From Reluctant Student to Accomplished Interpreter with Maru Lozano

What happens when a childhood spent resisting a second language transforms into a compelling career? Maru Lozano, our guest for this episode, shares her fascinating journey from her upbringing in Puerto Rico to becoming a professional translator, interpreter, and coach. Raised by a US-born father and an influential grandmother who taught English, Maru’s early aversion to learning English took an unexpected turn, molding her into an accomplished interpreter. This episode highlights the twists and turns of career paths, demonstrating how seizing unforeseen opportunities can lead to rich and rewarding professional lives.

As we delve deeper into Maru’s story, we uncover the intricate differences between translation and interpreting through her experiences. From the nerve-wracking moment of her first interpreting assignment to her structured education at Nestor Wagner's School of Interpreting, Maru talks candidly about the mental rigor and practical experiences that shaped her abilities. This segment is a testament to the importance of thorough training, practical exposure, and the role of mentorship in overcoming the initial hurdles and growing into a competent interpreter, particularly in community and medical settings.

Finally, we shed light on the challenges interpreters face within medical and educational environments, and the necessity for specialized training and support systems. Maru discusses the balancing act of freelance work, the financial intricacies of being a solopreneur, and the indispensable value of mentorship and networking. Her advice for aspiring interpreters includes fostering industry-wide awareness about professional standards and actively seeking shadowing opportunities to gain real-world insights. Join us for an enlightening conversation that celebrates the noble yet demanding profession of interpreting, offering practical guidance for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Brand the Interpreter podcast. This is Mireya, your host, and I appreciate you joining me here today. You know, the other day I was thinking that these days I've been spending a lot of time training new interpreters. I've been either working with companies or organizations developing curriculum, or I've actually been providing interpreter training, and I was just thinking the direction that sometimes our career takes. Sometimes it has hints of the things that we plan for it. Sometimes they're things that we never thought about, perhaps, or we never planned, but they were opportunities that came and we took them, and so, either way, it's just interesting to know that throughout your career you're going to have these moments of change, these moments that sometimes you think have nothing to do one with the other, and yet somehow they do, especially when you see them sort of come around full circle. And I know that I'm speaking right now in abstracts, but hey, what's new with me, right? It's just interesting because you'll hear in today's episode our guest, maru Lozano, share a story about how her interpreter journey started and almost immediately stopped or ended. It almost never came to fruition and yet somehow, some way, it came around full circle again and showed up into her life and this is how she once again ended up in the interpreting profession. All that just to say that just because things don't seem to be unfolding the way you planned them or the way you thought they would unfold, doesn't mean that they're not unfolding Okay, doesn't mean that they're not unfolding okay. I thought I'd just remind you of that today. Anyway, let's dive right on in to today's episode, shall we?

Speaker 1: 2:45

Maru Lozano was born and raised in Puerto Rico and lives in Long Beach, california. As a professional translator, interpreter and coach, she has acquired decades of successful results, curating and delivering educational materials, adjusting content to community literacy and diversity needs for clients and non-profit healthcare and education sectors. Currently, she serves as Senior Communications Translation Manager at Altamed. She's passionate and engaging language oral, written and visual to bring about young women empowerment through visual coaching, speaking and painting. Recently, she trained with Dr Valerie Young, a worldwide authority on the imposter syndrome, becoming a licensed speaker associate to present Rethinking the Imposter Syndrome, a program that has been delivered to over 500,000 people in the world. So, without further ado, please welcome Maru Lozano to the show. Maru, welcome to the show. It's such a privilege and an honor to have you here today. Thank you for being here.

Speaker 2: 3:52

I'm very grateful for the invite, Mirelda.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Absolutely yes. I'd like to start just jump right into the conversation and ask you the very same question that I love, for I don't know what reason, but I do love to ask this question at the beginning of the show to every guest that has been here, and I've been told, at least through the grapevine, through feedback from the audience, that they really enjoy this question as well. So I don't think I'll ever stop asking this question, but if you would be so kind, maru, as to giving us a little bit of an insight me and the audience of who Maru is or was as a child and possibly what a fond childhood memory is, maybe where you grew up, Give us a little bit of background, sure.

