Intercultural Mediation Research Articles

Cannibalism and cultural manipulation: How Morier is received in the Persian literary canon

Abstract Post-colonialism and orientalism have inspired literary scholars to study various aspects of literature and literary translation in the post-colonial era. One of the implications of post-colonialism for literature as a discipline is the idea of cannibalism and cultural manipulation. This corpus-based study aims to analyze the notions of “cultural manipulation” or “cannibalism” in the Persian translation of Haji Baba by Mirza Habib Isfahani, to explore the translator’s strategy, as an intercultural mediator, in modulating the source novel’s colonial stance and adapting it to the religious, literary and cultural tastes of the Iranians. Our findings reveal that two main techniques—of omission and euphemism—have been applied in rendering the novel into Persian. Using these techniques, the translator has attempted to challenge the imperial stance of the main writer and come up with a version of the source novel which is much less insulting to Iranians’ cultural values. That is why this translation has been widely received as a literary masterpiece in Persian literature. One implication is that it might be claimed that cannibalism and cultural manipulation can be used to explain the trend of manipulating western literature in countries which have never been colonized, but that have suffered from the colonial stance of colonial writers.

Official bilingualism meets de facto multilingualism: public service interpreting for the Chinese in Catalonia

Abstract Catalonia is well known for being a bilingual region with language policies that give full support to promoting Catalan. More recently, the number of languages spoken in Catalonia has risen significantly due to immigration flows, while immigration policies encourage all citizens living in Catalonia to be able to communicate in Catalan with the public Administration. The same immigration policies, however, also acknowledge that interpreting (or intercultural mediation) may be necessary to facilitate immigrants’ rights to access public services during the first few years they are living in Catalonia. This article analyses the relationship between a minoritized language (Catalan), a dominant language (Spanish) and a group of recently arrived languages (Standard Chinese and other Chinese varieties) from the perspective of public service interpreting. It discusses some of the results of an empirical qualitative research which included: (a) interviews with public service interpreters and intercultural mediators working with Chinese living in Catalonia, (b) interviews with managers and coordinators in charge of interpreting or mediation services, and (c) questionnaires answered by Chinese users of public services in Catalonia. This research depicts a complex reality: it not only reflects interpreters’ and managers’ biases towards Spanish or Catalan, often motivated by their place of origin or life experience, but also the challenges when dealing with linguistic variation, i.e. the variety of languages (geolects and mutually unintelligible dialects) included under the umbrella term of Chinese.

Social workers and intercultural mediators: challenges for collaboration and intercultural awareness

ABSTRACTSocial work in Europe is facing numerous challenges in terms of promoting the participation of migrants and their descendants in super-diverse societies. This study investigates collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators based on international debate and fieldwork in Italy. Does social work require collaboration with other professions specialised in intercultural relations? What are the characteristics of intercultural professionals? What are the pros and cons of collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators? This study shows that local social services need to work with intercultural mediators, allowing local social services to implement various strategies for tackling cultural and linguistic barriers with their clients and rely on professionals inside or outside their own. Furthermore, intercultural mediators tend to have weak and heterogeneous training backgrounds and working conditions. This article aims to contribute to the debate on the welfare reform process to support migrants and their descendants’ equal rights and participation in society, highlighting the need for collaboration between interculturally aware social workers and intercultural mediators to tackle institutional structural weaknesses in such professions as part of an organisational innovation process in social-welfare institutions.

Interpreting as mediation of migrants’ agency and institutional support. A case analysis

This paper deals with the social construction of migrants’ personal problems of social inclusion in an Italian Migrant Support Centre. This Centre has the function of delivering information and assistance to migrants who need to confirm residence permits, to apply for family reunion permits, to find a job or to gather information about laws and procedures. In this Centre, social workers provide information/assistance to migrants, and intercultural mediators provide language and cultural support during interactions between social workers and migrants. The paper is based on the analysis of 18 interpreter-mediated interactions involving two social workers, a Nigerian mediator, and 18 English-speaking migrants from West Africa. The analysis of interpreter-mediated interactions shows the production and negotiation of migrant’s problems, the participants’ positioning, and the meaning of language mediation as intercultural mediation. In particular, the analysis shows the importance of the mediator’s positioning as active agent in coordinating interpreter-mediated interactions. The mediator provides expansions of social workers’ explanations, checks migrants’ understanding, supports migrants’ construction of problems, and challenges migrants’ conflictive utterances to avoid conflict escalation. Mediation can be considered intercultural in that it can define cultural conditions and produce support of migrants’ actions, narrowing the gap between migrants’ social problems and institutions.

