Page 174 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Interpreter’s Role and Responsibilities 159

the widespread yet erroneous belief that relatives or other un-
trained native speakers could adequately fill the needs that arise
in hospitals, courts, and businesses.
Perhaps this new attention to community interpreting will af-
fect the model under which conference-level spoken language in-
terpreters see themselves operating. When I questioned the pro-
fessors at the Monterey Institute, there was consensus that they
have been using the conduit model, which is primarily concerned
with delivering a linguistic equivalent of the communication. They
are aware of the cultural implications, however, and may seek to
account for these when they feel it is appropriate do so.
These highly trained spoken language interpreters feel that
their responsibility and creativity are generally limited to the lin-
guistic level. This perception may be due in part to the high level
of discourse at international negotiations and because diplomats
are presumed to have done their homework on the culture of the
representatives with whom they will be negotiating. It may also
be in reaction to, or to differentiate themselves from, the untrained,
drafted-at-the-last-minute relatives and friends who end up “help-
ing out” at the doctor’s or lawyer’s office and may inappropriately
interject themselves into the situation. Also, trained spoken lan-
guage interpreters may feel that their ability to expand on the
cultural significance of a term is more constrained, since their
words and those of the participants might be recorded or tran-
scribed to be analyzed at a later time. For example, in legal set-
tings they are instructed not to explain but are directed to use the
equivalent legal term in their target language (which can usually
be referenced in a bilingual dictionary), whether or not their for-
eign speaker can be presumed to have the sophistication and ex-
perience to understand it.
Since sign language interpreters also work in legal settings,
this makes for a striking comparison. There is no word-to-sign
equivalent legal dictionary because ASL, having not been used
extensively by its speakers in certain specialized settings, has not
yet evolved signs that refer to all legal terms. With the small but
growing number of Deaf lawyers starting to practice in what was
heretofore a basically hearing profession, signs are being devel-
oped and expanded through usage. A similar phenomenon is tak-
ing place in the computer industry, where, as more and more
Deaf people gain employment as computer programmers, signs
for computer terms are being developed by the Deaf workers who

07 MINDESS PMKR 159 10/18/04, 12:02 PM