Leah Subak, Ph.D is an extremely skilled sign language interpreter in Ohio. She kindly gave us an interview on her journey to becoming a successful interpreter. Enjoy!
Leah Subak, Ph.D is an extremely skilled sign language interpreter in Ohio. She kindly gave us an interview on her journey to becoming a successful interpreter. Enjoy!
Unknown Speaker 0:02
Hello everybody, this is Tina Perry with Tina's corner Podcast. Today we have a special guest today by the name of Leah Sue back. Leah is a second second language learner interpreter very successful in the field. And so I thought we would bring Leah on today to kind of get her take of when she graduated, what she did to help improve her skills, and to get her to be the successful interpreter that she is today. Hello, what Leah welcome.
Unknown Speaker 0:35
Hi, Tina, thank you so much for having me today.
Unknown Speaker 0:38
Oh, I'm so glad you could take the time out to do this. I'm sure our students, and I say our students because both Leah and I are? Well, in the past, we have been instructors at an IEP or ITP program. I'm not surely what your program was referred to. Were you an IEP or ITP?
Unknown Speaker 0:59
Well, when it started, it was an ITP. And then it became an IEP.
Unknown Speaker 1:03
Yeah, that's what we did to do. Most of us were in Ohio, of course, now I'm in Tennessee, and Leah still in Ohio. So well, let's go ahead and get started. Leah, I have a couple of questions for you. But first of all, can you tell me when and where did you graduate?
Unknown Speaker 1:21
Okay. It's a little bit of a funny journey. But I graduated with a bachelor's degree in speech pathology and audiology. And that's how I got introduced to sign language in the first place. And that was in Yes. And that was in 1978 when dinosaurs walked the earth. And then I went to Gallaudet. So I had my sights set on Gallaudet. I saw Scala debt, on television on 60 minutes. And I told my mother, I was going to go there. And I packed up and she said, Oh, you'll be back in a week. And eight years later, I came home to Ohio. That's a one week. Yeah, it was a long week. But I graduated with a degree and deaf education in 1982. But I took interpreting classes while I was on campus at Gallaudet, and I didn't finish the program. And that was one of my regrets. And I'll say that, I think was one of your last questions. But I wish I would have stayed in the interpreting program. It had just started when I was there. And so it was a little bit hard to figure out. Plus, I had already set my sights on getting a master's degree in deaf education. So I did graduate making 82. But I didn't graduate from interpreting program, but I did take classes while I was at Gallaudet and interpreting.
Unknown Speaker 2:57
I see. So you were in the deaf ed program there, correct?
Unknown Speaker 3:01
I was Yeah. Okay. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 3:03
And, and what did you think about that program? Did you really struggle? Because did you have any contact previous contact with any deaf individuals?
Unknown Speaker 3:14
I did. When I was at Akron, you I started to learn sign language, like a first semester in. And so that was probably the thing that saved me. So I was probably 18 started learning signs. You know, I had taken ASL class for the speech pathology degree. And I had a CODA and I'm sure you know, where Karen Turner. And she
Unknown Speaker 3:39
don't know what a coda is. Can you tell us what that is? Leah?
Unknown Speaker 3:41
Oh, a child of deaf adults. So Karen was from a very large deaf family in the area here. And it was my first teacher and she really encouraged me. So the whole time that I stayed in that program, I was exposed to deaf adults, because they put me in a special pilot program that they had for Deaf parents who had hearing children. And so we worked with the hearing children on speech production and, and also some sign language. Wow. So it was sort of a Yeah, innovative program for the time.
Unknown Speaker 4:20
Kinda like this. I did hard knocks, right?
Unknown Speaker 4:24
Yeah, it was, but it didn't seem like it at the time. Yeah, but you know, looking back it was but I really just loved it, I took to it. So that's how a lot
Unknown Speaker 4:35
I think that's one of the things you could probably suggest is that students who have graduated or are in the current program, that's the one thing that immersion should be a vital part of their training. Would you agree?
Unknown Speaker 4:50
Absolutely. And that's one of the things I see that is not happening today.
Unknown Speaker 4:56
Exactly. Well, it's kind of hard to you know, with COVID going on. That's really put a hurting on a lot of the programs and a lot of the education for our students not being able to go to facilities like nursing home or someplace like that where there are many deaf people. Yeah, I bet now students are looking back on that they can man, I should have access that a lot more when there was no COVID. But yeah,
Unknown Speaker 5:23
correct. But you do have to really go out of your comfort zone sometimes. And yeah, it's hard. It's hard today. You're right with COVID. But it's hard anyway, I think.
Unknown Speaker 5:33
Yeah, I think so me being a coda for me to do that. It's like, what's the big deal, but I could see students really struggling with that, first of all, they just didn't want to invade on somebody, you know, space, their privacy. And we know how Deaf people sometimes like, you know, oh, my gosh, another student wanting to come to ask me what my name is my favorite color and my favorite coffee? You know, that can get a little old after a while, I bet.
