Katharine Allen, a longtime advocate for increased language access and interpreter recognition across all fields, talks about remote interpreting, the effects of the pandemic on the profession, and her constant work to try to elevate our reach and visibility.
Recorded on April 10, 2020.
Interviewee: Katharine Allen, co-founder of InterpretAmerica
Interviewer: Elena Langdon, Seven Sisters Interpreter Training & Consulting
Season One topic: Remote Interpreting
Graphics by Marcelle Carlson
Music by Clover Fortier
Topics discussed include:
Join us live for our debrief of this episode on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, on our YouTube channel.
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People and organizations mentioned in this episode:
Katharine Allen_season1
Elena Langdon: Thank you for agreeing to be on the podcast. It's a pleasure to talk to you. And, I'm going to start out with a question that I'm going to ask all of my guests, which is the name. So the name of the podcast is Not Quite Magic. And I am asking all my guests, what does seem like magic to you?
And this can be anything.
Katharine Allen: What does? Oh, wow. Gosh, what does seem like? I mean like life or personal or any of it?
Elena Langdon: Anything.
Katharine Allen: Okay. Well, I mean, I only have one story to it. Well, and the COVID time, which is a completely personal story, but that is the story of our eight-year-old spayed Husky having a puppy a few weeks ago when she went into false heat in January.
And then about eight days ago, she went into labor and gave birth to one puppy. That's kind of been the magic in our life, right? I live in the mountains in Eastern California and we have a full pack of Huskies that we do run and sled with.
And so this was sort of amazing, amazing miracle. And we have one little puppy that we're enjoying during this, during this time.
Elena Langdon: Yeah, my, my kids were looking at that photo this morning and they were like, Oh my God. And then of course the youngest said, “it's a Panda.”
Katharine Allen: Her name's Little Judy and she's our little miracle puppy.
But I think in the miracle part really, is it just in a time when it's, you know, when we're all, there's just so much uncertainty and you know, I don't know, I'm not living in fear in any sense, but I do have one family member that we're really concerned not get COVID because of past history with a lung illness.
And so we've got him squirreled away and, you know, in the mountains and there's just a lot of uncertainty about how it's all gonna move forward in life feels very uncertain. And then just, just kind of have this basic life will out. This little puppy is coming in, you know, for whatever reason. And it just does a little bit of miracle.
That was good. Nice.
Elena Langdon: Yep. That is, that is a little bit of magic, for sure. When you talk about what you do professionally in the field of interpreting and translation, what's the short version of what you tell people?
Katharine Allen: The short version? One is that I am an interpreter and translator, and I work at a community level in my rural area.
And so I do, I do interpret at that level, but mostly what I've been doing for the last decade is really two things. One has been to try and take everything I learned from getting a Master's in conference interpreting and turn that into teaching in the healthcare and community side, you know, because take the benefit of what you get from an MA degree and two years of study, and take that out and try and provide support for the vast majority of interpreters who are never going to get to go in and get an MA -- which would, you know, would be the ideal, honestly.
And the other thing I do, you know, and along those lines, I do a lot of – somehow I got involved in writing lots of textbooks and curriculums. I do a lot of curriculum creation. I teach a lot and I, I write a lot. And then on my InterpretAmerica side, which is an organization I co-founded with Barry Slaughter Olsen 10 years ago -- so 10 year anniversary, you know -- that's kind of the brand we've used to do whatever we can to, you know, jump up and down with pom-poms and try and raise the profile of our profession inside the profession and outside the profession. So really I end up between those, between teaching and promoting the profession. Those are kind of the two big things I do. I don't know if that was short. Hey, I'm an interpreter. I never answer anything in a short, concise way.
Elena Langdon: Yep. I know what you mean. Since the focus this season is on remote interpreting, some people have talked about different ways of calling it. And I don't even mean the acronyms. I just mean, things like hearing that we could call it virtual interpreting, distance interpreting online, interpreting or remote interpreting. Those are some of the terms that I've heard floated around, you know, with some people pushing some and others pushing others. What are your -- do you have any thoughts on this or any preferences or what do you, what do you think about that?