Singing Translators and Mobile Traditions: Cross-cultural Performances of Italian Folk Music in Contemporary Australia

Translators, as intercultural mediators, play various roles, among which as singers and performers. Striking examples of singing and performing translators can be found in multicultural Australia. They direct Italian Australian folk choirs and transform, enrich, and enhance the Italian folk repertoire and cultural traditions across continental borders and language barriers. By applying methodological approaches, at the crossroads between translation and performance, theorized by Maria Tymoczko (1995), Barbara Godard (2000), and Sandra Bermann (2014), we will demonstrate how cross-cultural and mobile folk performances and traditions are connecting communities in contemporary Australia.

Modern and ancient migrants’ narratives through ELF. An Experiential-Linguistic project in Responsible Tourism

Abstract – This article explores the emotional experience of Italian seaside resorts whose geographical position in the Southern Mediterranean coasts has always determined their destiny as places of hospitality and hybridization of languages and cultures. A Cognitive-pragmatic Model of Experiential Linguistics (Lakoff, Johnson 1999; Langacker 1991; Sweetser 1990) and some strategies of Experiential Place Marketing (Hosany, Prayag 2011; Jani, Han 2013; Prayag et al. 2013) will be employed to ‘emotionally promote’ Responsible Tourism (Lin et al. 2014; Ma et al. 2013) in order to enquire into the effects of emotions upon the tourists’ experience of the holiday as a path towards their ‘personal and cultural growth’. The case study illustrated in this article represents precisely an instance of ELF communication developing from tourists’ and migrants’ appraisal of: (a) the contemporary non-Western migrants’ dramatic sea-voyage narratives reported in their ELF variations (Guido 2008, 2012), and (b) the epic narratives of Mediterranean ‘odysseys’ towards ‘utopian places’ belonging to the Western cultural heritage, translated from Ancient Greek and Latin into ELF. The subjects of this case study under analysis are tourists playing the role of ‘intercultural mediators’ with migrants in one of the seaside resorts of Salento affected by migrant arrivals. To facilitate tourists’ and migrants’ processes of ‘experiential embodiment’ of past and present dramatic sea voyages, they will be introduced to an ‘Ethnopoetic analysis’ (Hymes 1994, 2003) of two corpora of modern and ancient oral journey narratives – the former collected during ethnographic fieldworks in reception centres for refugees, and the latter including extracts from Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid . The purpose is to make tourists and migrants play the roles of ‘philologists’ and ‘ethnographers’ as they realize how such ancient and modern oral narratives are experientially organized into spontaneous ‘verse structures’ reproducing the sequences and rhythms of human actions and emotions in response to the traumatic experience of violent natural phenomena which, through the use of ergative syntactic structures (Talmy 1988), become metaphorically personified as objects and elements endowed with an autonomous, dynamic force capable of destroying the human beings at their mercy. The Ethnopoetic analysis and translation, together with the subsequent multimodal rendering of such journey narratives into ‘premotional videos’ for place-marketing purposes (Kress 2009), aim at making both tourists and migrants aware of their common experiential roots, as well as of the socio-cultural values of the different populations that have produced them.

¿Empoderamiento o asimilación? Estudio de dos casos de comunicación mediada en el ámbito educativo catalán

La Mediación Intercultural y la Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos hacen posible la comunicación con familias inmigradas que desconocen las lenguas de acogida. Esta labor puede ser especialmente importante en las reuniones con padres y madres de estos colectivos para establecer el vínculo necesario entre escuela y familia. La presente investigación pretende analizar cómo se lleva a cabo la comunicación mediada en el ámbito escolar a partir de dos reuniones en centros educativos de la provincia de Barcelona en las que las educadoras secomunicaron con familias chinas a través de una mediadora intercultural. Estas reuniones se grabaron y los archivos de audio se han transcrito y analizado a partir del análisis de la conversación. En los resultados se pone de manifiesto que aunque la labor de la mediadora posibilita el desarrollo de la reunión, en ocasiones la mediación se orienta más bien a la asimilación del colectivo inmigrado o incluso se produce una separación diádica al no conseguirse ni promoverse una comunicación directa entre los interlocutores primarios (educadora y madre).