Speaker 2: 4:37

I would love to share where I'm from and what memory is coming back at this time for me. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and what is present to me right now is the fact that I grew up in a kind of unusual household in Puerto Rico is not very common for bilingual households. That's more of a US, a continental US phenomenon, right. And so for me, being the daughter of a US-born father who had half Puerto Rican heritage but then half German American background, he was born and raised in Brooklyn, and so he spoke in English a lot, right when he was communicating with my mom and of course in the meantime I was just not. I could hear that as noise, I could not really make any meaning of it, but I think it definitely shaped who I became ultimately. So for me it was just a natural thing to be present to two languages, one that I did not understand at the time and one that was my first language language, of course.

Speaker 1: 6:00

So that that's what's coming up for me, mireya did you, did you end up at some point, or do you recall that your your dad in particular stressed the english language, or were you immersed in that, the learning of it and ensuring that you were picking it up in school, or how did that come to be?

Speaker 2: 6:19

Yeah, that was not just my father influencing learning, the importance of stressing the importance of learning English, but curiously, my mom's mother was a very well-known, a very famous English teacher in middle school. She was very it was just a legendary figure because she was very much a social worker kind of teacher, very involved in the well-being and the coming of age of her students, and she always stressed to me how she really wanted me to learn English and I at the time was rebelling against it.

Speaker 2: 7:01

frankly, I did not enjoy that yeah, doing what my parents are telling me to do exactly, and so the last thing that I wanted was to learn this language, and and what's really interesting to me is how, ultimately, it shaped me professionally Right.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Right, exactly. Yeah, the thing that we most resist sometimes is exactly the thing that we need to expand. Yeah, exactly. That's so funny, and then. So you ended up taking English classes in school, did she? Did? Your grandma ends up being your teacher.

Speaker 2: 7:36

She, oh no, yeah, she could tell that she would lose her patience with me, but uh, she had me uh take tutoring lessons from a time that when I was very young.

Speaker 2: 7:48

I remember uh very fondly those, those tutoring sessions, because the tutor was just so nice, you know, uh and uh, but that was not enough to learn the language. Frankly, what really got me to learn it was when I had to graduate from elementary school and then I was placed in an American middle school. And the reason why I ended up in an American middle school is because another unusual thing is that I was baptized in the Methodist church, not the Catholic, and so going with my peers to a Catholic middle school was just not a possibility for me. I was placed on a waiting list that was very long for Catholic schools, so it forced me to replace in an American middle school and then a high school, and especially in middle school, those first few months were fish out of water, completely uncomfortable, right Lost in the language. For sure that was being spoken, but just out of survival it came one day right when I connected the dots enough to go with the flow you know, and attend the school, yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Do you recall? I know that as we're growing up there's a lot of changes. Sometimes there's there's absolutely nothing in mind in terms of what we aspire to be. Sometimes it's so fantastical that we look back and think, look, I don't even know how I stem that. I think I wanted to be like She-Ra or something for the younger generation. It was like this cartoon superhero back in the end when I grew up. And then, of course, it shaped and formed as I got older and as the world hit me with the slap of reality, as I got older and as the world hit me with this type of reality. But do you recall thinking ever or at some point saying I want to be that when I grow up?

Speaker 2: 9:48

Wow, that's a really interesting question. Well, I do have early memories of teaching my younger sister, you know so. Communication was big and I also communicated through painting from a very early age.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Yeah, tell us like, how, like what kind of images would come to mind that you felt inclined to put it on paper.

Speaker 2: 10:11

You know portraits. I spent long hours on my own with art books. I could find, you know, in my mom's collection.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Yeah, so did you ever think that there could be some sort of art-like career for you? Is that what?

Speaker 2: 10:27

maybe you were aspiring. Oh, that was the thing that, on the one hand, my parents, especially my mom and my dad, you know, would definitely celebrate my art, but as a hobby, you know. When it came to the moment to really make decisions, that could, you know, establish me on a career path towards art, that's when I was told no, no, you can't make a living, mija, you know, doing art You're going to have to to, yeah, study pre-med or they want, they want, they pushed pre-med at the time that college came interesting.

Speaker 1: 11:07

What did you fast forward, end up actually majoring in in in your future?

Speaker 2: 11:13

I know, uh, I ended up majoring in Latin American studies. What was that?

Speaker 1: 11:17

interest for you. Why Latin American studies? From art to med to Latin American studies. How did that come into the picture?

Speaker 2: 11:26

Yeah, that definitely came through the fact that in one of my courses I really increasingly became fascinated by discovering Puerto Rico through its literature, through a very influential professor who became a mentor.

Speaker 1: 11:46

And.

Speaker 2: 11:46

I was just so much more drawn by literature than by sciences, and so it became clear to me that my path was not medicine, but rather something to do with language.

