Towards Medical Interpretation Service in Hirakata (for Deaf and Foreign People) - The Third Forum

The dialogue about providing medical interpretation for deaf people and foreigners in Hirakata-shi (and beyond) continues on Sunday, June 17 at Tokai University Gyosei High School in Hirakata-shi. Dr. Kiyomi Takizawa from the Gunma University School of Medicine will discuss the use of the internet in medical interpretation. In this method, the interpreter does not need to be in the same physical location as the patient and/or doctor; Skype and other internet programs are used instead. Click on the above poster for more details in Japanese. For details in English see below:

Day, Date, Time: Sunday, June 17, 2012, 1:00 PM
Place: Tokai University Gyosei High School Media Center IT Corner (click here for map). The high school is a ten minute walk from the Murano Station on the Keihan Katano Line (three stops away from Hirakata-shi eki).
Admission: FREE.

This is the Third Forum dealing with this very important issue. How can foreigners and deaf people receive proper medical care without interpreters? The immediate goal of the organizing group is to have interpreters available at the new Hirakata City Hospital when it opens next year. The long term goal is to create a template for medical interpretation services throughout Japan. Please come and support the cause. The lecture will be in Japanese with Japanese Sign Language and English interpretation.

Click here for information about the First Forum.

Click here for information about the Second Forum.

Towards Medical Interpretation Service in Hirakata - The Second Forum Report and Photos

The Second Forum to discuss issues involved in seeking medical interpretation for Deaf people and foreigners in Hirakata-shi successfully took place on September 17. Almost 100 people came to study and support the cause of hospitals providing interpretation for non-Japanese speaking patients. Currently there is no system to provide medical interpretation for Deaf people and foreigners during treatments, consultations and emergencies.

Click here for background information about the First Forum.

Click here for the announcement for the Second Forum.

The keynote address at the Second Forum was given by Izabel Arocha, Executive Director of the International Medical Interpreters Association. She described the situation of medical interpretation in the United States, including major movements, laws and lawsuits that led to mandatory interpretation for non-English speakers at American hospitals. She also gave an overview about the interpretation profession, including training, challenges and professional development. She spoke about medical interpretation in other countries and also included information about sign language medical interpretation.

For me, Arocha's address had two powerful themes:

1) Sign languages are real languages, the same as spoken languages. Hearing and Deaf people equally need medical interpretation.

2) Interpretation is a real job, and a tough one at that. It needs extensive training and professional development as well as cooperation with parties and institutions involved in the process. Competency in a language does not mean a person can automatically and competently interpret.

These two points desperately need to be understood in Japan. Japanese Sign Language is a real language and JSL interpreters need to be treated as professionals, the same as interpreters of French, English and other spoken languages. JSL should not be tied to social welfare and offered as a volunteer service. A hearing person who can communicate in JSL cannot be expected to be a competent interpreter without proper interpretation training.

I wasn't able to take as many photos at the Second Forum as I did at the First because I had other responsibilities this time around. Hopefully you can get the idea of the supportive environment during our exploration of this important issue. Thanks to all the volunteers and staff members who put in so much work for the meeting. A Third and Fourth Forum are in the planning stages. Stay tuned to VAOJ for announcements. Please support this important cause.

よろしくお願いします。

Link to International Medical Interpreters Association: http://www.imiaweb.org/

Towards Medical Interpretation Service in Hirakata (for Deaf and Foreign People) - The Second Forum

After the success of the First Forum in May, the Second Forum for Medical Interpretation will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2011. The Executive Director of the International Medical Interpretation Association, Izabel Arocha, will speak about the state of medical interpretation in the United States. Please join us as we continue to study and discuss the lack of interpreters for Deaf people and foreigners in Japan. Click on the posters above for more information and directions to the event in Hirakata-shi, Osaka, Japan. Admission is free. English, Japanese and JSL interpretation will be available.