Unknown Speaker 6:00
Oh, it does. And I should tell you this funny story. So I was on a date, I was engaged to somebody before Ken, don't tell him that now he knows that. And Tina knows my husband. Anyway. So I was on a date. And it happened to be across the street from the Deaf Club, an Akron boy. And I was very bored on my date. And I probably knew, in my heart of hearts that this engagement was going nowhere, you know? Anyway, so I said to my fiance, that I'll be back in a little bit. But he was all up with his friends. And they were having a good time and that kind of thing. And I thought, well, you know what, I'm gonna go to the Deaf Club across the street. And I was told in class, do not go to the deaf club by yourself. But I went ahead and went and knocked on the door. And they opened a little window and asked me who I was. And, unbelievably, they let me in. Wow. And I played cards with a whole bunch of younger deaf people who I see to this day, we go to the Deaf Church together, and it's so funny to me. And I just remember them sitting at the table, we're playing cards, and I didn't probably have a clue what they were talking about. And I didn't care, but I just wanted to be there instead of with my, with my dad, my dad of a fiancee. Anyway,
Unknown Speaker 7:27
that's like jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim or could just barely keep your head above water. That's really Yeah, that takes a lot of courage takes a lot of courage. And I think once you do that, did you see that that became easier or what? What did you learn from that experience?
Unknown Speaker 7:48
I learned that they accepted me. And if I tried the best that I could, that it was okay. And I think it helped that I was their age. And I learned that you know that taking a risk is okay, sometimes
Unknown Speaker 8:04
Absolutely. And very, very important to this field. You are you have to be a risk taker, you cannot stand on the sidelines. I know many times I would tell students on their first day, coming to this program, we are going to give you the basics, but we will not give you everything you need to be an interpreter that's on you. Well, I'll give you a suitcase or fill it with some things here. But you have to really feel the suitcase yourself. And you have to be one to get out there. And just act like you're not afraid. We describe it as being a swan in the water. If you see a swan gliding across the water, you see that it's smooth. But what you don't know is that under the water, their feet are moving fast and furiously. So that they look like there's no effort. And that's what we have to do as interpreters. We are working fast and furiously under the scenes, you know, but we try to make it look like it's smooth.
Unknown Speaker 9:05
Oh, yeah, that's a great analogy. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 9:07
So after you graduated from your program, or after you decided you were going to be an interpreter. Where did you work? What did you do?
Unknown Speaker 9:19
I actually worked at Gallaudet. I worked for their disability services office. And I've worked in the bank. The Gallaudet's bank now do not know what good training that was. Oh I'm sure social security number at the time you know people could tell say that. Yeah, money amount, right money amount, a numbers fingerspelling daily, constantly. Then I jumped from the bank to this is this is a cracked up to be Assistant Director of DeafBlind Services. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so I became the personal interpreter for deafblind. Gentleman on campus. And that's where I really started to interpret. Yeah, I without knowing what I was doing, I was at national conferences interpreting, and I had no clue what I did. All I did was turn my back to the audience and, you know, took the microphone and I knew what he was saying, I didn't know what I was actually doing. But people would come up to me and say, Oh, wow, how do you learn how to do that? That's really great. And I'm like, I'm just saying what he's saying. It, then an interpreter came up to me and said, You need to get more training, and you need to get certified. And so how did you take that? Very well, well, because the way she did it the way she approached it, she was a coda. She wasn't insulting. It was back in that time when none of us really knew what we were doing. And so she had a lot of grace and tact when she told me that.
Unknown Speaker 11:03
Well, and you know, that's a that's a good point is the delivery. How do you deliver feedback to another person? And that's, that's half of it. The other half is how you take it. And what do you do with it? You know? Right. So that's, that's a great, that's a great story. That's great. So you then okay, so you now we're working for a gentleman who was deafblind? Is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 11:29
Right. And I did that for about a year and a half. And then I went into the graduate program full time. And then that's when I did interpreting on the side. You see, I've been interpreting on the side ever since now, I did teach at Kendall Demonstration school, for a year, a year, and then I got pregnant, and then I left, because we were leaving the area as well. And I just didn't want to leave my baby with people. You know, we weren't, we didn't know, we didn't have any family in the DC area. So we just went ahead and left. But when I made it back to Ohio, then I needed a more flexible job. So then that's when I started interpreting and then teaching, which led to part time teaching and full time teaching. And then I was at the relay full time the full text relay. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was Elizabeth Felder for about five years, and then I, then that all changed. So then I left and started teaching again. And yeah, well, now that's Sorenson.
Unknown Speaker 12:48
And now you're at Swanson part time or full time. Part time. Yeah. So how did you know about these positions? How I mean, what did you do to get? Did you just kind of fall into them? Because that happens? Or were you? Did you actively seek them? Or did they actively seek you? Or was it just by chance?
Unknown Speaker 13:06
It was all of the above? When I read that question that you said, on your list, but it's who you now, I mean, I think I hate to say that.
Unknown Speaker 13:19
Well, it's, you know, how do you get to know people? That's the question. That's something nice things our students need to hear. They don't come looking for you while you're hiding in your house. You made your very visible, I'm assuming.
