
  you know, during their interpretation, whatever fit at
• 1:08:50
  the time. But I think imposing yourself
• 1:08:52
  and the video like now that everything's remote is a bit
• 1:08:55
  different. Um, it does.
• 1:08:58
  It's it doesn't have the same fiber, the same flow is when
• 1:09:03
  we're all in person. But it hasn't, which is why
• 1:09:07
  they're not doing it. But for me it does.
• 1:09:09
  Yeah. Well, I would have been able.
• 1:09:11
  To transition, when there's a transition in technology, we
• 1:09:14
  always try to hold to the previous.
• 1:09:17
  Way doing things. No, it's true.
• 1:09:20
  It's true. For instance, when, when they
• 1:09:22
  were the first look, when the apps first came, the first
• 1:09:26
  remember like 15, like 15 years ago when they first apps came
• 1:09:30
  and then the books like, or we when we started reading books on
• 1:09:34
  our phones or everything. Then they had, they made an
• 1:09:37
  animation to show as if you're flipping the page to give the
• 1:09:41
  illusion of flipping the page. And there was nothing sillier
• 1:09:45
  than that. I mean, they, I think that if
• 1:09:46
  you turn it on somewhere in the settings, you can still do it,
• 1:09:49
  but now you just flip it and you don't even think about it.
• 1:09:51
  Why did they do that? They wanted to create a
• 1:09:54
  transition. A lot of people are using books.
• 1:09:56
  They're used to flip pages. So let's recreate the idea of
• 1:10:00
  flipping a page on a device that has no pages at all.
• 1:10:03
  And in the. End.
• 1:10:05
  Yeah. So and I think that we tend to
• 1:10:09
  do that naturally when there's a transition.
• 1:10:12
  I think that there's all the good of the in the booth with
• 1:10:17
  someone else. That's one thing there.
• 1:10:20
  There has to be a different way of doing things that is not
• 1:10:24
  necessarily attached to the old way of doing.
• 1:10:26
  Things right? Because it's it's just a new way
• 1:10:29
  of doing things. And when we move on to the next
• 1:10:31
  one and we all have goggles to do the interpretation, maybe
• 1:10:35
  we'll say, you know what, I'm having goggles.
• 1:10:37
  I see everyone with the 3D characters, but how do I see if
• 1:10:41
  someone had turned off the mic? I don't know.
• 1:10:43
  We'll, we'll try, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:10:45
  It's, but we always tend to act like this rather than accepting
• 1:10:49
  this new reality. We tend to try to, to keep a bit
• 1:10:53
  of what happened in the past or in another, like a, in a, in
• 1:10:57
  like in a parallel setting and try to bring it there.
• 1:11:01
  And I think that we should just accept it for what it is, with
• 1:11:04
  the pros and cons. Yeah, whoever gets motion
• 1:11:09
  sickness, let's not go for the goggles.
• 1:11:12
  Let's not go for the goggles. Yeah, I remember when the when
• 1:11:15
  the multi channel platforms were first and just, you know, being
• 1:11:18
  in beta testing with people and just like listening to other
• 1:11:21
  interpreters and just like the obsession with with making the
• 1:11:24
  whole controls on the platform look exactly like an analog
• 1:11:27
  console, right. And have the exact same
• 1:11:30
  functionalities and be laid out the same way and be able to
• 1:11:35
  tweak it the exact same way. And yeah, I think what you're
• 1:11:39
  saying really, really applies to that.
• 1:11:41
  And it's OK. Like I accept when people don't
• 1:11:44
  want to do a video back channel because like in the end, like we
• 1:11:47
  all have to work how we want to work.
• 1:11:49
  But I do want to be the voice of like, once you learn how to set
• 1:11:53
  up a video back channel, it is really nice to be in the booth
• 1:11:56
  with someone. And that's the, that's the
• 1:11:58
  sensation that it creates. And there's no, there's no
• 1:12:01
  buzzing on that, you know, like it's all in platform.