Speaker 1: 12:01

What were you aspiring with that major? What do you think at that point you were thinking you could do with it?

Speaker 2: 12:07

I was told, anyway, that most of the time, I was being told that only teaching really was the track right, the track right. So I, at the time, though, got an opportunity to have my first well-paid, full-time job as an editor assistant, and so that began to expose me to options outside teaching you know, perhaps editing, and of course, in my current job I do a lot of editing a lot of quality. Well, it's called quality reviews, but editing is definitely being used.

Speaker 1: 12:49

So you just started getting exposed to the different types of jobs related to very related, but that maybe not so obvious as you're taking that, that path, that studies path, right?

Speaker 2: 13:02

No, it was very organic is the word. Yeah, one thing led to another, and I've been trying before today to place the first time that I got exposed to interpreting. I had heard about interpreting at the time in college but interestingly enough it was only UN based right United Nations and so it seemed very remote and I did not really know much about it.

Speaker 1: 13:31

And at this time are you still in Puerto Rico or did you do studies?

Speaker 2: 13:35

somewhere else. I went to Princeton, and so it began there, and I would say that it didn't. The interpreting came to me organically, as something of a question. You know that because I was translating documents. I mean this is a fast forward, of course to my early jobs. Once I graduated, I went to Spain with the NYU in Madrid program and there I began hearing more about translations being one thing but interpreting being another.

Speaker 2: 14:20

And for the need to interpret, I wasn't given opportunities to actually start interpreting until I came back to the States, to the US, and there was just one moment where I was kind of thrown into it, and it was one of those things where I was given an offer. There was a need, somebody was needed to cover an assignment, and I was told oh, you'll be great at it. If you're a teacher or someone that has taught facilitated, I'm sure that you'll be able to do it. And it was brutal, it was very scary. I remember feeling like I was drowning. You know, without being in water, I felt like I was drowning. It was very challenging.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Do you remember the topic that was being discussed?

Speaker 2: 15:15

Well I was at the time. I was told to go on and take the. Actually, you're going to think this is crazy, but at the time I was told that I could pretty much go in and take an exam. This was an exam for the no less than the federal foreign interpreter, oral, and I wasn't really prepared, you know, by anyone to be told, no, you need to prepare, you need to study, and so I was. I remember that as a very painful moment, you know, very discouraging, where I all I knew was that, as I was rendering the statements, I was definitely floundering and it was just very, very traumatic.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Very traumatic. Yes, I can only imagine. I mean, I definitely have been in opportunities where I am grateful for being prepared for such encounters or being prepared for for such encounters. You know, just thinking, wow, if it hadn't been because I had training prior to being thrown into this, that I would have would have happened. You know, just just understanding how the training could apply in so many different contexts. Just knowing or thinking about you getting thrown in there and really not having the appropriate preparation, just there's so many feelings involved.

Speaker 1: 16:45

If there is any new listeners, new interpreters out there, or maybe those of you that have reached out to say I want to make a career change, this is a very pivotal moment for many bilingual individuals because there are so many feelings surrounding a moment such as that. The feeling right of thinking I thought I was fluent. You know, beginning to question one's own fluency because we we correlate fluency with the ability to interpret messages or meanings right. We make that correlation as it as does everyone else, by the way, that just the general public. And then there's the feeling of what am I doing to this person that I'm supposed to be serving?

Speaker 2: 17:30

Yeah, no, it's a very dangerous assumption to make that the fact that you're bilingual uh that you know, that you just thought of, oh, that means that that person can render that exam or that other exam, et cetera, et cetera, any certification exam without having to prepare and just based on your hours and hours of years and years of reading. That those are very different skill sets. And so it was very eye-opening. And years passed, I lost years of well, I wouldn't say lost, I just became a better translator. You know those years that I was not interpreting, I was just given more opportunities to translate.

Speaker 2: 18:18

I got increasingly better at it, but it would be years before I was actually exposed yet again to the possibility of interpreting and being told because of your background you could become an interpreter. But I began then to hear the word unique training. I went to the, I attended the. I don't remember the long name of it, but it's the Nestor Wagner-led School of Interpreting, I believe, in Santa Fe Springs. I was able to attend that for a few weeks before a full-time job came my way, but that at least began to fill in the gap, right, yeah?