Katharine Allen: Oh boy, I think this is a question, if you ever get to interview Barry, you should ask him because he'll have something much more coherent to say. I think that this is it's -- the fact that we don't know what to call this modality is just symptomatic of a much broader issue our field faces, which is, we don't know what to call a lot of things. We don't have agreement over many things. And you know, I think that I'm falling with “remote” because that's what most, the most people use and understand right now.
Does that mean, it's what it should be or that there aren't merits to calling it other things? I, you know, I, I understand, I know Ewandro [Magalhães] is a big proponent for distance interpreting and, and, you know, with Kudo and he has a lot, he has a very good reason for it. I just don't know if it's gonna take hold because we may have already, you know, the ship may already have sailed on the remote interpreting. Ultimately our international standards organizations will end up with standards on this and make some choices about wording, the same way they did between community interpreting and public service interpreting -- and interestingly, they chose community interpreting. You know, it's a big old wide world. The profession is everywhere and we are going to have variations. I think, I don't know. It's not a very satisfactory answer. I don't have, I don't have strong opinions one way or the other right now, but I understand the issues behind it.
Elena Langdon: Yeah, no, it's just, it was just really at, at the level of curiosity because yeah, Ewandro -- and I, and that's what I hear from Europe too, which is where he was until recently, right? So he might be getting it from that -- and then, you know, Renato Beninatto from Nimdzi, they like virtual interpreting virtual interpreting.
Katharine Allen: It's the same fight we're having around -- how do you distinguish, do you call it onsite, face-to-face, person-to-person, when people who do video remote, thank you very much, would like to say I'm in the room. You know, I'm there, it is person-to-person still, I'm just not onsite. But you know, I mean, I hear the same argument going round and round with how to talk, how to distinguish even between, if you're, if you're being delivered virtually, which is probably the argument for virtual interpreting. but then virtual to my mind has that sense of it's not quite real.
Elena Langdon: Yeah.
Katharine Allen: So you just, I don't, you know. So we're just going to have to hash it out. It's the sign, it's just a sign of a young profession, evolving and new technologies coming in and, and, and, you know, not, we don't yet know fully what we're going to label all of these things.
Elena Langdon: Right. No, I agree. Virtual seems, I mean, with virtual reality, that's like…
Katharine Allen: Yeah, that's the problem.
Elena Langdon: So how is it fitting in with what you were doing? Were you already doing some work in remote? Were you talking to people about doing remote?
Katharine Allen: So I, you know, my, because I live at literally at 8,500 feet in the mountains with signal bounced up the Canyon off of, you know, dishes, I have not, I've done some remote interpreting, but I have not made it a staple of my personal practice, because I have, I actually have to go into town and, you know, make arrangements to be somewhere where I have good connectivity. Because it is, you know, if you don't have connectivity on remote, then you can't interpret. It's kind of the same thing as if you can't hear or see, you know, and when you're face-to-face with somebody, you also, and if you can't hear, excuse me, you know, you can't interpret.
But, but in terms of remote, you know, on the InterpretAmerica side with, with our conferences and blogging and the projects we've had, you know, we've been talking about remote interpreting for a decade -- for a long time. Barry of course -- my business partner -- is, you know, just a foremost expert on that and I benefit tremendously from that. And I've learned a lot. So, you know, we've been looking at the trends and watching how they're playing out and trying to track, you know, okay, well, how is the pilot program for remote interpreting and courts in California going for example, or, you know, we just try and stay up on all that. So I have kind of a broad knowledge of it that I try to share out when I present.
And so, so for me in my own personal life in remote, there's been a lot of stuff. Sort of trying to educate like, hey, let's get on top of this, let's adjust our standards. Hey, professional associations, could we please update our ethics and standards or have statements about best practices? You know, we've needed it for a long time. It's too bad we didn't get it before COVID, now we're all scrambling to do it, but either way now, I think we're going to get it. So, so on that level, you know, remote has, has been a big part of my life.
