Mentoring
Guest: Michael Jay Hartman
This past fall, Michael Hartman asked me to “mentor” him as part of an approved Independent Study Project for RID credits/CEUs. (RID stands for the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. the national professional organization and one of two certifying bodies for interpreters (the other is now the NAD -National Association of the Deaf).
This month I invited Michael to be my “guest columnist”, to share his learning experience.
Michael Hartman has been interpreting in Jewish religious and cultural settings for over twenty-five years. He received his interpreting training at California State University, Northridge and was a regular interpreter at Temple Beth Solomon for the Deaf in Arleta, Califomia. Since arriving in Washington, DC in 1976, he has been interpreting at various events and programs in the Jewish community and for religious services at many synagogues in the metropolitan area and beyond. He also has been a consultant and served on a number of advisory committees for Washington area Jewish community service agencies. Michael’s full time job is as the Disability Program Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The idea sparked a very old memory, yet seemed so fresh and new. I remembered back to the time that I was just beginning in my career, and I was young and excited, and raw in my enthusiasm for learning. As I look back now, I realize that those were the times I learned and grew the most. I believe it has been twenty-five years at least since I last had the opportunity, and the good sense, to work with someone I could call my mentor. That changed early this year when I reconnected with Lore Lyon Rosenthal. Lore became my mentor and the experience has been nothing short of overwhelming.
The old memory the idea sparked was when I was a student at California State University, Northridge, [CSUN] and I first encountered people who were Deaf. I was fascinated by American Sign Language [ASL], and thought it beautiful and graceful in the hands of experts. Of course it seemed there were experts everywhere at CSUN in the early seventies when I was first exposed to ASL. I had the opportunity to learn from wonderful interpreters and people who are deaf. Their names could be found in the Who’s Who and Almanac of the Deaf and Interpreting Worlds, and I learned greatly from them.
Mentoring was a very important part of my early interpreting education. When I was fortunate enough to work directly with a more experienced interpreter, I would take the opportunity to ask many questions. Sometimes, we would work together over a sustained period of time, and then we would evolve into a mentoring relationship. For my religious interpreting, I was fortunate to be mentored by a wonderful interpreter by the name of Rose Zucker.
This happened so long ago, that I forgot about the incredible growth that I experienced when I worked with a mentor.
So, when early this year, I had the opportunity to again be mentored in Jewish religious and cultural settings, I jumped at the chance. Now to be honest, I had gained some degree of notoriety in the field, yet I knew I could do a better job. I rarely did any preparatory work other than getting the Torah reading for the week and enlarging it for easier reading while I was interpreting. I also tried to get English translations for everything that was spoken in Hebrew, although that was not always successful.
One of the first things I learned was that what I did, while important, was simply not enough to do a competent job in that setting. I know now, that I was missing many opportunities to learn and evolve into a better interpreter.
A note might be appropriate at this juncture. I will be using the generic term, “sign language” instead of “American Sign Language” or “ASL”. The reason for this is because I feel that my production of “sign language,” while exhibiting an ASL “flavors is not ASL, in fact. So, for that reason, I do not feel comfortable in giving the impression that my interpreting is taking thoughts and ideas from one language to another language.
My mentor and I spent several sessions discussing prayers and their meanings, discussed signs and their meanings and tried to put together ways of signing passages from several different siddurim [prayer books].
One of the first things I did was to build an interpreting notebook that contained photocopies of the English translations of key prayers from siddurim used in conservative and reform services. To those, I added pieces from my mentor’s vast collection of materials that she had accumulated over twenty years of interpreting in Jewish settings. These pages included some of her own Hebrew to ASL Gloss/Translations. The notebook was a collaborative effort, as I was able to provide a new perspective, a fresh look, and a critical eye when going over translations and collections of songs, prayers, and readings.
My interpreting notebook is very important to me. While I was putting it together, I learned that there are definite differences between morning, afternoon, and evening prayers, Sabbath, holiday, and weekday prayers, and distinguish between reform, conservative, orthodox, and reconstructionist practices and traditions.
I now use that notebook extensively after meeting with the rabbi or cantor before each assignment, either in person or over the phone. I prefer to meet in person, but realize that they have busy schedules. At any rate, I now meet with the leaders of the service to discuss the order and special additions to the service.
My mentor has observed me interpreting, and has given me extensive feedback and suggestions on how to improve my choice of signs, my delivery, and my interpretation of the service. She also helped me review some of my old, and develop some new, translations of segments of the service. I found this to be most useful in terms of my professional growth, and as often happens in these situations, in her professional growth as well.
I think that this relationship has been mutually beneficial to my mentor and me. I was able to share some of my abilities with my mentor; while at the same time received the benefits of her skill, knowledge, and experience. To my way of thinking, a mentorship should help both individuals, albeit in different areas, become more skilled and better prepared to work.
As I said, the idea of having a mentor evoked wonderful memories of my early career. More importantly, though, by working with a mentor, I have had the opportunity to learn new skills that I will use during the rest of my career.