Speaker 1: 19:10

there was something, there was something in the background, at least to understand the role and understand the skills that it takes, and and understand what goes on in the background too, because I think that's another misconception of the general public and many bilinguals themselves is not to recognize that there's actually a whole process going on in the background. You know in one's brain per se, right With with the information that is being, that is being heard, that is, you know, being taken in before we actually are rendering anything. And I think, for me at least, that's the part of the process that gave me like, wow, there's so much more to interpreting than just knowing two or more languages because of what's going on in the background. You know in one's, in one's brain to be able to capture. You know anyway one's brain to be able to capture Anyway. So that whole process for me was just mind blowing.

Speaker 1: 20:03

But to even just get a grasp, you come in with a different demeanor. I would say to an encounter, understanding that this isn't necessarily going to be easy. So I've got to be on my game to make sure that this is going to be done correctly, to the best of my abilities at this point, as opposed to. I love it when someone says you know, especially someone that doesn't speak more than one language likes to soften the blow. You'll be great at it. You know the language. Oh, you're going to do so good. I've heard that sometimes you know just as a bystander with other bilingual individuals. But sometimes you know just as a bystander with other bilingual individuals, oh no, you can do this, you know, you speak the languages, you're fine to soften the blow. And then you get experiences like that.

Speaker 2: 20:46

Experience is the key, and then enough awareness at least, because at least that was a seed that was planted in me to actually be alert for training opportunities on the job. So what happened was later I actually was able to model myself after and shadow, basically learn by shadowing others in community interpreting. Before medical interpreting entered my life, there was just suddenly a variety of interpreting jobs that came my way, but the first one where I learned the ropes was in community interpreting by actually watching professionals do it or people who had a lot of experience, and then that included getting from the group or from the client materials, agendas, handouts, so that the people that I was watching were actually asking for these beforehand, before the event, and actually doing research. So it was definitely an eye-opener of how much you also had to prepare.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Oh, I love that, yeah, especially by example, that you're able to see, right, just how it's supposed to be, how I don't know if supposed to be you, just you. I guess at that point you're just watching and really taking in like, oh wow, I would have never have thought, uh, right. And of course, unless you go to that formal training that gives you the almost authority to say no, it's actually expected that as a trained interpreter, you are preparing before you're walking into that assignment. And then it's like well, this is why I say like I just I love the whole concept of it, because it's knowing that there's much more to it than the understanding of two languages. Now you're saying that interpreting starts to come in more and more often, interpreting requests.

Speaker 1: 22:43

What's going on for you? Are you feeling in terms of profession? Are you feeling I'm going to expand into this other side of the language services industry? I think I am liking it because I know that there's translators that are like industry. I think I I am liking it because I know that there's translators that are like I am not an interpreter. There's no way, particularly after an experience such as yours, they might've checked out and said that's not for me. What were you thinking?

Speaker 2: 23:08

I checked out for a while because of that traumatic experience I shared. Um, it took years to overcome that, uh, and it just came. It just came organically, uh, because the opportunity presented itself again, but in a much less intimidating fashion. So, you know, it took for me to be granted an opportunity at a community event, with preparation, with, you know, team interpreting being offered. So I was not alone and I was actually able to say and take a second look at it and realize, no, this is about preparation, this is not that you lack the skill set, this is about you preparing. You know, and I actually had a very good influencers come my way and say no, I believe in you, I believe that you can do it.

Speaker 2: 24:09

However, in terms of making it a career, that didn't happen until I became a certified medical interpreter and I was actually given an opportunity while being a community interpreter. One afternoon I was approached by the Los Angeles Unified School District technician at the time because he really liked how I did it and he actually said we're looking for people. Would you be interested in a part-time opportunity? I said absolutely. So. I was able to mix medical interpreting and the Los Angeles Unified School District interpreting to make an experience pretty much.

Speaker 1: 24:55

Okay, but by then you've already had some experience in community interpreting and medical interpreting and you're making your way into educational interpreting. Share with us what your observations were coming in from these you know this, these other experiences, these other fields into education. Was there overlap? What did you see in terms of how, in this particular district, which is a pretty large district and very linguistically diverse, I would say as well, what were your observations as you're coming in?