In terms of working on the educational and healthcare side, you know, I have, it doesn't -- it comes up more when you textbook write, or when you train and teach and like try it, you know, on the training side, trying to train people, like, let's see, let's do a simulated telephonic, you know, let's do video interpreting, let's try and get you ready for this marketplace, here's how you can get into this field, here's how you can connect. For the Master's students at times, I'll say, listen, just sign up with a telephonic company for a while. If you, if you haven't actually interpreted, get some practice, it is an entry-level place in the market for interpreting -- whether it should be or not, it's entry-level. And so it's a good place for people to enter in.
So remote -- this is a modality; it's here. We need to embrace it. We need to really get our handle around best practices. We should be in the driver's seat on this and not just in reactivity mode. And so I do a lot of kind of teaching, I guess, around it more than actually doing it myself, if that makes sense.
Elena Langdon: Yeah. Yeah. And it, and it falls in line with what you've been doing more lately as you, you know, as you mentioned, which is less practicing interpreting and really trying to be part of, you know, shaping it by teaching and by, by using your, your voice at InterpretAmerica.
Katharine Allen: This profession is so rich and broad and wide, and Elena, you're somebody who occupies of many roles as well.
And I feel so lucky to have that. And so for me, I love when I, you know, the interpreting work I do locally, like, because it is a mix, it's a mix of dialogic. And then, you know, it's a mix of, since I am the only trained simul interpreter with her own little equipment that will run around the counties, you know, I end up doing, doing presentations and trainings and things like that.
And it just, you know, it keeps you informed and not only keeps your skillset going, but it keeps you informed about, okay, how do you actually put this in place and in areas that don't even know what you do, you know?
And, and, and we had, I mean, we've seen one of my local counties. It's just been really -- they really, really struggled to figure out how to do their virtual town hall meetings. And they, you know, they've used some, some professional interpreters now that they're back to using their in-house trained interpreters and they've been practicing in front of everybody, how to try and reach, outreach to the community, and it's been a little painful to watch.
Elena Langdon: It's, it's the same for me in terms of, you know, you, you have the ideal and you have what you teach and what you talk about, and then you have to go out and apply it at a very local basis. And it's, you know, it's small, it's small victories.
One client, the first job I did with them for, for an onsite meeting, where they brought people from other countries -- it's an international organization -- and they, they were doing, it was, it was, you know, three active languages, in the meeting, and we were just using tour guide equipment, no booth, nothing. And then when somebody spoke French, you know, the French interpreter would consecutively interpret that into English. And then the Portuguese interpreter could -- you know, so it was like really, not great. And I was able to convince them -- I think it took two meetings, these are meetings every six months -- you know, to pay more, to get true simultaneous equipment, have booths -- so they loved it. And then then came the, the town hall, you know, meeting, right, and I couldn't convince them at the time to use an RSI platform, even though everybody was all around the world.
So they still wanted me to go locally, me and the French interpreter. And then came COVID. And so we tried -- it didn't work in Zoom. It was a failed attempt. So they had their meeting with 1300 people and they didn't have any interpreting.
Katharine Allen: Right. I think it's, I mean, I think it's both a time of tremendous frustration because of course we're going to see spaghetti, literally being heaved against the wall, you know, in huge amounts, you know, with, with many clients that suddenly realized we need your service.
But I also think one of the things that, you know, Barry and I have been talking about literally since the very beginning was the need to make our profession more visible, like to have, you know, I want to be able, I want the day to arrive, when I say “I'm an interpreter” and people know what that is just the same way they know “I am a teacher,” you know, “I'm a journalist,” like they have some idea what that is.
And I feel like we do have this tremendous opportunity, you know, right now, which I feel like we're also taking it our own way. I mean, everybody's out there trying to address the urgency of not losing standards of, of, of maintaining some kind of professional message. As much as possible as we expand out now, in the healthcare settings in particular we have at least some kind of pathway to ramping up remote because so many hospitals and bigger health systems have telephonic access already. They may have, you know, they've got their onsite interpreters who may, are also be doing some kind of remote in an internal call center, or they, you know, they're using some kind of remote service, and so there's a little bit more, something to hang, you know, to, to scaffold on like, there's something to actually scaffold up onto. And when things are no longer in such a crisis mode, I can see that kind of solidifying that.