Unknown Speaker 13:33
Yeah. And also was very active in ocid, very active in planning conferences, met so many people by planning different events. And then when you meet people like that people want you to, they see your work, and they want you to come to work for them. They trust now.
Unknown Speaker 13:56
You gave them a reason to trust you. Right. Are you currently certified? Yeah. Okay. And how did you go about training yourself or getting ready for that?
Unknown Speaker 14:10
I took my first test, the first rip system. Okay. And we know that it was a libel. Right. And it was a live panel. So knowing that, and you know, this person Carolyn Ressler. So Carolyn and I, we, you know, put on videotapes that back then it was VHS tape, and we were just fit together and we would study how we would voice for them and mostly we were very concerned about ASL to English. Okay, we probably should have been a little bit more concerned about English. But so anyway, that's basically how we we did it. And then we neither one of us got fully certified. I did I always laugh because now Carolyn says, designated interpreter for the President of Gallaudet University. Well, but, but at the time, she got TC, because it used to be ICTC or CSA. So she got TC and I got ICTC.
Unknown Speaker 15:17
So you can TC, but not be CSC.
Unknown Speaker 15:23
Right. Right. Which, right, we weren't quite high enough to get that CFA. Wow. Okay, so yeah, and I think that it was because of our we probably didn't really prepare enough with the English to ASL
Unknown Speaker 15:43
part. Yeah. And I think that those acronyms or whatever initials have changed it CRTC Yeah. And then I got C ICT but then they took out the whole other part. It's just evolved over all the years. A lot many rights. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 16:03
Right, because we took that again. And we both got cicp. We both got what you have, right? Yeah. Yeah. And let's see what she went and took the Nick. And she got the master neck. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't take the neck. I just didn't take it. I took the IPA and I took an ad.
Unknown Speaker 16:21
Okay. I took the an ad, but I don't. Are they still offering? Certification?
Unknown Speaker 16:30
No, no, no. Okay. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 16:34
So I think the bottom line is, as we start to wrap up here, the bottom, the bottom line to what you're saying is just being out there, and really just, I know, I've had recent students just almost be ready to graduate and they're like, I can't do this. I just can't put myself out there. And I mean, I'm glad they finally realized that but you know, sometimes it's almost towards the end of when they're about to graduate. And it is really I and the other analogy that I use it this is a an acting job. Whenever I'm interpreting, whenever you're interpreting, we are always somebody else, always somebody else. You know, we speak for the hearing, excuse me, are deaf consumers, we, we signed for our hearing consumers. I took a workshop a couple of weeks ago, or maybe a couple months ago. But at any rate, that most profound thing I took from that workshop is that this is a hard job. But as but as qualified interpreters. We make it look like it's not. What do you think about that?
Unknown Speaker 17:41
Yeah, I think a lot of professions do that. For brain surgeon, say, for example, or a police officer or anyone, we it is a hard job, you grow into it. You grow with it. And I think by virtue of that fact, and you're going to make it look easy. I remember one time I had some students, and we were doing mock interpreting with real people, you know, they brought people in the class. And so they were struggling, struggling, struggling, and they said, Not wait a minute, they said, you sit down and do this, if you think they're so you know, all that. So I sat down, it was just like butter, you know, back and forth. And they're like, how can you do that? I said, because this is what we do. Right? And I do think we make it. It's very difficult, and we make it look easy. But isn't that the definition? Probably of a professional? Sure. It would be like an actor or a singer, or you know, exactly, because I just think we don't we don't get the respect that other
Unknown Speaker 18:44
anyway, I think sorry. But I think the other thing is is you know, I've watched piano or piano players, I would say, is it a pianist? And I watched them. And I think to myself, how can your hands move so quickly? Over those keys and hit the right one at the right time? And really think about, they probably think the same thing about us? How do you keep signing? And of course, they don't know if I'm signing the right thing or not, but more times than not we are it's like, how do we keep doing that? And know just when to hit the right key and the right you know, you know, I just use that analogy a lot in my brain. I think that when I watch them, I'm like, oh, it looks so beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 19:24
Right? Because the right key for us is picking up the meaning right? Getting the right tone. Exactly. And taking away some of the other information. That's probably not as necessary.
Unknown Speaker 19:38
Yeah, things that they learned in the programming, you know, what are the details and what details do I need right now? What details don't I need right now and how to make that all work so that the message is the same message that I'm hearing and I and I tell them right, make the message so that what you're hearing they see to make it very clear,
Unknown Speaker 19:57
right and to have the ethical acumen to keep it you know, trustworthy and ethical. And you're faithful to the message, you know?
Unknown Speaker 20:08
Absolutely. Leah, coming. Thank you for I really appreciate you doing this with me today. As you know you are the very first podcast interview that I'm having. And I think it's gone. Great. Is there anything you would like to say before we close?
Unknown Speaker 20:24
No, I think that's it. Oh, thank you. I feel so honored to be your first. And I just hope that whoever is listening to this, I hope that you just keep at it and don't give up. It's a great field. It's a great profession. And I've loved it. Honestly, I wouldn't want to do anything else.
Unknown Speaker 20:40
I agree. Thanks, Leah. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Bye now. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai