CASE STUDY

Introduction You are an interpreter working for international and local organisations involved in political and social reform projects. Sometimes the goals, approaches and behaviours of these organisations differ considerably and this has created tensions between the partners. You have also discovered that your own personal and professional values sometimes differ from those of the local or the international organisations. Should you get involved in the conflicts that sometimes arise? Should you assert yourself by expressing your own opinions? What role should you adopt? These are some of the issues addressed in this case study. Could you please comment. Case Study A Sense of Humour Maria has been working as a freelance interpreter since she graduated from University five years ago. She enjoys her work and tries to develop both professionally and personally in the process of handling the communication between different people and cultures. She likes to think of herself as a person who has gained enough experience to be able to cope with the unforeseen challenges that her work entails. Some of Maria’s recent assignments involved travelling abroad as an interpreter for her compatriots. These working experiences had a boosting effect on her confidence since when in other countries she often assisted the representatives of her culture in handling a number of diverse and potentially difficult situations arising from cultural differences. For some time now Maria has been regularly invited to interpret at a series of seminars initiated by a non-governmental organisation in her country and funded by international organisations. The seminar organisers appreciate her skills not only as a simultaneous but also as a consecutive interpreter. She is greatly liked for her way of reaching out to her audience and establishing good rapport and easy companionship. Maria likes these seminars, too. She finds it important that their purpose is to provide training to future political and business leaders in her country. Being a person who believes in the power of learning, Maria expects this project to contribute positively to her country’s future. Having interpreted at several such seminars, she has witnessed for herself the professional growth of some of the participants. She has also noticed that following the completion of training, a number of trainees are quickly propelled into the limelight of public and political life. In addition, she has had the occasion to observe the participants’ personal development since the seminars are held out of town and the little bits of free time available afford opportunities for informal contacts among the people involved in the event. The seminar organisers regularly apply and win funding from international organisations and that helps them maintain high standards with regard to the planning and running of the training sessions as well as the ability to invite distinguished local and foreign facilitators. The funding organisations, on the other hand, habitually send their representatives to observe the progress of the initiative they have assisted in order to make sure that their spending has been well justified. A recent seminar, however, placed Maria in a situation that she found extremely challenging. The first day of the seminar had passed smoothly and the second working day was approaching its end when the participants were asked to take part in a role-play in order to experience a situation where individuals from a certain ethnic group have been accused of stealing from a village. They have been dealt with by the police in a rather rough manner. As usual, the seminar participants came from Maria’s main culture, which had been known for its traditional tolerance towards different ethnic groups. This tolerance, however, had expressed itself in peaceful co-existence rather than in the conscious avoidance of disparaging references to other minorities or in willingness to interact meaningfully with them. The role-play was being observed by the representatives of the financing organisation. They followed what was going on through the simultaneous interpreting provided by Maria and her colleague. The observers, unlike the local trainees, originated from a culture that had not always had a good record in the area of ethnic tolerance but in modern times it had developed much greater sensitivity to human rights and had demonstrated a wish to purge its language and conduct of references to other ethnic groups that may be interpreted as offensive. In the course of the role-play, one of the participants who had to represent a member of the ethnic group beaten by the police started pointing to his imaginary wounds while at the same time using the dialect and intonations typical of the minority he was supposed to belong to. In addition, he remembered to include some complex and long words and to mispronounce them, as members of that community often do. His fellow-trainees, who were involved either as role-play participants or observers started roaring with laughter at what they found to be a comic representation of the minority. At the same time, the words uttered by the ‘minority person’ were actually describing an act of police violence performed upon him. As it happened, Maria was alone in the booth because her colleague had just popped out to the toilet. She was well aware that she was faced with a situation that was incomprehensible to the foreign observers who looked nonplussed. After all, a minority member was describing an act of police violence against him and yet everyone else was bellowing with laughter! They looked in the direction of the interpreter’s booth in expectation. Maria had to think on her feet. She did her best to cope with the mismatch between what was being said and the response to it. However, the event stuck in her mind and during the evening meal she noticed that the seminar participants at the adjacent table were discussing the weird response of the observers, who had not produced even a thin smile in the course of the role-play. ‘Let them be!’, she heard a participant say, ‘Them, foreigners, they have no sense of humour!’. Maria felt like responding to this remark since she found it extremely unjustified. Also, she was still wondering whether her professional response earlier in the booth had been effective enough. Hence, she approached the table. The seminar participants were glad to make room for her and immediately engaged her in their conversation.