Page 194 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters
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The Interpreter’s Role and Responsibilities 179


                                 rameters of our responsibility ourselves. If we agree that the inter-
                                 preting function concerns language and culture, we can exclude
                                 several items (personality differences, situational factors, and the
                                 inequalities inherent in society) that would not fall under that do-
                                 main. Yet, we have noted that as interpreters we must be aware
                                 of and take responsibility for our own acts of audism. Before we
                                 zero in on the necessity of accommodating for cultural differences
                                 in certain interpreting situations, we will deal with two arguments
                                 that are often presented in opposition to the concept of cultural
                                 adjustment.

                                 It Depends on How We See Our Role
                                 Recently, I had an informal discussion with several working inter-
                                 preters about the differences between Deaf and hearing cultures.
                                 When the question of what to do when the literal translation of
                                 the speaker’s statement would be perceived as impolite in the
                                 other culture was raised, one interpreter said, “If we keep putting
                                 on Band-Aids to fix their mistakes, how will Deaf people ever learn
                                 that their behavior is rude?” Since this point of view may be shared
                                 by others in the interpreting community, I think it deserves some
                                 analysis. The interpreter who made the statement seemed to as-
                                 sume that it is the Deaf people whose behavior is wrong; that it is
                                 part of our job to get them to “fix their wrong behavior”; and that
                                 the way for Deaf people to learn what is appropriate behavior in
                                 the hearing world is to have their ASL translated literally. Then by
                                 observing the negative reactions of the hearing people in the situ-
                                 ation, they will become enlightened about the rules of hearing
                                 culture.
                                     In response to these assumptions I suggest that we examine
                                 our convictions. If we believe that every culture is equally deserv-
                                 ing of respect, then no culture is “wrong.” It just happens that
                                 sometimes there is a mismatch between cultures as to what is
                                 seen as polite or appropriate in a certain situation. By focusing on
                                 the surface form of an utterance, we lose sight of the speaker’s
                                 intent. If we see our job as interpreting between two languages
                                 and cultures, then it may be our duty to discard the surface form
                                 of a statement in order to preserve the speaker’s underlying in-
                                 tent. If the speaker’s statement is not rude in his or her own lan-
                                 guage, then it should not appear so in the language into which it is
                                 interpreted.









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