I'm so grateful for my good friend, and study partner, Erin, who has helped keep me accountable to study weekly for the National Interpreter Certification for American Sign Language (ASL) (see my older post: The NIC). Since I learned most of my sign language through immersion, and she through college, we balance each other out well, and she has been a wealth of information when learning technical terms of ASL grammar and interpreting techniques.
Many a weekday evening was spent with our textbooks and notebooks sprawled out on a table, writing down notes on ASL syntax, interpreting history, Deaf culture, models of interpreting, and/or multiple statistics. She handled my energy and spontaneity well, often re-focusing me... which says a lot.
After over 6 months of studying together, last Tuesday we both took the National Interpreter Certification test, part one ....and PASSED! Now we'll be preparing to take part two; the "Performance and Interview" section, commonly referred to as the "hands up" part of the exam. We hope to take part two in a few months, but please continue to pray as we study and practice. It is easier said than done to faithfully render a message from the spoken word to signed communication - and back again, but I am learning a lot and gaining a respect for ASL, Deaf, and sign language Interpreters along the way.
Tuesday's victory was just in time for my birthday, which was last Wednesday! God is good.