Speaker 2: 25:29

Yeah, I would say that in the school district the challenge was that the meetings, especially the IEPs, involved so much and for so long that without having a team person, I was actually able to contrast the difference between being a solo interpreter assigned to these meetings versus sharing with another interpreter and switching every 10 or 15 minutes. The contrast was huge. But of course I understood that the school district just does not have the resources and enough resources to facilitate. Sometimes it did, but most of the time it could not allow you to switch with another interpreter and cover that way. So I would say that one of the differences between that experience and community interpreting was the lack of team interpreting.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Yeah, and you're right, because there are many of times lack of resources in our educational, public, educational agencies and therefore lack of potential allocation to the language services. They might have the bare minimum. Maybe they'll have what they need, but maybe like the bare minimum in terms of providing services. So when being able to do something such as hey, we need two people for one assignment, it becomes extremely challenging, especially in such a large school district, right, because everyone's just going out everywhere, dispersed to all school sites, potentially.

Speaker 2: 27:12

What did you?

Speaker 1: 27:12

find in terms of the terminology.

Speaker 2: 27:15

Yeah, well, the school district translations department has developed a glossary that has been a resource for many years and still accessible to this day. That really helped. But I would say that one of the things that I made sure of was to keep open-minded and keep alert to the street language of parents, you know, and really make sure that they understood, especially in the individual education plans, the IEP meetings. I would call it double translation, you know, making sure that, as these elevated words, right, these very, very high register words are being shared, to make sure to pause and make sure that the parents, in a more simplified way, could get it, you know, and so that distinguished me also in the way that I approached it, that you approached the work.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I think there was a lot of. For my experience at least, I also came from the medical into educational and from my experience I felt like there was a lot of crossover between the two. But I did feel, if I could, if I could, compare the two, in terms of which one was a bit more complex. The only reason why I would say educational was more complex is because it lacked that school district. At least, I'm not saying every school district has this, but potentially many do lack the infrastructure to support language access.

Speaker 1: 28:59

Many approach it as a checkmark piece where we have an individual that provides the service you know, check. So, coming from the medical field that had the infrastructure created to support not just the service but the role, it was highly complicated to go into the educational setting and not have the infrastructure. Individuals not understand the role, not knowing how to work with the interpreter. It was just like whoa. This is a completely different world and one that can easily take someone that is used to coming from some structure, from some you know, potentially maybe every, every so often having to um, to train, quote, unquote, the the medical staff on how to appropriately work with the interpreter every so often, to suddenly every encounter, having to remind everyone and pauses during the meeting, so that to me I felt like that's the piece that was the most difficult.

Speaker 1: 30:04

But the crossover part that I'd mentioned earlier was remember that I just said, oh, I was grateful that I had some training.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Those were the moments where I was grateful, particularly with the special education meeting that had many or several medical diagnosis that the student might have, and so the medical terminology piece all of that came into play when I'm sitting there as the interpreter terminology piece. All of that came into play when I'm sitting there as the interpreter. And that's exactly where my mind went, such as your experience, maru was like if this had been someone else from the school setting any other bilingual teacher, receptionist, attendance clerk what would they have done in this situation? And I think that helped mark my journey into I knew which direction I wanted to take from that point forward in the field, like what you know, what I wanted to specialize in, has there been a thing such as that for you that you felt you've encountered, like you've found a gap that you feel you would like to fill and talk more about in terms of that specific topic in the field of interpreting or translation.

Speaker 2: 31:15

Well, what's coming to mind in terms of a gap is that I'm also remembering a chance that I was given to do medical interpreting at the ER. To do medical interpreting at the ER in a local hospital in downtown LA you know a very challenging environment and I remember that there was a gap in terms of expectations and just being able to do my job, meaning that in that hospital to do my job, meaning that in that hospital it had about eight floors or so and at the time we were all the interpreters were given a pager. We were expected it seemed to respond to being paged at any time and what actually happened often was that, as I was doing the service in one floor, I was being paged, you know, at two floors and it was just really wow, what a gap between wanting to serve and being able to right, just because it was just that logistical impossibility.

Speaker 1: 32:29

Yeah, that you're seeing that there is the need and you're unable to fill it, and that's a perfect example, as well as of the lack of appropriate infrastructure to support the role, because that obviously is unsustainable you can't be in two places at once if you're not done with one assignment at once if you're not done with one assignment, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:55

And then again it paused me as far as I walked out of that experience thinking I'm not cut out to be a medical interpreter. I, of course, out of ignorance, did not realize there's so much more beyond being a medical interpreter in the ER. I was just not knowledgeable yet of all the possibilities open to medical interpreting outside the ER. I just knew that the ER was not for me.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Yeah, it's the saddest thing, too, to hear sometimes amazing language professionals as they are in current day and just hearing their experiences such as that that almost took them out of having the opportunity to remain, and perhaps, I don't know, there might have been many individuals that have actually been taken out because of traumatic experiences such as that and feeling inadequate to be able to do their job correctly or thinking I just don't have what it takes because I am a medical interpreter and here I am in a medical setting and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. So it is very discouraging and, as someone that hears the stories a lot, very discouraging. And as someone that hears the stories a lot, it's disheartening because there are so many resources out there, which is another. One of the reasons why I created this platform is because I wanted to add just another resource of people being able to access the resources, the difficulties of other interpreters via their stories and what they did to overcome them, because I feel like they're all out there.