Link to information about the First Forum: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2011/05/towards-medical-interpretation-service.html

Towards Medical Interpretation Service in Hirakata (for Deaf and Foreign People)

The first forum to discuss the problems of providing medical interpretation for deaf people and foreigners was held yesterday in Hirakata-shi, Osaka. Almost 200 people attended (to the joy and relief of organizers) in this first attempt to bring deaf people and foreigners together to discuss their experiences and needs in medical interpretation (indeed the room was so packed it was difficult to move around to take pictures). There was a keynote lecture, a discussion panel and comments from audience members (see below posters for speaker details). This is just the first of these forums. The goals of the organizing group are lofty: providing interpretation for deaf people and foreigners locally, especially at the new city hospital to open in 2013, and to provide a template for these kinds of services throughout Japan. To this end many volunteers and experts are joining together. Stay tuned to VAOJ for more information about future forums. (I will also update this post with more photos in the near future).

UPDATE: SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE EVENT!
LINK: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28133281@N00/sets/72157626905579528/

Performing Naturalness: A film by Dada Docot...

My friend Dada from Here, there and somewhere else, sent me information about her new film. I really like it a lot as it brings up many important and interesting issues in a very short amount of time. We will be talking about immigration and foreigners living in Japan in Globalization class soon and I hope to use the video as part of my lecture.

My only critique is that some of the captions are difficult to read. Dada has mentioned that others have said the same and she is working to fix this problem.

Information from the YouTube page:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQiTIWKz7NI

Title: Performing Naturalness
Duration: 3min
Director/Editor/Actress: Ma. Ledda Brina "Dada" Docot
Cameraworks: Jong Pairez
Effects: Mike Garcia
Music: Fabien Claudel, Zikweb

Synopsis:

Living for about four years in Japan, one Filipina has grown quite tired of the "random" questioning of immigration police who inquire about her visa status. One day, she gets off at the Shinagawa train station (the stop closest to city's busiest immigration office) to try a little social experiment.

A part of a series of work on space occupied during mobility, the short film documents an instance of surveillance of foreigners in nothing but an ordinary day in Japan. It emphasizes that the everyday life of a migrant IS a performance. The foreign space accommodates or rejects, and as the "visitor," you "perform" roles so that the space receives you (well).

Festivals/Exhibits:
- ALAB: Ten Best Student Shorts, ACTIVE VISTA FILM FESTIVAL, Robinsons Galleria IndieSine, November 29, 2008.
- In Competition, Documentary Category, 20th GAWAD CCP PARA SA ALTERNIBONG PELIKULA AT VIDEO, for screening on Nov. 21, 2008
- Installation Piece for the exhibit "DISLOCATED JOINTS," Poetry in the Kitchen, Tokyo Japan, March 2008 (Using the version edited by Jong Pairez)

I asked Dada a few questions about her film and she was most generous with her answers:

Performing Naturalness was filmed guerrilla style. I thought that the immigration police in their civilian outfit do the same to us foreigners -- the shooting style somewhat replicated what they do in a surveillance society. I was quite surprised though that they did not seem to bother when they saw my friend with the 8mm camera. They asked about it and I simply replied that it is for an art project. They did not seem to mind and in fact they smiled. Whenever I get approached by the police, I always show them both my gaijin and Tokyo University ID cards. I guess the police did not bother to ask anymore when they saw my Todai card. My student card was quite powerful, I guess.

Perhaps you have also noticed that the Japanese faces were all blurred. The cameraman and I had a sort of a disagreement whether the faces should be concealed or not. I decided to conceal their faces -- exposing them in a video without their permission, I thought, would be too much. I felt I still had to respect their privacy, even if I also violate mine whenever they inquire about my identity as a foreigner.

Others who have seen the film said it was quite interesting. Foreigner friends in Japan could relate to the isolation of the character in the film. But of course we do not have the same experiences. Caucasian friends felt lucky that they were asked only once, or never.

About the style, the film is only 3 minutes because we used an 8mm camera. The "experiment" had a time limit as one roll of an 8mm film is only 3 minutes. I really intended to do this experiment only once (partly because it is expensive). Good thing my experiment succeeded. The footage was actually less than 3 minutes, some of the scenes shot by the cameraman were not used. I just wanted to emphasize my message of isolation, and I thought it worked by stretching the last scene using slow motion or repeating some frames.

I think Dada is an extremely gifted filmmaker and visual anthropologist. I understand she has won awards in the Philippines for her work and that Performing Naturalness will be screened at a film festival in New York. I look forward to her future work. If you want to see more of Dada, check out the preview to RESTLESS.

Link to Baad ng Pauno (RESTLESS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnOkP9t3Wg