Page 158 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Impact of Cultural Differences on Interpreting Situations 143

Dealing with Cultural Sets
While interpreting job interviews or other situations rich in cul-
tural sets, can we as interpreters make up for our clients’ lack of
knowledge of the cultural rules of the game? Even if we believe it
is our responsibility to do so, it poses quite a challenge, especially
when the underlying meaning of a comment is diametrically op-
posed to its surface form, or if the point of the whole exchange is
so connected to the cultural value system that one cannot sepa-
rate an utterance from the beliefs that have necessitated it. We
could argue that American job interviews simply exemplify many
features of American culture: one sells oneself like our advertise-
ments sell soap and soda pop, by hyperbole. The incessant posi-
tivity endemic to these interviews is also akin to our national op-
timism, but is it our responsibility to explain the whole culture
while interpreting?
An example of a cultural set from another country may help
to clarify this idea. When I asked a Japanese/English interpreter
what he felt was his responsibility in the face of major cultural
differences, he gave me this example. He had interpreted for an
American businessman who presented an offer to a Japanese
businessman in Japan. At the end of the discussion, the Japanese
businessman’s closing statement was, “We will consider your pro-
posal with a positive attitude.” “Of course that meant no,” the
interpreter confided to me. I asked the interpreter if he had con-
veyed that underlying meaning to the American businessman in
his translation. “Oh no,” he replied. “If an American comes to do
business in Japan, he had better learn certain basic things about
Japanese culture first, such as the fact that we say no indirectly.”
Speaking on the Telephone as a Cultural Set
Speaking on the telephone is indeed a hearing cultural set be-
cause of the unspoken rules regarding such things as length of
silence permissible, degree of formality required, and informa-
tion processed through vocal inflections. Let us pause to take a
deeper look at this example.
From the clink made by the pay telephone as it digests its first
coin to the vocal intonation in the receptionist’s “Okay” that ex-
udes finality, interpreting telephone calls between a Deaf person
and a hearing person ranks as one of the most challenging and
frustrating tasks we ever perform. Thank goodness for the spread

06 MINDESS PMKR 143 10/18/04, 12:01 PM