Speaker 1: 34:32

It's just once we're in the weeds. It's really difficult to find, like, how do I know if anybody else is going through this? And we tend to go through these challenges in silo right, because it's our own mental game sometimes that is challenging ourselves or questioning, making us question ourselves Do I have what it takes to stay in this field? What else have you experienced throughout the years, now that you've been more exposed to these circumstances and to the field itself and the profession and, I imagine, other professionals, in terms of networking and things of that nature?

Speaker 2: 35:24

What have you come across that you really feel you would like to highlight or say? This is make a living out of a translation based job and then do interpreting on weekends pretty much, or after work. I would say that I have been able to do interpreting in a much more relaxed way. Do interpreting in a much more relaxed way. My understanding right now is, or in recent years has been, no-transcript. I have observed that unless you take up a full-time job as an interpreter, say in a school district or perhaps in a hospital, it's really, in my experience anyway, not very feasible to have enough freelancing. Come, if you may, to become a full-time freelance interpreter. I may be wrong, I may just not be plugged in at this time. Enough, does that make sense? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 36:33

yeah, yeah, and I think it's very relevant to your particular experience, which is very important, because we have had guests on the show that say the contrary right. We have had guests on the show that say the contrary right. It's just a matter of strategizing and knowing what to do and where to look for these jobs and things like that nature, but it's almost a full-time job in and of itself, structuring your approach to be able to establish that rapport, to establish that network and be able to bring in enough business.

Speaker 1: 37:03

But I think that goes, maru, I think you might agree that that goes with any business. Anything we do is going to take time to build and to get to a level of I feel like it's giving me enough that I could support myself with this job, with my own business. I think, for the most part, unless you just come up with the most genius of ideas and it and it just so happens to hit immediately as a success. I think for the most part, even even ideas that we now know are successful companies one day started as challenging little mom and pop ideas. So so I think it just really depends on on absolutely the experience and the amount or what the strategy is. I wouldn't say the amount because I think a just really depends on absolutely the experience and the amount or what the strategy is. I wouldn't say the amount because I think a lot of us work hard to try to make things work for ourselves if we're trying to go solo. But I think it's just potential the strategy.

Speaker 1: 37:54

And do you have the ability to sit and pause with no business coming in in order to strategize? Many of us don't. So it's like, okay, maybe I'm going to do this part time while I sort of figure out how I'm going to strategize my next move to expand the business, because the work is out there, that's for sure, and I think it continues to grow. The numbers in the industry say so. So I think definitely would depend on just that strategy that we're coming up. You talk a lot about, you present a lot of on on uh communication that's generated by gaps in language. Uh, you do talk about uh solopreneurship and and have presentations such as that. Talk to us a little bit about what inspires these conversations for you. What is it that you're sharing out there to the broader community about the profession and what inspires you about the profession to speak about it?

Speaker 2: 38:53

Well, I would say that I've always been aware, or I've become increasingly aware, of what a great service interpreting provides, and so it's a very noble and very fulfilling profession. I just wish that it were. In my experience anyway I'll speak for myself the actual financial remuneration has been an issue. I have observed that unfortunately, at least again in my experience, it seems like more and more interpreters, especially those that are becoming certified in recent years, are willing to be paid less and less, driving the fees for all of us down. So I really that's what I became aware of.

Speaker 2: 39:53

You know that in the field of interpreting, there hasn't been, as it has happened in other professions perhaps, a tendency to really become aware of professionalizing the work and really not just thinking about our own payments, but actually to really have a collective mindset, you know, and really being able to connect that whatever you accept today is going to impact, whether you realize it or not, others as well. I worked in so before the pandemic, with a collective that no longer exists. I'm not sure why it dissolved, but it was a real school in showing me a way to set fees at a very good level, both in terms of laying out translation fees as well as interpreting fees, used it as a model, you know, for my own uh invoices and whatnot in the last few years. Um, but essentially, uh, that's, uh, that's really my, my two cents.

