Learning to be a public service interpreter : boundaries, ethics and emotion in a marginal profession
Interpreting between peoples of different languages is an ancient practice, and one that has traditionally been viewed as fraught with ambiguities of trust, status, power and agency. In the last quarter of a century, both national and transnational governmental institutions have addressed particular concerns about interpreting for migrants using public services in their host countries. In order to remove the burden of responsibility for such interpreting from the children to whom it often fell, and in order to ensure social justice for migrants in access to services, considerable resources have been invested worldwide in creating professional infrastructures for public service interpreting (PSI), including training, qualifications and registration for specialist practitioners. This thesis investigates in depth, through the narratives of public service interpreters themselves, the complex nature of their work. It builds on previous critiques which have challenged the professionâs formal prescriptions of supposed âinvisibilityâ, as if these practitioners were just âtranslating machinesâ who do not participate in the social interactions they interpret. However, it also goes beyond existing research
Guery, Frederique
Learning to be a public service interpreter : boundaries, ethics and emotion in a marginal profession. Interpreting between peoples of different languages is an ancient practice, and one that has traditionally been viewed as fraught with ambiguities of trust, status, power and agency. In the last quarter of a century, both national and transnational governmental institutions have addressed particular concerns about interpreting for migrants using public services in their host countries. In order to remove the burden of responsibility for such interpreting from the children to whom it often fell, and in order to ensure social justice for migrants in access to services, considerable resources have been invested worldwide in creating professional infrastructures for public service interpreting (PSI), including training, qualifications and registration for specialist practitioners. This thesis investigates in depth, through the narratives of public service interpreters themselves, the complex nature of their work. It builds on previous critiques which have challenged the professionâs formal prescriptions of supposed âinvisibilityâ, as if these practitioners were just âtranslating machinesâ who do not participate in the social interactions they interpret. However, it also goes beyond existing research
learning public_service interpreter boundary ethic emotion marginal profession interpreting people_different language ancient practice traditionally view fraught ambiguity trust status power agency national transnational governmental institution address particular concern interpret migrant use public_service host country order remove burden responsibility interpret child often fell order ensure social_justice migrant access service considerable resource invest worldwide create professional infrastructure public_service interpreting include training qualification registration specialist practitioner investigates depth narratives public_service interpreter complex nature work build previous critique challenge profession formal prescription suppose invisibility practitioner translate machine participate social_interaction interpret however_also beyond exist