I imagine the secret service must be having conferences on the issue, perhaps even as we speak. There are some jihadists kicking themselves: why didn't we think of that?!
I can just hear the calls for recruiting the mentally ill. Perhaps our approach to health care, even mental health care will come back to bite us in the ass in ways we didn't even imagine.
Dude got a gig, my hats off to him. Not all mentally ill are dangerous, but the secret service looks foolish and incapable of doing their job right now.
Good thing he didn't dream of Jodie Foster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley,_Jr.).
I don't even care about all that. I just think it's hilarious that at one of the most important events of the last 20 years or so, the sign language dude was signing gibberish! And with a straight face! It's like something Andy Kaufman would do.
This is something near and dear to my heart because I work as an ASL interpreter in California. There are two issues with this guy and why I and most of my friends think he's full of bullshit.
1) His claims of schizophrenia seem unfounded as his behavior doesn't match what Deaf people who sign (or hearing people who speak for that matter) do: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/dcal-news/Mandela_Interpreter
“Bizarre fluidity of thought or jumbled signs are comparatively rare even among signers with schizophrenia. This typically presents as larger, more expansive, use of facial expression and signing space, and signing in a very fast and pressured way. The content of such signing is bizarre but retains aspects of sign language structure such as facially expressed grammatical markers.
“By contrast, Mr Jantjie signed without facial expression and in a regimented and contained way.
“Bizarre jumbling of words or signs is known as word salad and this does not come on suddenly, or switch on and off in a signer having a psychotic episode.
“It would also affect his spoken language and would occur alongside significant cognitive dysfunction. Others around him would have immediately noticed that he was not making sense in any language.
2) I am not sure what the regulatory body is like in South Africa but in the US we have the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the RID's Code of Professional Conduct clearly states that anyone who is not physically or mentally competent must withdraw from the profession until they are well. I assume that South Africa would have something similar which means this man showed horrible self-judgement when accepting that assignment. Considering he claims that he's had violent outbursts in the past he should've known better than to put himself up on stage with world leaders.
Even so, the fact that this man thinks he still did a good job AND that he's had similar complaints filed against him in the past makes me think he's just an egotistical asshat who should leave interpreting to the people who actually know how to do it.
Additional information just surfaced. Apparently he is claiming this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Br-PEddYU#t=0 as an example of his "good" interpreting, but it looks just as bad as when he interpreted for Nelson Mandela's funeral. Was he suffering a "schizophrenic" episode then too?
Quantum Leap, episode 273: Sam leaps into the body of a sign language interpreter at Mandela's memorial. "Oh boy." - gasmanic (https://twitter.com/gasmanic/status/411103195666972672)
I'll put in for my punch on the "liberal selective outrage" card, but I will note in passing that I am irritated by the amount of coverage this has gotten.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 05:13 pm (UTC)on the issue, perhaps even as we speak. There are some jihadists
kicking themselves: why didn't we think of that?!
no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 05:31 pm (UTC)Good thing he didn't dream of Jodie Foster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley,_Jr.).
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Date: 2013-12-13 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 06:15 pm (UTC)Kaufman was a trip.
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Date: 2013-12-13 08:42 pm (UTC)1) His claims of schizophrenia seem unfounded as his behavior doesn't match what Deaf people who sign (or hearing people who speak for that matter) do: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/dcal-news/Mandela_Interpreter
“Bizarre fluidity of thought or jumbled signs are comparatively rare even among signers with schizophrenia. This typically presents as larger, more expansive, use of facial expression and signing space, and signing in a very fast and pressured way. The content of such signing is bizarre but retains aspects of sign language structure such as facially expressed grammatical markers.
“By contrast, Mr Jantjie signed without facial expression and in a regimented and contained way.
“Bizarre jumbling of words or signs is known as word salad and this does not come on suddenly, or switch on and off in a signer having a psychotic episode.
“It would also affect his spoken language and would occur alongside significant cognitive dysfunction. Others around him would have immediately noticed that he was not making sense in any language.
2) I am not sure what the regulatory body is like in South Africa but in the US we have the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the RID's Code of Professional Conduct clearly states that anyone who is not physically or mentally competent must withdraw from the profession until they are well. I assume that South Africa would have something similar which means this man showed horrible self-judgement when accepting that assignment. Considering he claims that he's had violent outbursts in the past he should've known better than to put himself up on stage with world leaders.
Even so, the fact that this man thinks he still did a good job AND that he's had similar complaints filed against him in the past makes me think he's just an egotistical asshat who should leave interpreting to the people who actually know how to do it.
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Date: 2013-12-16 05:21 pm (UTC)