• 1:12:04
  You have your browser, you have your chat where you have, you
• 1:12:07
  know your list of terms. But then at the break you can
• 1:12:09
  look back and see what was, you know, what your partner put down
• 1:12:13
  for you. You can communicate easily there
• 1:12:16
  and it's all you know in the same window.
• 1:12:19
  They can see you. They can see that when you're
• 1:12:22
  there, when you're not there and you get to be together a little
• 1:12:27
  bit more and make those handoffs.
• 1:12:29
  I mean, I get that you can when the microphone goes off in Zoom,
• 1:12:32
  you can turn on your mic. But you don't know, especially
• 1:12:35
  with the way the feature is built like you, you have to
• 1:12:39
  change your outgoing channel to be able to listen to them on
• 1:12:42
  platform and then you would have to change it back real quickly
• 1:12:46
  right before you take the mic. So it's like it's a lot of
• 1:12:49
  mechanization and and you really it is very difficult to know
• 1:12:52
  exactly where your partner ended.
• 1:12:54
  So yeah, if we're I do have one more question because time is of
• 1:12:58
  the essence and we're clearly running out of it.
• 1:13:01
  But I do have a question about acoustic shock because the
• 1:13:05
  Canadian federal government interpreters have been on the
• 1:13:07
  news talking about this and how it's a health and safety risk,
• 1:13:11
  and I'm just wondering if there's anything that
• 1:13:14
  interpreters can do to avoid or mitigate acoustic shock.
• 1:13:19
  I love this question and I am not like a, I'm not a healthcare
• 1:13:24
  provider and I am, I just want to say I'm not a sound engineer
• 1:13:28
  nor, nor a sound expert, just someone who has been in many
• 1:13:31
  different circles that's been that thinks about this, this
• 1:13:35
  problem. And what I would say is, so
• 1:13:40
  there's, there's like a acoustics shock, which when I
• 1:13:43
  hear that term, I think about like sound peaks because it's
• 1:13:46
  got the word shock in it. So it sounds like a quick direct
• 1:13:49
  hit, right? And so there are peaks that are
• 1:13:54
  really bothersome and can cause damage.
• 1:13:57
  But I think I, I think we really need to be, we need to open
• 1:14:03
  ourselves, our minds up to the fact that bat bad sound can be
• 1:14:07
  the result of many different things.
• 1:14:09
  Sound peaks being one of them, right?
• 1:14:11
  And of course, you can get a sound limiter and limit to the,
• 1:14:14
  a certain number of decibels, right?
• 1:14:16
  And a lot of platforms already have those limits built in.
• 1:14:20
  If you're using UMM, like if there's noise suppression on
• 1:14:26
  platforms, that'll help lower decibels and peaks, you know,
• 1:14:29
  that sort of thing. But also working, yeah, working
• 1:14:34
  day after day. And especially like I feel for
• 1:14:37
  the people in the government and I can't pretend to know what
• 1:14:41
  that situation is working in an institutional setting because
• 1:14:45
  you're doing more hours, right. And there's a whole, um, chain
• 1:14:50
  of custody with sound, right? And so it would be.
• 1:14:54
  Hard without. Like, so like sound flows, you
• 1:14:59
  know, it's signals that are going through many different
• 1:15:02
  points along the way originating at a microphone, right?
• 1:15:06
  And possibly if it's a hybrid event, being sent through analog
• 1:15:10
  equipment and then being converted into digital sound and
• 1:15:13
  then being passed through a remote platform and then
• 1:15:16
  possibly being converted back to analog sound and fed into a cot,
• 1:15:22
  you know, like, and fed into a console into, into and yeah.
• 1:15:28
  And I mean, like, so these are very complex chains.
• 1:15:31
  It's not as simple as like I send someone a microphone in New
• 1:15:35
  York. It's plugged up to Zoom.
• 1:15:38
  There's some certain configurations that we can go
• 1:15:41
  through and then it's in my ears, right.
• 1:15:43
  And so I think people who work in hybrid settings that those
• 1:15:47
  are very complex environments to solve.
