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If you’ve been tuning in to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s daily press briefings to hear updates on the coronavirus pandemic, you might have noticed Andy Rork in the corner of your screen.
He’s a full-time staff interpreter with LUNA Language Services, which works with the state to provide interpreters. Rork says he was “lucky enough” to be assigned the press conference gig. He’s also interpreted legislative hearings, and State of the State addresses for past governors, including the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon; and worked with other state agencies.
How long have you been an interpreter?
I tell people all my life, because my parents are deaf. But as a real job, I’ve been doing it since 1992. So, almost 30 years.
What made you decide to become an interpreter?
I was a terrible college student, so I fell back on the family business, for lack of a better term. When I was going to Ball State, because they have a deaf education program, they always have students there. So, I started interpreting classes for them. You know, it’s better than working in the cafeteria. It just pays better.
How do you feel about being on TV every day?
It’s fine. I know that some interpreters are intimidated to be recorded or to be looked at en masse. I used to be nervous about it before. … It used to kind of creep me out, but I’ve gotten over that. The work you do is the work you do, whether there’s a camera on or not.
What you’re having to interpret during those press conferences isn’t exactly uplifting. Is it draining to relay this kind of information every day?
It can be at times, because on certain days, I think the emotion is higher than on other days. As an interpreter—and not just doing this but anything—I interpret things like counseling and mental health counseling … and you can get vicarious trauma because you have to embody what you’re signing and what you’re voicing. And sometimes it can trigger your own stuff or you just feel it, and you walk away from it, and you’re just like, “Ugh, this is heavy.”
Have people started recognizing you in public as the interpreter on TV?
A couple weeks ago, I was at home and out grilling … and one of my neighbors was walking by and I just started a conversation with him. And as he’s walking away, he stopped and he turned around and he said, “I meant to ask you: You’re the guy on TV that does sign language, aren’t you?”
It hasn’t happened a whole lot. I don’t know how many people are really paying attention to the little guy in the corner.
What is something people might not know about interpreters?
American Sign Language isn’t the same word order as English. It’s a completely different language.
So what we’re doing is a lot harder than what it seems like. There are some prediction skills you have to have because the grammar is in a different order. A lot of people will assume that captioning will work for deaf people, but … reading English isn’t all deaf people’s first language—usually it’s sign language … . And the captioning programs that have the voice recognition … they’re so terrible. It’s just really bad technology right now. It’s good for people who hear it, but it’s not good for people who can’t hear what’s being said.
[The job] is physically hard, too. Not just mentally, but physically.
From having your arms and hands up for so long?
It’s constant motion. It’s pretty tiring.•
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