Speaker 1: 41:21

You know that it needs to be a better, a better paid profession period, yeah, and I and I I think definitely many, if not all, agree that's definitely that there's a period behind that. You know, period and no more. It's a full statement, they're just there does need to be a better pay and I think I also believe, as you mentioned, that it definitely has to do a lot with the lack of understanding of the skillset that it requires and just being able to professionalize and standardize that role when you have many, many bilingual individuals that are willing to do the work for less, sometimes maybe even just as taking it on as an extra thing from what they're already doing. If they're working as in-house something else right, if they're I don't know receptionist, secretaries or something they don't know any better and they're taking on the responsibility.

Speaker 1: 42:21

So, yeah, there's a lot of factors that come into play and then, of course, now we've got AI in the mix that you know is also wanting to come in and and be another competitor to the professional and that that, of course, drives even more difficulty in trying to stay afloat, like you mentioned earlier in, in not feeling like we're drowning, right? So definitely a lot of difficulties. Through the years, I'm certain that you've learned a lot of experiences, both in the translation and the interpreting side. What would you recommend now if you could go back and say I would have done this differently as a recommendation for maybe the newer generation of bilingual professionals that are coming in, that are trained professionals coming into the field? What would you recommend to them?

Speaker 2: 43:13

Wow, that's definitely food for thought.

Speaker 2: 43:17

I would recommend to become members as soon as they can of associations that are professional associations.

Speaker 2: 43:26

If they are medical interpreters, to definitely become involved in the IMI, for instance, international Medical Interpreters Association, and or the National Board of Certified Medical Interpreters borders of certified medical interpreters network. Definitely network a lot more uh, I was not networking actively in those in those seasons in between, as much as I could and and to definitely start, you know, by by seeking mentors. I did not seek a mentor early and I think it would have helped, you know, because then you could use their guidance to not just price your services but also to perhaps get opportunities shadowing, because it's one thing to be trained and another thing is to be out in the field doing the work. So I definitely would recommend to seek mentorship and seek to create shadowing opportunities. I can't think of a lot of professional interpreters that would not be open to being shadowed because, at least in my experience, a lot of interpreters are very nice people and helpful people because it is a very giving service. I know that there's, of course, there's all kinds of individuals.

Speaker 1: 45:01

Yeah, you've got your divas out there.

Speaker 2: 45:03

Right, of course there's definitely divas out there. Right, of course there's definitely divas, but uh, but there's definitely enough giving and generous, open people to, to, at least you know, with them. With that thing in mind, that goal in mind, go and get one mentor and don't even try to get more than one, but just one at a time. That would be my best recommendation.

Speaker 1: 45:26

In the four years that I've been doing. I can't believe I whenever I say that, I'm like, wow, I can't believe it's been four years. But in the four years I've been having this podcast or doing this podcast, it's the first time that I've actually heard someone recommend that and it's, I think, such a genius idea that recommend seeking a mentor to shadow. I mean, we've heard, you know, recommending seek a mentor, tap into someone that's already on the field, don't be afraid to ask them questions, and which, of course, absolutely. But this is the first time that I've actually heard someone say seek a mentor and seek to shadow them. You are absolutely right, maru. That can make a world of a difference. Number one, to know that that's even the specialty area that you want to be in. What if you go and shadow something in the medical field and you are just disgusted by things that are happening in that medical setting and you're like I don't even think I would be able to sit here and interpret, you know, watching all this stuff happen in the background. This is not for me. And then you save yourself the you know the years of potentially or well, yeah, years, because you would go into the field and then have to go search for something else. But I think that that's a very, very great point.

Speaker 1: 46:45

Go out and find a mentor to shadow, if anything. If you're interested, for instance, in educational interpreting, but you don't know really what it is or what it would entail, or if it doesn't sound like it would be as complicated, go and shadow someone. Go and ask if you could go and shadow someone. There might be things that they would have to do in order to allow that, you know, for you to have the opportunity to step into a school district. But if you're really interested, you would be, I think, inclined to take the steps that are necessary to clear you to be on campus and in a setting as a student. I would say definitely. If you're already going through your training, it's easier for a school district to accept you coming in as a student of a particular content, of a particular field and be able to shadow one of their employees.

Speaker 1: 47:39

I think that other specialty areas do it as well. Or here's another idea, piggybacking off of Maru's idea why not mention that? To whatever training program you are in, sometimes the universities or the community colleges would love the opportunity to be able to have more options for you to do your service hours and maybe, if you say, hey, I'd like to go to Los Angeles School District, is there any way that we can, that the university can work or the college can work with LAUSD, to be able to, for us to shadow them, their interpreters, something of the sort? Right, that's? That was a great idea. I really liked that.