But where I see it being so new, is, you know, in, in February, if you talked about remote interpreting, you would talk about, oh, that's VRI in the United States, immigrants, consecutive, it's all, you know, sort of dialogic and meeting-based. And, but, you know, in Europe that's where they've got the RSI, the remote simultaneous going on, and really, that's just not a thing. And even though I have felt for a long time that it should be a thing and even though we've seen some piloting of it, it just has had no, like, no, like, “no, we don't need simultaneous,” you know, and nobody's paying attention to it.
And then all of a sudden, overnight, every health department, every mayor's office, every incident command team, every city had to suddenly figure out a way to communicate virtually not just with people who don't speak English, but with anyone, first of all, they had to figure out, you know.
So everybody's gone to these Zoom meetings, you know, these virtual town hall meetings, and then as afterthoughts I'm seeing, so, cobbling together of “how, how do you, oh, how do we make language work with that?” You know? And so then now every, you know, I think what most people are doing is they're using something kind of webinar service and doing the classic, “we're going to add phone lines for people with our languages to call on,” or “we're going to try out the Zoom, you know, remote simultaneous function.” And the actual RSI platforms, which are interpreter friendly and show the kind of working standard we all hope, wish we had, right, those aren't anywhere to be seen on the public sector -- because they're completely overwhelmed, you know, just trying to deal with the upgrading, the ramping up of their own client base on the, on the conference side.
So what I wanted to say about that was just like this, this, you know, we went from zero -- there's just no penetration of remote simultaneous interpreting on the, on the health side, on the community interpreting side -- and now all of a sudden it needs to be instantaneous. And that's where I'm seeing the biggest breakdown. Right?
So there's like you have that one, you have that outward communication to the community where there never really was language access built-in very well. And, and you know where there's just nothing and no, and there's no guidance, and we're all scrambling and language services companies are just scrambling, scrambling, scrambling, right to try and, you know, client by client by client, to get something together.
And then on the hospital side, I think there's a little bit more of a coherent push. But then if you leave the hospital setting, you know, go out into the schools, there's hardly any use of remote at all.
From what I can tell anecdotally, I mean, we've been asking on our listserv that we have with educational interpreters and, you know, nobody—they, they might have, they might have some use of language service companies for onsite, but there just wasn't any remote to begin with. So they're in the same boat, right?
But, but post COVID and during the COVID many, many, many people who never thought about how language access actually actually happens, especially in the US, are, are being forced to think about it because they're in a public crisis, and they can't ignore their 10% Somali population and they can't ignore the Arabic community.
I mean, we've got to get this public health information out there and all, and not just the public health information, but you know, how do you access the aid package and you know, how do you, how do you, do you go to the store? Is it, do you mask, do you not?
I know that for the profession, individual interpreters are experiencing this almost as Armageddon. You know, it's just, it's just been catastrophic, the loss of onsite. We were mostly onsite profession, and all that's gone away. And of course it, it is even if you get yourself up and running to interpret remotely, it doesn't mean that all that work is still there because on the other side, the, the people you used to work for also are not ready to have you interpret remotely. So there's just, this, it is just a, I don't even know what the term is to use, you know.
But for me underneath all that, what that means really for the communities we serve, for those of us who serve immigrant and communities, it's like, man, they already had bad angle -- it was already partial, half-baked periodic access. And now it's just, it's gone, it's just, so much of it's been stripped out. I mean, completely. Like, you know, it's like, you used to have, you know, if, as an on-site patient, you used to get one or two touches a day, you know. Now you might get none, you know?
