JSL (Japanese Sign Language) Interpreter?
April 13, 2010 2:22 PM   Subscribe

How do I find someone who can interpret between JSL (Japanese Sign Language) and spoken English, in the San Francisco area. Looked around online and can't figure out whom I'd go to. Any ideas?
posted by quinoa to Grab Bag (8 answers total)
 
Japan has a Consulate General in SF. You may find that they have a lead on where you might find a person with that skillset.
posted by mmascolino at 2:29 PM on April 13, 2010


Maybe the UCSF Center on Deafness could help. They mostly do social services for deaf clients but might know where to refer you. Here's their list of Deaf Services for Northern California. Someone on that list has to be able to help!
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:46 PM on April 13, 2010


St. Benedict's Parish for the Deaf also seems to housed at St. Francis Xavier church which has a specific Japanese mission. Maybe there is some convergence there.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:51 PM on April 13, 2010


And lastly, the National Asian Deaf Congress. Certainly they have Japanese members in SF.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:53 PM on April 13, 2010


In case it's at all helpful: when I was taking sign language classes, one of my instructors talked about interpreting in a similar situation. They ended up having a two-interpreter chain, something like Interpreter 1 interprets from JSP to spoken Japanese; Interpreter 2 from spoken Japanese to spoken English. Cumbersome but got the job done.
posted by not that girl at 3:06 PM on April 13, 2010


Response by poster: Fabulous suggestions! I'll check those out!

(Not ready to yet mark best answer...but I'll keep you posted and let you know once I figure out what works.)
posted by quinoa at 5:30 PM on April 13, 2010


I'd post a notice on the bulletin board by the big supermarket in Japantown, and another on Craigslist.
posted by zippy at 5:49 PM on April 13, 2010


Funnily enough, a good friend of mine just got his PhD in linguistics at Berkley, and he specialized in Japanese sign language. Unfortunately, he is now divides his time between Tokyo and Nagoya. I'll ping him and see if he has any suggestions. Feel free to MeMail me to followup.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:35 PM on April 13, 2010


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