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The impact of culture on interpreter behaviour 233

so uncomfortable that he spoke directly to the interpreter, recommending that he
translate the Chinese visitors’ request. However, the interpreter still did not do
so, and when Sajid asked again whether they would like to go to the Bank of
China, he gave an unhelpful reply. Eventually the researcher stepped in to con-
vey the Chinese visitors’ request.
Why then did the interpreter fail to interpret the Chinese request? The visi-
tors themselves clearly regarded it as an embarrassing request, partly perhaps
because it involved money, and partly because their entitlement to the ‘pocket
money’ was an informal, unofficial one. So they referred to it as ‘settling ex-
penses’ rather than ‘getting their pocket money’, and Sun (the delegation leader)
distanced himself further by using the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘you’ rather than
‘we’. The interpreter’s handling of these interchanges suggests that he too found
it embarrassing, and in fact too face-threatening to interpret. However, the Brit-
ish host was not concerned by the request, and did not seem offended when it
was finally conveyed. He commented that it might be difficult to get the money
at short notice, but left instantly to see to the matter, and returned soon after with
some cash.
The next day, in the close-out meeting before the delegation left for the air-
port, the problem of money surfaced again. When the visitors were handed the
balance of cash, the Chinese visitors felt they were entitled to more and asked to
see the full list of costs that the British had incurred. Once again, the interpreter
failed to interpret their request. Over a period of 50 minutes, the visitors repeated
their request fourteen times, using the following terms and phrases: list of costs,
proof, proof of cost, the basis of the expense calculations, how they worked out
the figure. Yet the interpreter did not convey this to the British until Sun, the dele-
gation leader, lost his temper with the interpreter saying, “this is not your busi-
ness, you just translate what I say, translate what he says, don’t worry about us,
don’t be afraid”. Only then did he interpret what the Chinese were asking for.
A little later, when the interpreter again hesitated to interpret something, an-
other of the Chinese visitors became extremely angry. He started blaming the
British for cheating them out of the money that they felt they were due:

(6) Close-out meeting
Shen: you just tell him. is it so easy to bully us Chinese (.) so easy to fool us
around? this money is what we have been saving out of our mouth. we
have had instant noodles every day just to save some money (.) and now
they have grabbed it. how mean of them to do such a thing.

Once again the interpreter failed to interpret this, and there was total silence for
five seconds.
Needless to say, neither the Chinese nor the British were happy with the in-
terpreter’s performance. The visitors complained that his interpreting was too