A matter of interpretation

Alan Wendt graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics in 2008. Now a senior interpreter of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) at Deaf Aotearoa, his job involves working for the Office of the Clerk and the Prime Minister’s Office, communicating the words of some of our top political leaders.

Alan Wendt interpreting
Photo credit: Deaf Aotearoa

How would you describe your student experience at Victoria University?

I first started at Victoria in 1999. I struggled with self-doubt and with indecision about what to study, and found it hard to maintain motivation; I’m aware there is research to suggest these struggles aren’t uncommon for Pasifika students. I happened upon linguistics and then took the elective NZSL courses. Inspired by Linguistics and Applied Language Studies staff like Rachel McKee, David McKee, and Janet Holmes, I found that linguistics helped me learn about myself and where I came from, so I stuck at it.

What was the most useful thing you learnt at Victoria University?

That making good decisions and seeing them through leads to personal happiness and achievement.

What have you been doing since graduating?

I’ve been an interpreter for about 14 years and have also worked on and off in universities as a tutor and teacher. I now work at Deaf Aotearoa as the Senior Interpreter.

What’s been a highlight of your career so far?

From 2012 to 2015 I worked in London at University College London, a unique opportunity and major career highlight for a Samoan boy from Wellington! I worked at the Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre in three roles that combined my interests in interpreting and linguistics—as an in-house interpreter, as a research assistant on a funded British Sign Language Corpus project, and as a lecturer.

What do you love about your role as a NZSL interpreter?

I love that it brings together my intellectual interests in languages, interpreting, and inter-cultural communication with my desire to do work that contributes to the community and to citizenship.

What are some of the challenges of your job?

Simultaneous interpreting can be fun, complex, terrifying, and tiring. To do it well, we need flexible control of our cognition skills (working memory, cognitive inhibition, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making) to do the mental work, metacognitive skills to reflect on the interpreting process, and the poise to do all of this calmly and efficiently. As with other ‘multimodal’ professionals like musicians, we have to practise a little bit every day to keep fit and sharp.

Have you kept any connections with the University?

I’m part of the alumni community, I have a number of friends and family that work at Victoria University, I go to public lectures there and I promote the University as much as I can to prospective students, especially Pasifika students! I’m especially proud to be one of a small group of Pasifika students to have gone through the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.

Why do you think it’s important that New Zealanders learn NZSL?

Apart from the cognitive benefits of learning another language, learning some NZSL connects you to Deaf New Zealanders and to their unique experiences of being from Aotearoa New Zealand. Learning NZSL also has the potential to enrich your mind, your sense of self, and your sense of community.

Watch a video about Alan's work as an NZSL interpreter.