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This assignment discusses upon community interpreting. It will provide answers to these questions: who is a community interpreter what is his role where is he working who is he working with what skills and knowledge he needs to have different ways of interpreting code of conduct – what is it and why is it needed when he should decline an assignment what not to do Who is a community interpreter? A community interpreter is very important person who allows communication between TVВ»’0 parties speaking different languages.
He is a bridge over communication gap between two parties. A community interpreter is a qualified person who can pass information from one person to other in way he can understand. Many community interpreters are members of minority groups in the host country, however they are familiar with its institutions. (Rutledge encyclopedia of translation studies, by Mona Baker, Gabriele Slapdash) The community interpreter has a very different role and responsibilities from a commercial or conference interpreter.
She is responsible for enabling professional and client, with very different backgrounds and perceptions and in an unequal relationship of power and knowledge, to communicate to their mutual satisfaction. (Shaman, Jane. The Right to be Understood: A Handbook on Working With, Employing and Training Community Interpreters. 984, Cambridge, England, National Extension College. ) Professional – person who acts on behalf of organization the client is dealing with. The role of the community interpreter is as vital to successful communication as that Of any other type Of interpretation.
In addition, involvement in face-to- face interaction emphasizes the community interpreters role as both a language and social mediator. Community interpreter have to handle a real- time dialogue -? more or less spontaneous and unpredictable exchanges of talk between individuals speaking different languages – and they also have to interpret in both direction. (Rutledge encyclopedia of translation studies, by Mona Baker, Gabriele Slapdash) A person who works as community interpreter must have knowledge of the ethnic, cultural and social background of client and must be able to explain it to the professional.
A community interpreting is also known as a institutional interpreting and therefore community interpreters are mostly working in a public organizations such as hospitals, doctor surgeries, health visitors surgeries, clients homes (when home visit of a professional is arranged), joblessness, tizzy advice bureaus, immigration offices, social security offices, housing organizations, solicitors offices, courts, police stations et cetera.
This implies that community interpreters are used by professionals as for example: doctors, nurses, health visitors, police officers, judges, lawyers, solicitors, council officers, immigration officers and other public sector representatives who are dealing with non English speaking clients. What skills and knowledge community interpreter needs?
It’s not only a good knowledge of both languages but community interpreter just be aware of dialect client can speak (dialect is a local variation of language in particular area), accent (different pronunciation of the same words), slang (street language), abbreviations (shortening of words or phrase) and acronyms (words made from first letters). Good communication skills are also very important and community interpreter must be able use formal and informal language to make sure he or she will pass the message the client can understand.
In addition to this a community interpreter must be impartial – that means he or she is not taking a side with client or professional. Knowledge of a terminology (set of specific words used in particular field) is essential too. A community interpreter must act professionally, that means good timekeeping dress code, politeness, self organization, must remain calm in every situation and be confidential (not to pass any information from assignment to third party).
There are three main type of interpreting: Simultaneous, where the interpreter is listening and interpreting at the same time and speakers are not interrupting their speech. (for example conferences, business meetings) Consecutive, where speaker makes pauses for the interpreter to let him pass the message. On site translation, where the interpreter read from a document and translating it in the same time.