Page 178 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Interpreter’s Role and Responsibilities 163

preter to explain the reason why some member of his or her com-
munity is in the hospital. The interpreter, in this situation, may
feel torn between duty to the community leader and the bound-
aries of the professional role.
Other cultural differences tax the interpreter’s ingenuity: A
hearing American doctor gives a Russian patient four options for
the treatment of his condition. The patient, not used to being given
such a choice, questions the physician’s expertise, “Why should I
tell you what to do? You are supposed to know what is best for
me!” In another example, the interpreter’s identification with the
Hispanic culture of a male patient caused her to halt the discus-
sion. In certain Spanish-speaking cultures, one never tells a per-
son that he is dying. When the doctor began to inform this patient
of his terminal condition, the interpreter, sharing the culture of
the patient, did not feel she could relay the doctor’s news. She
suggested, therefore, that the doctor discuss the matter with the
patient’s family in another room.
Swabey finds that this kind of community interpreting works
best if all the parties are educated about the process. The inter-
preters themselves, who may have been “helping out” their friends
for years, must learn the professional boundaries of their new
role. The patients need education about the American health care
system and the role of the interpreter, and the physicians need to
be sensitized to the needs and possible cultural conflicts that may
arise when treating this special population (Swabey, personal com-
munication).
It seems, then, that, in many respects, neither the mediator
nor spoken language interpreter role can serve as a perfect blue-
print for sign language interpreters. Though there are some com-
monalities, our job is so unique that we must determine its scope
and fashion its limits for ourselves.

A Closet Full of Models
If we cannot model ourselves on another profession, then we must
negotiate with our fellow sign language interpreters (and the Deaf
people we serve) to come up with a consensus of what our role
entails so that our behavior can be guided by that image. As I
noted earlier, our profession has eagerly adopted and then dis-
carded several models for interpreting, as if they had become out-
dated skirts or trousers. I propose that we see this collection of

07 MINDESS PMKR 163 10/18/04, 12:02 PM