How To Become a BSL Interpreter | Spencer Clarke Group

To mark Deaf Awareness Week, which runs from May 5th - May 11th 2025, recruitment agency, Spencer Clarke Group sat down with a BSL interpreter with over ten years experience, Sarah Meeks, to discover more about this essential and fascinating role.

0:05 What’s one piece of advice you would give to a BSL interpreter about the deaf community?
2:08 Explain your job role in 3 words
2:22 What does a typical day look like for you?
3:17 Where’s the best place you’ve translated at?
5:10 What qualifications do you need to become a BSL interpreter?
6:09 What inspired you to become a BSL interpreter?
9:34 What is a common challenge you face while interpreting, and how do you handle this?
11:09 What advice would you give to someone considering a career in BSL interpreting?

0:05 What’s one piece of advice you would give to a BSL interpreter about the deaf community?
I would say one most important thing is never pretend to know what the deaf person is saying. If you don't understand them, deaf people are very good at understanding when they're not being understood.
They can tell from your body language and your expression on your face that you don't understand them. And there is this thing in interpreting, I think it’s called emphatics - where you nod and you go “yep yeah.”
In sign language we do this, It means yes.
“Yep, Understand?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Got it.”
If you're in a situation where somebody's signing something at you and you're not understanding it, you're not going to be going “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah I understand, I understand.”
You're going to be going [pulls expression on face] and your facial expression will tell them everything. If you start going, “Oh yeah, understand, understand” they're going to not have any confidence in you.
They're going to think this person is trying to wing it because they're not comfortable, because they don't understand me. And that's detrimental to the relationship. But also as a professional, you should never do it.
You should never pretend to understand somebody when actually you don't. It's okay to stop somebody and say, “I'm sorry, I'm not clear. Can you repeat that?”
Can I just understand that or say back to them what you think you've just heard?
“Let me get this right. Is this what you're saying?”
And you can avoid those embarrassing moments of being like, oh, don't understand.
Instead of just being like that, you could just say, “Can I just get this right?” or “Can you just go over that again?” or like you would do in spoken language.
It’s really important in sign language as well, because there are so many nuances with the language and it can be interpreted sometimes in different ways. So you want to be really clear that you're getting what it is that the person is trying to tell you.
So that is my big bugbear, people pretending to understand a deaf person when they don’t understand them.

2:08 Explain your job role in 3 words
Communication, empathy and fun.

2:22 What does a typical day look like for you?
Well, that's the best thing about interpreting is, I don't have a typical day. My week and my days are so varied that I could literally be in Brussels at the European Parliament one day and then I could be on stage at a festival the next day,
And then I could be in an office or in a medical appointment or at the palace.
I mean, I've done so many things in my job, that are so varied because deaf people get everywhere and I actually mostly work on stage.
So we do a lot of performance interpreting, so I do music and poetry - and all that kind of stuff in theatre.
I also love medical because I work in hospitals a lot and I do a lot of surgeries.
Last week I did an emergency C-section with a deaf parent and watched the baby born.
I can just be at home, remote working and there could be a remote meeting on Zoom, and I just jump on for an hour.
Rest of the day, I’m free to go and play tennis.

3:17 Where’s the best place you’ve translated at?
I think probably Buckingham Palace, I've been there a couple of times. The first time I went there for a person that was applying for a role as a cleaner and as part of the interview, they took her up to one of the guest bedrooms overlooking the mall.
And it was just a bit of a pinch me moment because normally when you’re at the palace, looking into the palace, and you see the facade of the palace. and you look into the bedroom windows, I was looking out of those windows at the crowds, and I've done that many times myself as a tourist.
I wouldn’t say I was a royalist, but I love the history of the royal family and I love the history of our country.

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