And for, you know, the health department information, what's it going out in? Spanish? And maybe, you know, for those people who have that in place, maybe they're getting it out in writing on websites, but I don't, that's not how I'm consuming my information. I mean, I'm assuming people are probably trying to watch, you know, their, their language news and their radio stations. And I mean, I'm assuming that's probably where they're getting their information and those people have actually replaced interpreting for so much of this information right now. Right? Wouldn't you? I mean that they're there, they're in their Portuguese, you know, whatever their little radio station is, and they're saying, “Hey guys, you know, your health department just said this,” and they're, they're basically doing the work.
Elena Langdon: Yeah. And WhatsApp for certain percentage of the population, which is unfortunate because there's a lot of, a lot of misinformation, you know, it's, it's, it's a very different network. It's not based on journalism.
Katharine Allen: Right.
Elena Langdon: It just exacerbates all the disparities, you know, that were there, the health disparities already, and then the language access disparities.
One of the, one of the people that I was able to interview and I'm really excited about to share is Vonessa Costa. You've probably met her and she's doing such a good job at Cambridge Health Alliance.
Katharine Allen: Yes, she is. Shout out to Vonessa! She's amazing. Yeah.
Elena Langdon: And you know what she told me, which really makes sense, is that they were already, they were already so remote -- they had their own call center for over the phone and video interpreting at the, at this large healthcare system that she works at, that she's the director of for interpreting services and 90%, 90% of their encounters were remote, the vast majority of them being done by staff interpreters. Okay.
Katharine Allen: In a call center.
Elena Langdon: Yup. And so what they did was that they then moved them offsite and they were using the Cisco video phones, right? And then the providers were using iPads or phones or Cisco phones. But they were already at 90%. There are a thousand encounters a day, okay, 900 of them being phone or video with majority, vast majority of their staff handling that. And they were able to move them off site to their homes. They took the -- the ones that wanted to took their video phones, if they had the connection, they had the privacy, right. And they've increased it. Now it's 99% remote. A few people, you know, at the hospital and they've increased it to, I think she said 1300 encounters a day.
Katharine Allen: Wow. And that's because their infrastructure was there. Right. we have those, that general research that we had about 20% remote in the United States before the pandemic hit. Probably the majority of that I would bet was in healthcare and finance and some utility, I mean, in areas where you might not think, but healthcare obviously being the biggest place.
But when we, you know, even, even then, you know, interpreting services and language access services, still only cover a percentage, excuse me, of our healthcare system, even though it's required, you know.
Because you think about, I mean, I, I just know my own rural area. Yes, we have some interpreters at the two local hospitals, and either doctors and clinics hire bilingual staff or they don't have access particularly. And so I think of all the rural places, all the smaller clinics, all the ancillary services, all you know, that were, didn't have even have that in place. So there's a long ways to go. I think it's like one in five in the US -- is that correct? -- people who don't speak English at home. I think about that, that is, you know, a fifth of the population and this is one of those times when you can't leave a fifth behind. Everybody needs to get this information.
And then, I don't know, Elena, maybe with your podcast, with some of the magic it's like, how can we get that message? You can't leave that many people behind, and you need us to help you.
Elena Langdon: Two of the journalists that I spoke to who were from smaller communities, they, they came at it as, “Oh, well, the patients don't have their family anymore, so how are they going to know what the doctors are saying?” So I was like, wait a minute, let me back that up a minute and tell you.
Katharine Allen: “Where do I start? There is a thing that's been around for 70 years…” “Oh, okay.”
Elena Langdon: I think part of that visibility, that you were talking about before, you know, I've come to think of terminology in a different way too, because I don't really, if you want to call me a translator, that's really not a problem, you know, as long as you're talking about us in the work we do, you know?
Katharine Allen: The bridge for multilingual communication.
Elena Langdon: I, I mean, I'm hopeful too, and I think. I think we can, all we can do is to try to do, to try to, like you said, get a little bit of magic going.
Katharine Allen: Well, we've got a lot of good people in this field and you know, it, it has matured tremendously over the last 30 years, you know? Again, I, you know, I'm always mindful of the whole field and obviously the conference side and other sides, it's, they've been at it for a little bit longer, but in the States, you know, it is primarily, we're serving immigrants for the most part and legal and in health and in community. And, you know, we have some infrastructure and now, and we need to leverage it as much as we can, you know, even if it's not as, you know, as complete as we wish it were.
