Uprooting While I was sitting on the couch with my mother, who is currently visiting me from Mexico, she sighed deeply, and when I asked her why she was sighing, she looked at me and said: “I so regret the decision I made years ago... The post Desarraigo (Uprooting) appeared first on NAJIT.

Has it ever happened to you that there is something you have believed all your life, something you have never even considered questioning, and then out of nowhere you see something or hear someone say something that makes you feel like your brain has been... The post When your long-standing assumptions are shattered: What now? appeared first on NAJIT.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I find myself remembering my last day of training before I became a professional court interpreter. Part of my training (and the part I enjoyed the most) was sitting in courtrooms observing court procedures. “I am starving,” I thought, ready to... The post Mother’s Love Never Dies appeared first on NAJIT.

I was born Puerto Rican. I was actually born in New York, but that doesn’t make me a New Yorker any more than being born in Hawaii or Japan makes my cousins Hawaiian or Japanese just because their military parents happened to be stationed there... The post Embracing our Mother Tongue’s Diversity appeared first on NAJIT.

“I am going to make something special for dinner tonight,” announced my mom on a cold February morning during one of her visits in the United States. I wasn’t sure what she meant because anything my mom made was impressive. Cooking was my mom’s love... The post The Lesson from my Kitchen appeared first on NAJIT.

Before becoming a staff interpreter in 2015, I freelanced for more than seven years. During that time, I exchanged information with every single interpreter I crossed paths with during assignments or in class (once I found interpreting courses). I was desperately searching for a sense... The post Finding a Home at NAJIT appeared first on NAJIT.

Well, folks, it’s December. And looking back, 2020 was just another boring year, right? Nothing momentous happened. Nothing eventful—just a year like any other. Same old, same old.With the exception, of, well, you know. EVERYTHING.

“We are what we practice” –said Dr. Shauna’s Shapiro in her famous TEDx talk. Whether we realize it or not, we result from what we choose to do every day, our belief system, the cultural roots we inherit from our ancestors, and customs we adopt... The post How Rituals and Traditions Make Us Who We Are appeared first on NAJIT.

“The terror of performing never goes away. Instead, you get very, very comfortable being terrified.” ~Eric WhitacreI like that quote. It speaks to me. I think you could replace the word “performing” with “interpreting” and paste it on the walls of all our offices. Interpreting is terrifying. But then again, so is life.