Page 204 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

Techniques for Cultural Adjustments 189

what might have happened had he or she not made a cultural
adjustment.
1. “Information, please”: the interpreter anticipated that a lit-
eral rendering of the employee’s comments might have caused
an emotionally defensive reaction from the supervisor that
would have halted communication.
2. “Surprise!”: the interpreter realized that if he had matched
the offhand, flat affect of the administrator in delivering the
line, “The discussion will be limited to three topics,” it might
have slipped by unnoticed, only to become the crux of confu-
sion later on.
3. “My, how you’ve changed”: the relay interpreter foresaw that
the Deaf woman’s comment would sound extremely insult-
ing to her social security worker.
4. “It all started when…”: the interpreter, correctly anticipating
a common cultural mismatch, tried to take preventive action.
When that did not bring about the desired response, he was
flexible enough to try another technique.
5. “Hint, hint”: the interpreter realized that the DMV worker was
subtly suggesting a beneficial course of action to the man.
Knowing the limitations of her skills as a nonnative signer,
the interpreter decided that she might not be able to achieve
the same subtle hinting quality in ASL and so decided to opt
for explicitness. She was careful, however, to check out her
understanding of what was hinted at before proceeding.
I want to reemphasize that the choices made by the interpret-
ers above were not the only possible solutions. There are many
options that could have produced similar results. Also, the same
situations with different clients would probably have led these
interpreters to make alternate choices. The point is that the inter-
preters saw as their paramount responsibility that communica-
tion and understanding take place unimpeded by cultural differ-
ences.
One of my goals in this book has been to install a “cultural
early-warning system” in your brain that will light up to signal a
possible cultural misunderstanding. The next time you are in an
interpreting assignment and notice that something does not seem
to be going right, stop for a moment and assess the situation.
Perhaps there is a feeling of tension in the room, a subtle shift of
a body in a chair, or a fleeting expression of puzzlement that tips
you off. One way to ascertain if there is indeed a need for cultural

08 MINDESS PMKR 189 10/18/04, 12:02 PM