THE RELATION BETWEEN INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS AND INTERPRETER

“The reasonable person adapts himself to the world, while the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself”

An interpreter plays a role of exceptional importance as a bridge between cultures, people, relaying tone, intentions and emotions.

We commonly associate interpreting with linguistic skills, but the work of an interpreter can be effective only combining a carefully examined language and intercultural awareness.

A huge responsibility lies on the arms of interpreter, because he or she has to act as a diplomat while interpreting, therefore interpreters must demonstrate great professionalism and diplomacy

Cultural differences are reasons for many miscommunications.

“You can easily become proficient in language, but you’ll stumble over the culture”.

“Interpretation isn’t only interaction of languages, but it’s also interaction of cultures.”

“The language is a spirit of a nation”.

Each culture has its own rules of communication. A French executive would probably be offended if a new acquaintance were to address him by his first name. Giving the "thumbs up" signal in Australia is impolite. And a display of frankness so common to Americans perpetuates the Japanese impression that the American people exhibit a lack of discipline.

Where to begin?

One theoretical model which may be useful for analyzing broad cultural differences in approach is set out by Richard D. Lewis in his book When Cultures Collide. He divides cultures into three main categories as follows. Many cultures are a mix, but tend to dominate in one or two categories:

The relative positions of cultures can be roughly arranged in a triangle, as a guide to which negotiation approaches may work best

In the same way the surgeon operating on the heart can’t neglect the body surrounds it, so the interpreter treats the text isolated from the culture at his peril.

RESEARCHIn order to find out

whether people who surround us are aware of cross – cultural communication or not, we made a little survey.So, here you can see sample questions which we’ve asked people.

Test yourself!

Parents say “you “in respect form to their children in France.

The word “Gracias” means goodbye in Spanish .

Punctuality is very important for Italians.

Spaniards like to maintain eye – contact during the conversation.

The thumbs up means “OK” in Argentina.

Arabs expect their gifts to be opened in front of the giver, while most Europeans prefer opposite of it.

Most Scandinavians start their bargaining with what in their opinion, the fair price.

You tip your plate away from you when eating soup in Britain.

Some nationalities greet people without using any words.

White roses are given at funerals in Japan.

Answers

Here are the results of our survey…

6.8

5.6

Cross-cultural communication

WomenMen

Here are the results of our survey…

5.96.3

Cross-cultural communication

The adultThe young

6.7

5.5

Cross-cultural communication

The students of the UWEDNot students of UWED