Life Long Learning

Background:
Brenda Chafin Seal talks about this concept as it pertains to educational interpreters in her book Best Practices for Educational Interpreters. In chapter 6, she asks the question: "What obligations do educational interpreters have for their own life long learning." She states that educational interpreting is in its infancy - and like a rapidly growing child, its rapid development is happening right before our eyes.

This perspective can easily be applied to interpreting in general. We are a very young profession, as professions go, and we are seeing changes occur daily. A fine example of this is the Quality Assurance activities that are outlining minimal standards for interpreters that are happening in nearly every state of the country. The RID website (www.rid.org) is a great place to see how many states currently have QA laws on the books, and how many are in process. Clearly this is a change from not too many years ago when having someone in at an appointment who simply knew sign language was considered great!