Hello, welcome!
So I know I kind of mentioned this in the past, reasons you should become a
VRS interpreter, but I kind of wanted to talk about
the reasons you should NOT become a VRS interpreter.
So right now a lot of people are asking you know should I become a VRS interpreter.
I think I might be a good fit... what kind of qualifications do you need?
So I'm gonna talk about the reasons you should not.
Number one...
if you don't have enough experience.
Yeah, VRS is hard. It is really hard.
You could be interpreting anything... I mean anything.
So if you don't have enough experience,
sometimes that can be pretty difficult to be able to just
adapt to whatever comes up on your screen.
You have to be able to trust your instincts. You have to be able to,
you know, figure out things on fly. Be almost creative in a way.
Not creative, like make it up, but you have to be able to figure it out
and if you don't have the experience that might not be the best fit for you.
Second,
you're not a quick signer.
VRS is not for slow people.
Now, I don't know if that's like a good way to describe it,
but you do have to be quick. Especially nowadays...
I don't know all VRS companies, but a lot of companies now don't announce.
So when somebody comes up, they call, you connect, and say "oh hi you know...."
and you're not announcing that you're a sign language interpreter.
So if you're hesitating, taking a long time with oh... oh. Someone's gonna be like "hello? hello?",
because they don't hear anything. There's gonna be like a delay.
They think it sounds funny. So oftentimes you need to be able to interpret properly and very quickly.
Sometimes you might have what's called a VCO call, called voice carry over.
So that means that the Deaf consumer speaks for themselves
and then you're just signing what the hearing consumer says.
That's even more challenging because you have to be really quick.
That's even harder and the reason why is the Deaf person is speaking
in you know their normal cadence. They don't announce again,
and so you need to be very, very quick.
If you're not able to sign quickly in that sense,
like you're not able to process it quickly, don't do VRS.
Another reason...
you are not willing to curse, say specific things... I don't know...
you know say any specific words.
Um you know maybe it's for religious reasons. Maybe you're just uncomfortable.
You don't want to be cursing. You don't want to be saying
uh, you know maybe
sexual things, something like that.
Whatever the reason, do not become a VRS interpreter.
You are gonna have to say curse words. You will have to.
You're probably gonna have to say things... maybe it's gonna be sexual, something uncomfortable.
You know, strong language, something against your beliefs.
Um you know, me as an LGBTQIA+ person, sometimes
I've had to say things like "oh gay people are awful. They're going to hell... blah blah."
Which I do not believe. But I have to convey that with the callers intent,
their tone, their everything, and make it sound like I mean it
and that's uncomfortable you know.
Maybe sometimes you have to curse or just say things that would be really jarring for me.
But you got to do it. You cannot, you know, just not say that.
So if you're not able to do that, don't become a VRS interpreter.
If you don't have good control of showing your emotions.
So for example, like I recently mentioned,
if you're not willing to curse or do whatever.
If you easily show something like...
oh i don't like that or whoa that's weird or whatever you know.
If you're not able to keep your poker face so to speak, do not do VRS.
You're gonna have many different things that come up
and you know for example maybe they're cursing. If you're like... ahhh.
you're not really showing their intention, it's just not gonna work.
So definitely don't do it.
Okay, last thing I would say is if
you want that sort of relationship with your client.
Maybe you like in person because you like to talk with them
and you know kind of see what's going on, get to know each other.
Maybe see them on an ongoing assignment, if that's the sort of thing that you like,
VRS might not be for you. Now, depending on the company,
you know you might have repeat clients um on VRS. You might know each other... hey hi...
but you know a lot of times you get random people. You don't know them.
You're not setting any sort of relationship other than people just
come up on your screen and you process. So again, there's nothing...
you know I'm not saying anything against the Deaf client. That's just part of the job.
That's just your a call and you're just the interpreter.
So hopefully that doesn't bother you much.
So yeah, if you... so if you are considering becoming a VRS interpreter,
think about these different things and your options.
Am I able to do all of that? Does it bother me? If not, go ahead and try.
I think right now there's so many people that are using
zoom and a lot of different online services.
So meaning VRS is booming right now because
so many people are not able to see each other in person.
So they don't have an in-person interpreter.
So there's probably a lot of availability of work right now in VRS
if you're watching this, as of when I'm making the video.
Okay, hopefully you thought this has been helpful. If you're considering...
maybe if you're an ITP student or you've just never done VRS are you're considering it.
Let me know if you have any other questions or any comments.
Leave them down below and I'll respond.
Thanks for watching and see you in the next one. Bye!