Page 160 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Impact of Cultural Differences on Interpreting Situations 145

Another factor that adds to the difficulty of interpreting tele-
phone exchanges is that most interpreters, as most hearing people,
are totally unaware of the cues we pick up and the inferences we
draw based only on sound. For examples, we can hear strain in
the clipped words spit out by a harried receptionist and know it is
time to end the call. We can detect from the airline reservation
agent’s monotone that she or he is following the rules as written
and is unable to grant our request (so we need to ask for a super-
visor who has the authority to make an exception).
There is an interesting parallel when deaf people engage in
TTY conversations. They know it is hard to tell if the words mov-
ing across a screen are serious or sarcastic without the help of
facial expression, so a convention has developed to make up for
the missing emotional affect not visible in a typed sentence. Clues
such as SMILE, SIGH, or HAHA are added to help the reader cor-
rectly interpret the typed message.
How do we hearing people know all the rules, procedures,
and etiquette for conversing over the telephone? We have never
taken a class in it, so we probably pick it up as part of the culture.
Telephone protocol varies, of course, in different countries, some-
times to the amusement or consternation of unsuspecting callers.
In Germany, for example, one always answers the phone by iden-
tifying oneself, usually by last name only: “Schmidt here.” The
caller then invariably identifies him- or herself before asking to
speak to someone. I know several Germans who have lived in the
United States for many years but still find it extremely rude that
in this country callers do not feel obligated to identify themselves,
but immediately ask, “Hi, is Jane there?”
The cultural set of American job interviews could be studied
and mastered, but what about the complex conventions of tele-
phone conversation? Could we even explain that in such and such
a situation, it will take five seconds of silence to try the caller’s
patience, while in another situation three seconds is the polite
limit?
Twenty years ago, in an interpreting course, I was instructed
that while interpreting phone calls, if the hearing person became
frustrated with the long silences and hung up, we should do noth-
ing to prevent it, even if this happened repeatedly! “That way the
Deaf person will learn how to use the phone,” the instructor told
us. It didn’t take too many hang-ups before I figured out that just
a little “umm” on my part would alleviate the problem. Interpret-

06 MINDESS PMKR 145 10/18/04, 12:01 PM