Elena Langdon: I'm really happy. I think we touched upon the things that I wanted to talk about for remote interpreting. So there's two more parts to the, to this, that kind of, to wrap up. The first is just to talk very briefly about doing work that you love. I feel really lucky that I get to do work that I love that keeps me going, that moves me and I, and I've been thinking more and more about what, you know, why that is and kind of reflecting on that. But then it's also, you know, that's a really privileged position to be in, you know, and I realize how lucky I am and how there's so many people that don't have those kinds of choices. And so I just wanted to kind of open up that to see what your thoughts are on that both, you know, with regard to the work that you do and the idea of finding joy in, in work.
Katharine Allen: Well, I think that's why honestly, you know, why do we have so many amazing people who work for next to nothing and, and service-based professions, you know? It's because they feel the passion, I think, especially, again, you know, for those who interpret on the immigrant side, they often are immigrants. I'm not, you know, I know I'm, I'm definitely in the minority, in our field in that way. I, you know, I grew up English-speaking and white and in Oregon, you know, in the US I'm not the normal, not the norm for our field, right.
And so how many colleagues do I have, who, you know, still, who work for really low wages? Doing something that's so important in, in healthcare teams, where a lot of the team members are earning so much more than they are, right. And yet they couldn't do their work without that interpreter there, not really. And, you know, and I think it is because they feel that passion and that satisfaction and, and they, and it is a, it is a way to work and earn money and do something you love. Although it should be, you know, you should earn a whole lot more, right.
And I'm, I'm definitely privileged because, you know, it's like, I was able to dedicate myself to profession and raise kids at the same time in a two, in a married situation where, you know, we were both earning and I wasn't earning the bulk.
Right? I mean, I don't know if I would have been, if I had really wanted to dedicate myself to this profession and I had been a single mom, I probably wouldn't have -- I would have had to go -- I don't know what I would've done. I don't know. I honestly, I don't know if I'd be in the profession the same way because they, the paychecks are very -- it takes a long time as a freelance trainer or educator or what we do to get to a place where you're earning on a regular basis.
Right? So I feel fortunate, fortunate for all those things, for being middle class, you know, for having these resources and education. I mean, there's so many things I feel fortunate for. And, and so that's one reason why I feel, you know, I've always felt that it was important to give back in whatever way.
I mean, it sounds so cliche, but I've, that's just, I've always felt like, okay, you know, this is, it is a privilege to have to be, it's a privilege to be born American, you're lucky to have all these resources and what can you do with it? How can you do something that's going to help other people? And that's, I've kind of came up that way and, and it still applies.
There's something about being that person who can be in that intimate intersection of helping people understand each other. That is such a -- I don't know -- it's such an important, what is the word I want to use? It's like a sacred thing, you know, to be there. And so for me, everything stems from that: How can I do that in the best possible way to honor the people's conversation? How can I help my colleagues as a teacher do the same? How much can I acknowledge, you know, the sacrifices and the people, you know, that we're making? And I just keep -- every time I go through my Instagram feed and I see pictures of our colleagues who are actually in the hospitals right now, still working, you know, and I'm just like, Oh man, like, we're, you know, we're really on the front lines now.
Elena Langdon: Yeah.
Katharine Allen: Passion brings its gifts and, you know, human communication is the most important thing we have in our lives. And we're lucky to be in a profession that helps promote it.
Elena Langdon: I'm still trying to think about how to best think about it and word it, but that, that connection that you have when, you know, by bringing people together and by facilitating communication. And, you know, and I was talking about the, the two, the woods between the worlds that's in the beginning of The Chronicles of Narnia, I was reading it with my son and it's a beautiful idea. And you go into this woods and it's really still and quiet and nothing's happening. So it reminded me of kind of the sacredness.
Katharine Allen: Right.
Elena Langdon: From that woods then you put on the right ring and you, you go into different ponds and then you go into, into a different universe, into a different world, which I think we get, we get, we get to do as interpreters and then we get to bring other people with us so that they can all, you know, be in this space. Yeah. So it can be a beautiful thing.