• 1:15:50
  I think when we think about acoustic shock, what we need to
• 1:15:52
  be thinking about because it's so charged the discussion in
• 1:15:56
  many different ways, but what we need to think about is bad sound
• 1:16:01
  in general, right? Not just the peaks.
• 1:16:03
  I just want to say like I was thinking about this this morning
• 1:16:06
  that people are like, oh, I want to protect my hearing.
• 1:16:08
  So I'll get a decibel limiter and now my hearing is protected.
• 1:16:13
  And I just don't think it works like that.
• 1:16:16
  It's like exposure to like bad sound that you're trying, that
• 1:16:20
  you're intently focusing on because you're trying to work
• 1:16:23
  with it over time. That I think is is just quite
• 1:16:27
  obviously going to overtime have a detrimental impact.
• 1:16:31
  So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what you make of
• 1:16:35
  them. Unfortunately that's never
• 1:16:37
  happened to me, but from what I understand, it's kind of like a
• 1:16:40
  big BAM in your ear and it could hurt your ear drum and create
• 1:16:45
  permanent damage in your hearing.
• 1:16:47
  So yeah, I don't know if there's anything that if there's a tool
• 1:16:53
  or something that could prevent that or the I don't know if does
• 1:16:57
  it come from the original source or does it come somewhere in
• 1:17:00
  that chain or is it your equipment that?
• 1:17:04
  That's what everyone is is trying to work on.
• 1:17:06
  Like employers are trying to work on that, AIC is trying to
• 1:17:09
  work on that, individual interpreters are trying to work
• 1:17:12
  on that. And the bottom line is like one,
• 1:17:17
  when we have on, when we're working on site, it is important
• 1:17:19
  to remember when we're working on site, there usually aren't
• 1:17:22
  decibel limiters. And that's why we're all driven
• 1:17:25
  crazy by, you know, the guy, the tech who's like or the speaker
• 1:17:29
  who's like, is this working right and then banging on the
• 1:17:33
  microphone, right. So we're actually.
• 1:17:37
  Ring someone, ring the bell. In the microphone.
• 1:17:41
  Oh my God, the. Microphone.
• 1:17:43
  So we've been dealing with that for a long time, right?
• 1:17:45
  And so we do experience these peaks and these shocks and we,
• 1:17:48
  you know, and we have to pull off our headphones really fast
• 1:17:51
  and it hurts. And you're like, please don't do
• 1:17:53
  that, right? So, so that is one risk, but
• 1:17:56
  that's relatively manageable. And yes, you can buy headphones
• 1:17:58
  with a limiter in them, but just know that it will be limited to
• 1:18:01
  those decibels. So if that decibel is too low
• 1:18:04
  for you to hear in certain circumstances, you you won't be,
• 1:18:07
  won't be able to boost it up above that.
• 1:18:10
  I think the bigger risk, particularly with online sound
• 1:18:13
  is what it's coming from often is people using sub not using
• 1:18:18
  microphones. And by saying not using
• 1:18:20
  microphones, what I mean is they're using, you know, like.
• 1:18:25
  Air Pods. Air Pods, they're using sound
• 1:18:29
  that is not good, like you can't hear the microphone.
• 1:18:33
  It's built into your laptop. The microphone isn't good in the
• 1:18:35
  1st place and it's certainly not positioned correctly for us to
• 1:18:39
  get clear sound. And when you're trying to work
• 1:18:42
  with sound, you just can't hear clearly.
• 1:18:44
  Over time, it can damage your hearing.
• 1:18:46
  And I think that's what people need to be more careful of.
• 1:18:48
  And the only fix I know, a decibel limiter is not going to
• 1:18:51
  fix that. The only fix I know for that is
• 1:18:54
  to get people to use good microphones like they do on
• 1:18:59
  site. I mean, and of course there's a,
• 1:19:01
  there's bad, I mean, I don't know if anyone, there's bad
• 1:19:04
  microphones on site, right? And there's bad deployment of
• 1:19:07
  microphones where gains are too high.
• 1:19:09
  People hold it too close to their mouth.
