Emoji and Emoticons and Stickers, Oh My! What’s an Interpreter to Do?

Learn how to convey the meaning of graphicons during high-stakes medical and legal interpreting assignments!

There are 3.2 billion people who have regular internet access in the world, and studies show that more than 92% of them regularly send emoji, emoticons, smileys, stickers, and other graphicons. As a result, these graphicons are also showing up more and more frequently as part of evidence in courts all over the world. These symbols are increasingly appearing in British and U.S. criminal court, family, and employment hearings, as well as in telemedicine.

But the multiple meanings of graphicons are not always readily grasped. So, how is an interpreter supposed to deal with them?

Join this webinar to learn why graphicons are so difficult to interpret for both spoken and signed language legal and medical interpreters. The speaker will offer some best practices recommended by a research group of working professional interpreters in the U.S. You will leave this session understanding how to deal with graphicons when you encounter them during assignments.

You will learn how to

• Identify the multiple factors that go into interpreting graphicons
• Comprehend the difficulties of interpreting graphicons both intraculturally and cross culturally
• Recognize the frequency of these images in high-stakes medical and legal encounters
• Handle graphicons when doing sight translations in legal or medical settings

About the Presenter

In addition to having significant experience in the field of secondary and university education, Dr. Holly Silvestri has run her own language services company as well as freelanced for other agencies and government entities. Currently she works as Senior Coordinator for Translation, Training, and Curriculum at the National Center for Interpretation at the University of Arizona and teaches in the school’s undergraduate Spanish Translation and Interpretation Program. Her position also involves research on interpreting and translation topics. Her working languages are Spanish, French, and English. She is a founding member of American Association of Interpreters and Translators in Education.