Speaker 2: 48:20

Thank you, I'm so, so glad that it that it rang a bell and that you think it's a great idea. I also right now think that for the medical interpreting, shadowing is totally doable, especially from those that are telehealth appointments, where the mentor interpreter can actually allow you to be at their home office and be there without you know the medical professional, seeing that there's someone else there, right, it's not something that's doable if it's an in-person medical appointment for reasons that you can imagine, but it's definitely doable in telehealth appointments.

Speaker 1: 49:01

Yeah, for sure, and I think you know I've had guests here on the show that have also.

Speaker 1: 49:06

They manage interpreting services in healthcare settings and large hospitals and there's work that needs to be done in order to be able to partner with local universities or colleges, but they would love to have the help to come in Number one to shadow and then later, hopefully, if you are interested, to sort of volunteer, as you're doing, your training program. It's a matter of collaboration behind the scenes, but I think you would open up the opportunity for someone to say, oh, I'd never thought about that institution as a way for you to be able to practice your consecutive interpreting, or whatever it may be. But yeah, no, I think that's definitely a great suggestion and I'm hoping that you are thinking so too, audience, in terms of being able to seek out a mentor for mentoring excuse me, shadowing opportunities. What else would you like to share with this particular audience, maru, in the sense of just you know whether it be recommendations, or rather what is a great resource that you have found very useful throughout your career that you would like to share with this audience?

Speaker 2: 50:16

Oh my, the resources. I would say that definitely, one resource that's available to the general public is by just Googling it using the keyword glossary, and then Los Angeles Unified School District Translations Unit. I believe that the glossary is an actual PDF that's accessible for use. Is an actual PDF that's accessible for use. Resources I would recommend professional associations such as the ones that I mentioned, and just reading and just listening to live or recorded interviews in Spanish, I mean you have to, especially those of us who live and work in the US. I think it's really important for us to not take for granted that we need to still, you know, read and listen to Spanish content to keep our language skills, you know, fresh.

Speaker 1: 51:24

Is there a resource you use or a tool that you used in translations that you felt has been super helpful for interpreting? Is there one that you can think of that you can say you know, I used to use this as a tool for my translation work, but it's also extremely helpful in the interpreting field. I've come to find out Anything that you can think of.

Speaker 2: 51:50

Well, one thing I love is the tool, an app spelled L-I-N-G-U-E-E, oh Lingui.

Speaker 1: 52:03

Lingui. Yeah, oh, they have an app now. Yeah, oh, wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, I'm going to look that up. How do you use it and how should interpreters use it and not use it, uh-huh.

Speaker 2: 52:15

Well, I would say that interpreters, just as a tool to check, just double check in the preparation for an assignment. Sometimes in site translations there's a need to double check that you have spelled something correctly, for instance, and I just find it a wonderful tool in general to really come up with correctly spelled words, and also it well positions you to get the right.

Speaker 1: 53:03

You can definitely use it for content and context. Because what's great about that? At least the browser you know on the internet. When you go in there, you're able to click on whatever the word might be or whatever that phrase is being used in the word that it's being used in, and then it takes you sometimes to that document or that site where you so you can get even more context as to where the word is coming from and how they were using it, which I think that's also a very great way of just getting some context around the word.

Speaker 1: 53:38

Um, especially if you're on the go, especially if it's something fast that oh, like this came last minute. They updated the slides right before we started and you're like, ah, what is that concept about? And so something really quick to jump in there instead of having to scroll with so many results. You're able to get to you know this one word and then it gives you only context based on that word through through that app L-I-N-G-U-E-E. But yeah, be careful how you use it. You've got to do research too. You can't just take its word for it. See what I did there. Lastly, maru, where can our listeners find out more about you and the work that you do?

Speaker 2: 54:18

Well, linkedin would be a place to keep in touch with me. I have a profile there. I'm working currently on our website, but it's just a work in progress, so I would say LinkedIn would be the way to connect with me.

Speaker 1: 54:33

I'll make sure to include your LinkedIn link in the episode notes, Maru. In the meantime, thank you for the opportunity to share your story here on Brand the Interpreter.

Speaker 2: 54:42

Thank you for the opportunity, Mireya. It's been an honor. Take care and best wishes to everybody.