>> To become an interpreter nowadays, you do need it used
to be everything is changing because everything changes.
But, the feel of interpreting has recently gone through some changes where you do need
to have a Bachelor's to even sit for your certification exam now.
I worked in social work with deaf people for a decade before I became an interpreter
and I was like, wow, I like interpreting, I've been doing this social work stuff all this time
and that's cool, it really helped me know the language.
But, now, interpreting is really fun I like doing that, and it's kind of like I see a lot
of the same clients around and I like it.
But, I was not prepared to interpret when I came out of Pitt.
There are a lot of schools who have Interpreter Training Programs and you can go specifically
to be an interpreter and there are some states, like,
Pennsylvania is a state where you have a waiver.
You can get a waiver signed where you can practice for a few years before you go out
and take your certification exam and become certified and then go
out and interpret for your living.
I never went through an ITP Program an Interpreter Training Program,
I just went to Pitt and learned the language and I think knowing the language is so fundamental.
If you're going to interpret something, it's not like you can go and live in deaf land.
I mean, if you're taking German, you know, you take up your roots and you study in Germany
for a couple years and, oh, hey I came back and I've got my lederhosen and I know German.
But, you can't just go and live somewhere where they speak deaf all the time
but you can be right here in Pittsburgh and do it
and you can practice it with actual deaf people.
So, I think there are benefits to that, as well,
to having a foreign language in your own native country.
[ Silence ]