Katharine Allen: I mean, for me, I think about two, two really quick anecdotes that stick with me a lot. One was from early on in my career when I worked for a family who had, very severely, you know, a baby who had coded for 15 minutes and they brought him back and he had, he had like every single possible home service. And eventually they just brought me in and I kind of case managed all the appointments because, you know, there was just so many and I worked with this family for several years.
We all got to know each other really well. I mean, I know I provided a tremendous service for them being that bridge, but I will never forget the day when we went into a doctor's appointment and the doctor was very, very fluent in Spanish and he just went forward and, and carried his care in the native language.
And the dad cried. He cried at the relief of not having to have me as the go between. And there was something about that moment that has stuck with me my entire career. One, that absolute necessity to be as authentic as you can, to get everyone's message across. And also just it's, we're still a pale comparison, you know, compared to that, when people don't have to have us.
And then the other really quick anecdote was a job I did this summer helping bird scientists from South America in the US talk in a meeting. And a lot of these South American scientists were like, “Oh, we don't really need the interpreting, you know,” but, you know, there were a couple who really did. And you see by the middle of the first day, all of those people who actually spoke English quite well were picking up their headsets and, and using, working with the interpreter so that they could speak their part in Spanish, so they could actually have the depth and subtlety and the completeness of what they want to say come through, because they can't in their English, you know, even being fairly bilingual.
And so those things stick with me a lot. Like it's, it's a big privilege and a big responsibility, what we do. It brings out a lot of passion.
Elena Langdon: Okay. So this is a very quick one. This is the rapid-fire, and then we'll be done. So note, pad or digital pad?
Katharine Allen:] Note pad for me. Still.
Elena Langdon: Coffee or tea?
Katharine Allen: Oh, tea in the morning, coffee in the afternoon.
Elena Langdon: What about for language learning? Are you visual or do you learn by ear?
Katharine Allen: Mm. Hmm. I think at this point, probably ear. Yeah.
Elena Langdon: Do you have any special object or totem that you take with you when you interpret?
Katharine Allen: I think my note pad, my notepad and pen. Yeah. That's, that's what I take, no matter what, I got to have that. Yeah. And my, and my dictionaries on my phone. I mean, those are my totems, you know.
Elena Langdon: That counts. Freelance or in-house?
Katharine Allen: Oh, well, I've never actually experienced being an employed in-house interpreter. So I can't, I've always, you know, I mean, I actually would love to have that experience in time. I think it would be, it'd be cool, but I've only done freelance.
Elena Langdon: Okay. is there a term or like a category of terms that never seem to stick or that give you trouble?
Katharine Allen: Sometimes when you get into the, in Spanish where you've got seven syllables and words, then you're just like, “Oh man, this isn't going to go well.”
Elena Langdon: And the final one is: can you name a favorite podcast?
Katharine Allen: A favorite podcast in the field, or just any favorite podcast? I listened to so many podcasts. You're asking a Gemini to say a favorite podcast.
Elena Langdon: Right? I forgot you're a Gemini too. I know. I don't like, I don't like the favorite questions.
Katharine Allen: Okay. Like favorite podcasts for me are those ones that take a moment in time, a scandal or something had happened and they in like 10 episodes, they run you through it. You know, like, like the Watergate ones or the, you know, the ones about the gymnastics scandal or something that really walks you through in-depth, like long-form journalism. Those are my favorite podcasts
Elena Langdon: That's great. Thank you, Katharine. This has been really good. I'm really happy. I'm so glad. Thank you for your time.
Katharine Allen: Thanks for doing this, Elena. I don't know how you have any time, so it's awesome you're doing this podcast. I can't wait to subscribe and add it to my Stitcher list.
Elena Langdon: Okay. And have, have a good rest of your day.
Katharine Allen: Thanks so much. Hang tight, everyone. Be safe and get some rest.
Elena Langdon: Yes, tchau.
Katharine Allen: Bye-bye.