It’s Sunday! And that means it’s time for the lowdown. The big news, of course, is that school started on Thursday, which is my last semester on campus. I’m taking Interpreting III (mostly interpreting one person in a video, but learning how to do it while they are talking or signing) and Interactive Interpreting (learning how to interpret multiple people in a conversation on a video instead of one person on a video). There is also the Interpreting III Lab, which means we meet to practice our skills and have SMART goals due. In addition, I’m scheduled to interpret the presenters during chapel six times, I believe.
On Wednesday, the night before school started, my cohort and I (there are six of us) got together to share PowerPoints of what we did this summer. Although I learned about my cohort and their (mostly) travels, I also realized something about Gen Z: I think they have not been exposed to the ways communication changes depending on the space. For example, while they were going over their summer PowerPoints, they all spoke what I would consider somewhat loudly, even though we were sitting on one couch in a small living room. Last semester, in a large classroom with brick walls, they spoke so quietly I could not hear them, which led to much confusion and angst for me. Was my hearing getting worse? Was I just kidding myself about wanting to become an interpreter? Is it that they did not know how to speak up?
I talked with my cousin, who is a year younger than I, about this. She said she cannot hear her Gen Z coworker, who has a habit of speaking to her when she is not facing him meaning that she doesn’t even realize he’s talking to her. When he does get her attention and then speak to her, he’s too quiet. I realized after those PowerPoint presentations that Gen Z has spent their personal time and academic careers texting, collaborating on Chromebooks using the comments function, and then in Zoom for school during COVID. Granted, my cohort was almost entirely homeschooled, but that also means they had small audiences of parents or tutors and siblings.
The big hiccup to my theory is that my cohort appear to hear each other in class. Are they more practiced at listening to soft voices? Am I fooling myself? I find it interesting that much like our other senses, hearing is something we cannot really compare. For example, I remember a story of siblings who basically had the same results on an audiology test, yet one could be aided by hearing aids and the other got zero benefits.
Similarly, I just about mentally spiral when I think about how we can describe color to each other, yet many of us do not see the same thing. I’m used to Nick being colorblind, but it always unnerved me that Biscuit called this one large pot “blue” while I saw what I was 100% positive was black. I recently was perusing through the nursing subreddit online when one medical practitioner described how pain tells them things about patients, but pain often travels willy-nilly — that sometimes pain exists in the body without a clear connection to any physical maladies. I guess that means we’re all really cool organic material bopping around with eyeballs and a spinal cord. But doesn’t it just bother you that your brain doesn’t know how it works? I love that we can take an anatomy test, but our brains won’t tell us where the pancreas is.
At least my brain is helpful sometimes; I spent all Saturday morning filling out my planner with the classes and chapels, marking not only when things are due but when to start preparing for them, such as if we have a guest talking about phlebotomy, I need to watch a YouTube video on phlebotomy basics before class. We’re are touring a few places, too, to practice being in settings where we might interpret. Here’s to an enriching term!
recently read books i did not review
- The Omen by David Seltzer
- Book Love by Debbie Tung
- The Natural Mother of the Child by Krys Malcolm Belc
- Compassion and Self-Hated by Theodore Isaac Rubin
Grab the Lapels 
I’ve never considered that my brain doesn’t know how it works, lol. Really cool organic material with eyeballs and a spinal cord – I like that! The human body is a miracle and also something I have mostly spent my life being disengaged from mentally. Trying to become embodied is a work in progress. I would love to learn more about somatic healing. I’ve just started learning the very tip of the iceberg about that. Anyway, I hope you have a great last semester. Good luck!
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See? The brain doesn’t even bother to think about how itself! LOL. I read recently that the wish to be a brain without a body (because the body is cumbersome and flawed) is an act of self-hate. I say this as someone who has wished to not have to think about her body, or at least have Velcro boobs.
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Fascinating thoughts Melanie, starting with Gen Z and hearing. Must ask my Gn Y kids. I haven’t really noticed this but I am probably not in the company of a lot of Gen Y people besides my kids.
The colour perception thing is interesting. I know blues and greens are tricky but I thought there were the very clear blues and greens, and then those in between blue-green ones but lately I’ve been disagreed with on those I thought obvious. Strangely disconcerting.
Have a great last semester. You’ve worked really hard to get to this point. I’ve enjoyed your journey… I look forward to seeing it out and then what happens after that.
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I was positive the whole school experience was flying by, and that it would be short (two years), but here we are, a full three years later and still on the journey. I’m looking forward to feeling like I know what I’m doing this semester thanks to a summer spent working on my receptive skills (i.e. watching Deaf people signing for comprehension and putting it into words in English sentence structure).
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I have every confidence you will be a great interpreter … you are warm, intelligent, conscientious, and creative in your thinking. A winning combination for this sort of work I’d say.
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Thank you kindly 😊
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My pleasure!
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About pain, it’s also disconcerting that if I feel irritable or sad in the late afternoon it can be low level knee pain that my brain doesn’t even process as pain anymore.
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Absolutely! My mom has told me in the past to take some ibuprofen, and I would say, “Nothing hurts, I’m just really angry!” and she would say, “It’s like your insides are raw.” I know that sounds weird, but sometimes it’s truly something physical exacerbating the mood.
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I did my accounting degree as a 30 year old in with all the 18 year old first years and they drove me mad, not for the loudness of their voices but just for their general inanity. At least I was also working full time (and a father of 3) so wasn’t constantly in their company.
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I can imagine that … I don’t think I was an inane 18-year-old. I was conscientious and sensible – boring – but I was also somewhat naively idealistic and probably a little judgemental about things I knew nothing about. (Which is why I relate a little to Marianne in S&S.)
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I stay off campus as much as possible because I do not feel welcome as I am.
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Bodies are so wonderfully weird!
Wow, you last semester on campus! That is so exciting! And what a packed calendar you have too. Have a great semester!
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Thanks, Stefanie! I also had it confirmed today that I can take my African violets to where I am staying during internship. I was low-key concerned they would all die fickle deaths without me.
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Huh ok this talking noise level thing is a very interesting idea indeed. I haven’t noticed that, although I do notice ALOT of differences between me and youngins these days. Mainly, how awkward many of them are in person, and can’t seem to make eye contact or carry a normal conversation. Now I just sound like an old biddy…
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I try to be careful about who isn’t looking at me due to neurodivergence vs. who just hasn’t been taught that it is normal in our culture to do so. Let me know if you notice anything about volume difference now that I’ve mentioned it.
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