• 1:19:11
  It's uncomfortable. The good thing is, is usually if
• 1:19:14
  you work with the tech, you can get it resolved and fixed pretty
• 1:19:16
  immediately, yeah. That was a big part of being in
• 1:19:20
  person too, because you can just tap on the window in the booth
• 1:19:23
  and the task will be like, Oh yeah, there's a problem with the
• 1:19:26
  South, let's go fix it now. Exactly.
• 1:19:29
  So that's. 1 The sound was so bad and I was like OK what am I
• 1:19:33
  going to do? So I lowered the volume, could
• 1:19:37
  hear a tiny tiny bit, turned on the zoom caption feature and I
• 1:19:42
  basically side translate it. The people have had to record
• 1:19:47
  that and that's very, I mean. Unfortunate that I had to do
• 1:19:51
  that, but I was protecting myself and still able to provide
• 1:19:57
  services. Yeah.
• 1:19:58
  I think to sum up, and it just occurred to me, Brian, and I
• 1:20:01
  love that you asked this question, the biggest thing
• 1:20:02
  people can do to avoid what some people call it like what is
• 1:20:06
  called acoustic shock, just damage to your hearing.
• 1:20:11
  Is for online events, it's an immense amount of work up front
• 1:20:15
  because you can't walk over to the person and fix it in the
• 1:20:17
  moment. So you have to do it all up
• 1:20:19
  front. That means soundtracks ahead of
• 1:20:21
  time. That means showing people if
• 1:20:23
  adjustments need to be made how they, I mean, you, you train
• 1:20:26
  people on tech, you show them where the audio settings are.
• 1:20:28
  You show them how placement affects.
• 1:20:31
  I mean, I spend all my time doing this right.
• 1:20:34
  So it's that immense amount of work up front.
• 1:20:37
  And then the other thing is really it has to come from us.
• 1:20:43
  And that's by knowing your scripts and being ready to say
• 1:20:48
  either in the moment of the sound check right before, if you
• 1:20:50
  know, if you're not, if you're event isn't particularly well
• 1:20:53
  tacked or teched at all, you have to tell people listen, like
• 1:20:59
  with the sound as it is, I know that we can hear each other like
• 1:21:02
  this, but when I'm interpreting and talking at the same time,
• 1:21:05
  I'm not going, I'm going to have to, I'm I'll be, I'll work with
• 1:21:09
  it, but it's going to be a summary, right?
• 1:21:11
  Or we're going to have to do that in consecutive or like,
• 1:21:15
  like I can't, I can't actually interpret that, you know, or if
• 1:21:19
  you don't get that opportunity, I mean, it comes from it's a,
• 1:21:22
  it's a human solution. It's not a tech solution.
• 1:21:25
  And, and the humans, which are us, we have to say like, I can't
• 1:21:29
  interpret that and we have to develop the skills.
• 1:21:32
  It's really hard in the moment where you're completely, I mean,
• 1:21:34
  that's what you were talking about.
• 1:21:35
  Like when you're in the booth, you're completely focused and
• 1:21:37
  you're not even able to extrapolate, like to come
• 1:21:40
  outside yourself and be like, oh, this sound is really bad.
• 1:21:44
  Like this might be harmful for me or I might not be doing a
• 1:21:46
  good job because of this sound. No, you're just concentrated.
• 1:21:48
  And then later you're like, why did I do such a bad job on that?
• 1:21:51
  Well, because I could barely hear.
• 1:21:52
  So it's developing kind of that skill to be like or that
• 1:21:56
  instinct or that impulse to to to say like, oh, the sound isn't
• 1:22:02
  very good. I'll return when the sound
• 1:22:05
  improves, I'll resume interpreting right.
• 1:22:07
  And that's your that should be tent on the list because all the
• 1:22:11
  other solutions have to come before that.
• 1:22:15
  And that requires client trust, client communication, client buy
• 1:22:19
  in. Or that you develop over time
• 1:22:20
  with your clients and you get to know you.
• 1:22:23
  And I think that they get to appreciate what you do for them
• 1:22:27
  because they'll still do business with you, and then they
• 1:22:31
  will move on to someone else because they know you care.
• 1:22:34
  Yeah. But I feel for the people in the
• 1:22:36
  government, in institutions, because we have a lot of agility
• 1:22:39
  in the private market and we do have some amount of say over
• 1:22:45
  what we're willing to work with and what we're willing not to in
• 1:22:48
  an institution. Like what your employer provides
• 1:22:52
  is what you get. Right.
• 1:22:54
  Yeah, and. Yeah.
• 1:22:56
  And it's very complex because sound is, is traveling usually
• 1:22:59
  through many, many different points along that chain of
• 1:23:03
  custody. And it's hard.
• 1:23:06
  It's. Hard, I mean, because yeah, I've
• 1:23:09
  worked at the Legislative Assembly and they've, there's no
• 1:23:14
  way to contact the tech people. It's we the people.
• 1:23:18
  There's some people who are full time employees at the
• 1:23:22
  Legislative Assembly and they have a boss, and then there's
• 1:23:25
  people who are techs, are AB people and they have a boss and
• 1:23:28
  they can talk amongst each other.
• 1:23:30
  But no, at no point will the interpreters talk directly to
• 1:23:34
  the technicians. So yeah, that's.
• 1:23:38
  The client. Yeah, but anyway, we could
• 1:23:42
  probably talk about this for another hour, I'm sure.
• 1:23:46
  So if you're ever available again in the near future, Laura,
• 1:23:49
  feel free to ring us up and we'll do Part 2.
• 1:23:53
  But maybe this episode should be in two parts.
• 1:23:55
  Who knows? But anyways, thank you so much
• 1:23:59
  Laura. This has been an amazing
• 1:24:01
  episode. I am really excited to publish
• 1:24:03
  this in the near future. And any parting words, Laura,
• 1:24:08
  before we we conclude. I'm just so grateful to spend
• 1:24:12
  time with you too. I do.
• 1:24:14
  I do a remote work and I feel isolated.
• 1:24:17
  So just to be able to sit with interpreters and talk, I didn't
• 1:24:22
  get to hear enough about you all.
• 1:24:24
  So I thank you for that opportunity.
• 1:24:26
  And um, I don't know, just to anyone who's listening to this
• 1:24:30
  who might be having a hard time in the interpreting field either
• 1:24:34
  for tech reasons, for interpreting reasons, for client
• 1:24:36
  reasons, for AI reasons, you know, I feel like, I feel like
• 1:24:43
  I've seen it all. And like we started, you know,
• 1:24:47
  maybe it doesn't look OK at the beginning, but somehow, like mom
• 1:24:51
  said, it all works out. It all works out.
• 1:24:55
  You're not alone. Yeah.
• 1:24:59
  Alright, alright, so much. Also, I would like to thank you
• 1:25:05
  for this very long and interesting conversation.
• 1:25:11
  I know that we will bring you again for a future episode.
• 1:25:16
  We'll take the time to digest this one.
• 1:25:18
  And yeah, absolutely, it was very, very interesting.
• 1:25:22
  And I would love to know more about what amalla also next
• 1:25:25
  time. OK.
• 1:25:26
  We'll do an in person, yes, one person episode in Guatemala.
• 1:25:32
  I've. Always wanted to go to Guatemala
• 1:25:33
  actually. OK I was watching the mysterious
• 1:25:36
  cities of Gold when I was a child.
• 1:25:39
  I don't know if you ever seen that anime cartoon it was anyway
• 1:25:44
  so memory. But long Long story short I
• 1:25:48
  always wanted to. My mom's from Salvador so really
• 1:25:53
  haven't been in 40 years about so I would love to go back and
• 1:25:57
  also travel to other places in Central America.
• 1:25:59
  So who knows, I might end up in Guatemala.
• 1:26:02
  OK, I expect a phone call. Absolutely.
• 1:26:06
  Well, e-mail first. Alright, so everyone like share,
• 1:26:11
  subscribe on every platform. We're there on Spotify, on
• 1:26:17
  YouTube, and we'll meet each other again for another episode.
• 1:26:22
  All right, we'll see you next time.
• 1:26:24
  Take care. Take care.