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Interpreting for poor speakers of English?
Thread poster: Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:41
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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TOPIC STARTER
Yes, but... Aug 20, 2016

Maxi Schwarz wrote:
There was one exception. I was in the waiting room with the client, as we were kept waiting, and we conversed. It became apparent that I could only use simple words and simple sentence structure with her - comprehension was very limited. In the session we came to the legal preamble bit, which he read out from the sheet instead of me seeing a copy of it. It was especially complex and legalese. I asked his permission to paraphrase into simpler language, and was denied. As I went on, her face registered increasing incomprehension and anxiety. The examiner stood up, thanked me, dismissed us, and phoned the agency that had hired me saying I was incompetent since the client clearly didn't understand me. The agency had my back, especially after I explained the circumstance. Even if it had been read out to her in her own language, I don't think the client could have understood the content. Like, if you are an English speaker but unfamiliar with the law, a lot of the fine print we tend to get thrown at us is gobbledygook.


You stated you realized her comprehension was bad even while you were still in the waiting room engaged in semi-formal/informal chat. This is exactly what I was talking about.

In my experience, it was often times a subject-matter expert (sometimes even a great expert) but unfortunately with poor English skills (on all levels). Fortunately, this didn't happen too often but when it did, it was odd.


 
Phil Hand
Phil Hand  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 15:41
Chinese to English
Interpreters are there to communicate Aug 21, 2016

I think this is true of translation as well. For me, the language is only a tool; we are there to get the message across. So in Lingua5B's situation, when interpreting for an audience of 1, I would (and have) adapt my production so that the audience could understand it - anything else would be failed interpretation, from the communicative perspective.

Maxi's example is an interesting wrinkle, because I do accept that lawyers (think that they) have a good reason for telling us not to
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I think this is true of translation as well. For me, the language is only a tool; we are there to get the message across. So in Lingua5B's situation, when interpreting for an audience of 1, I would (and have) adapt my production so that the audience could understand it - anything else would be failed interpretation, from the communicative perspective.

Maxi's example is an interesting wrinkle, because I do accept that lawyers (think that they) have a good reason for telling us not to adapt in any way: an interpreter presumably doesn't have the same level of legal knowledge as a lawyer, and so any adaptation we do creates a risk of a distorting the legal meaning through ignorance. Ultimately, I think this argument is incorrect, because every interpretation/translation is an adaptation. It's not like a translator who doesn't understand legal language can "get it right" by mechanically spitting out an "aforementioned liability" where the other language has some equivalent. We *always* have to understand the source (and the context that we are in); and given that we have to understand it, the client loses nothing (introduces no greater risk) by allowing us to make language-level adaptations in the way we express it.

(My favourite example in my pair is that in Chinese contracts, the words that are usually read as "and" and "or" work differently to how they work in English, particularly under negation. Mess that up and your clients will not be happy bunnies, but you can't get even these simplest of words right without properly understanding the whole meaning.)

That said, care is required, and if the client doesn't agree with this reading of how interpretation/translation works, then some discussion is in order.
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Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 14:41
English to Thai
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Poor reference materials Aug 24, 2016

Phil Hand wrote:

I think this is true of translation as well. For me, the language is only a tool; we are there to get the message across. So in Lingua5B's situation, when interpreting for an audience of 1, I would (and have) adapt my production so that the audience could understand it - anything else would be failed interpretation, from the communicative perspective.



In my recent simultaneous interpretation job from the English language, the reference materials were relatively erroneous. I needed to fine-tune the communication to prevent mistakes since the contexts were about radioactive and nuclear engineering, a very hot issue of this day.

Soonthon L.


 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 14:41
English to Thai
+ ...
Interpreting into a language where the client has limited proficiency--better than translation Aug 24, 2016

Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:

Lingua 5B, I have interpreted quite a bit on and off over the past 15 years. When interpreting (from French) into English, my native tongue, then it is quite possible that those who are non-native speakers of English will understand what I am saying less well than a native speaker of English would. A lot depends on context. In my experience, the following are some of the elements that come into play. I also interpret into French in interview question/answer situations. (I don't translate professionally into French).



To compare with translation where BT and MT play around now, interpretation has no negative feedback. Clients accept their limit of the target languages. I rarely confronted with clients except for certain moody ones (e.g. when they did not enjoy the negotiation results based on interpretation).
Translation is now badly annoyed by latest technology e.g. MT, though.

Soonthon L.


 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:41
German to English
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In fact Aug 25, 2016

Phil Hand wrote:

Maxi's example is an interesting wrinkle, because I do accept that lawyers (think that they) have a good reason for telling us not to adapt in any way: an interpreter presumably doesn't have the same level of legal knowledge as a lawyer, and so any adaptation we do creates a risk of a distorting the legal meaning through ignorance. Ultimately, I think this argument is incorrect, because every interpretation/translation is an adaptation. It's not like a translator who doesn't understand legal language can "get it right" by mechanically spitting out an "aforementioned liability" where the other language has some equivalent. We *always* have to understand the source (and the context that we are in); and given that we have to understand it, the client loses nothing (introduces no greater risk) by allowing us to make language-level adaptations in the way we express it.

The person in question was a doctor, not a lawyer. In these interpretation jobs, he was the only one who did this. All the others either agreed to have the legal preamble rendered in simpler language that the client would understand, or they suggested it. As I think I wrote before, the actual interaction between doctor and patient in these sessions were relatively simple: things like "do you feel sad?" or "does this hurt" or "raise your right arm". But there was always the preamble before that could go ahead, and everyone else realized that most of the time clients wouldn't understand the legal jargon.


 
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 14:41
English to Thai
+ ...
Arbitration Oct 13, 2016

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

Decades later, as a sworn EN-PT interpreter, I was hired for an arbitration hearing. Upon my arrival, I learned that I would be interpreting for two expert witnesses from overseas. One was an Italian who lived in Spain; the other was a German who lived in his home country.



I am only hit by the word "arbitration." I understand that interpreters and translators can apply this procedure for effective settlements of disputes in jobs. Could you have some explanation regarding this point?

Soonthon L.


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 04:41
English to Portuguese
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In memoriam
Arbitration Oct 13, 2016

Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:

I am only hit by the word "arbitration." I understand that interpreters and translators can apply this procedure for effective settlements of disputes in jobs. Could you have some explanation regarding this point?

Soonthon L.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration

I think I once suggested to Proz to organize volunteer arbitrators in different language pairs for such cases.

However this would be hard to drive in the virtual environment, as there is no way to control possible undue bias on arbitrators.

Considering the number of "desperado" translators around, who celebrate a proofreading job so effusively to the point of botching up a perfectly acceptable translation, merely to show that they are sufficiently better than the person who did it - and this could often be a questionable assertion - the entire procedure is conceptually inviable.

Bluntly stated, this means that the client could casually tell the arbitrator, who is supposedly a translator in that very language pair, if you favor us in this case, from now on we'll assign these translations to you!"



[Edited at 2016-10-13 09:38 GMT]


 
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Interpreting for poor speakers of English?







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