Challenges facing Arab interpreters at the UN: A secondary data analysis in the light of interpretation between Arabic and English

Abstract

This paper investigates the challenges that the interpreters from the Arab world encounter in interpretation from and to Arabic in the United Nations. In this study, the multiple tasks of UN interpreters are identified. These challenges are probed according to the factors that complicate the tasks for the interpreters. Some of these factors are general and can be applied to all languages such as the difficulties of giving the proper simultaneous translation in the target language in time. That is to say, choosing and uttering the right sentences, syntactically and semantically speaking, is a challenge for the interpreter, especially when the two systems of languages are totally different. Thus, the two systems of English and Arabic languages are compared and contrasted in order to trace the difficulties of interpretation in these languages. The linguistic and structural differences are also analyzed to explore the challenges of delivering the right meaning and proper structure in the target language by the interpreter. The importance of context in translation and interpretation is also highlighted. The role of culture is also emphasized as the cultural backgrounds might form an obstacle for interpreters. Moreover, the Arab interpreter’s safety is at risk as most of the Arab countries that entail the necessity of demanding an interpreter for Arabic are conflict zones. Hence, the interpretation process in these zones endangers the life of the interpreter. The findings are given according to the results of secondary data analysis. Thus, this paper digs into the problematic issue of interpretation as a more challenging process than translation, especially simultaneous interpretation between Arabic and English.