The fuzzy boundary between the roles of interpreter and mediator in the public services in Catalonia: Analysis of interviews and interpreter-mediated interactions in the health and educational context

In Catalonia, there is great ambiguity regarding the terms employed to define the roles, profiles and scope of the individuals who act as intermediaries in the communication process in public services. The main confusion surrounds the terms of intercultural mediator and interpreter. This article aims to contribute to the current debate on the fuzzy boundary between these roles. We first describe the conceptions and beliefs, collected through semi-structured interviews, from healthcare staff, health service managers and interpreters about the different roles. Secondly, we analyse whether the evident confusion is also reflected in the educational context. A widespread tendency to resort to intercultural mediators in the health and educational contexts is observed, despite the fact that they are in most cases performing the task of an interpreter. Even though it is possible for the same professional to carry out both roles, this article advocates establishing a clear differentiation between them and stresses the importance of specialized training.

Bible Translation and Culture

The paper presents a theory of Bible translation as intercultural mediation and applies it to the translation of the story of the Cana Miracle in John 2:1-12. The theoretical framework draws on the notions of script, skopos, the ethics of loyalty and the distinction between three domains of intercultural mediation, namely the conceptual domain, the domain of norms and values and the domain of cultural pragmatics. There are three applications, the first is the intercultural mediation of the key concept δόξα ‘glory’ in various translations, the second application illustrates the ways in which translators bridge gaps in norms and values, in this case norms and values clashes around the use of alcohol. The third application focuses on the vocative γύναι ‘woman’ used by Jesus to address his mother Mary. Pressured by commissioners and audiences, translators sometimes become disloyal to the writers of the ancient biblical texts and this pressure is especially felt when the cultures of the ancient biblical worlds and those of audiences have very different norms and values. In such cases, the concepts to be translated such as οἶνος ‘wine’ are actually easy to translate in most cases but translators try to soften the blow to the sensitivities of their audiences. This is in stark contrast with the domain of intercultural pragmatics where it is often impossible to find renderings in target languages that convey the sense of the biblical term. The first domain of intercultural mediation, that of concepts, is the domain that most people think of when they reflect on translation and culture, for example wondering how to translate ‘camel’ when audiences have no clue what a camel is. Yet, it is the unique cultural networks of concepts that we reach the boundaries of translatability.

Anglo-American Teen Literature in Translation

ABSTRACTExamples of popular Anglo-American teen literature are translated into many languages, reaching millions of children from different cultures. From a translators’ perspective, this is a complex endeavor, since translations of popular Anglo-American literature for teens necessitates unique approaches and knowledge about readership, markets, intertexual, and intercultural mediation across languages, which translators have to take into account in the translation process. This article provides an example of this endeavor, with emphasis on the use of paratexts, the existence of intermedial rewriting, intertexuality, style, and culture, through a multidimensional study of the translations of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series into Turkish.

“Into the Realm of the Politically Incorrect”: Intercultural Encounters in a Service-Learning Program

Now more than ever, teachers of world languages are encouraged to become intercultural mediators in their communities and classrooms. This study describes the impact of an innovative community-based teacher education program for developing participants' interculturality. Building on narrative methods of investigation, we explore the potential of community-based service-learning as a social space in which participants learn to recognize and mediate worldviews. The data come primarily from field observations and pre-service teachers’ journaled reflections. We illustrate our findings through a series of narratives that serve as a frame for locating cultural recognition and learning.

The status of intercultural mediation in translation: Is it an absolute licence?

AbstractThe role of translator as Sprachmittler or intercultural mediator has welcomed much attention since the advent of the “cultural turn” paradigm. The present research paper seeks to figure out how the manifestations of intercultural mediation are achieved via translation in terms of two mediation facets, viz, personal and communicated interpretations. Whereas the former deals with the presence of the translator between the source and target cultures, the latter concerns the role of the reader of the translated text in the target language through several mediational strategies including: expansion, reframing, replacement, eschewing of dispreferred structure, and dispensation to capture the message of the source text. The rationale for focusing on these strategies lies in the fact that translators often utilize transliteration and literal translation strategies when it comes to cultural items and concepts. As far as review of the literature indicates, mediational translation has not received due attention in the Persian language since it differs in comparison with other languages such as English, French etc. In the case of language patterning, such study reveals some novel but applicable cultural translation strategies that highlight the nature of mediation in cultural translation.

Mediacja jako sposób rozwiązywania sporów gospodarczych o charakterze transgranicznym na przykładzie Polski i Niemiec

Celem niniejszego opracowania jest nakreślenie specyfiki gospodarczych sporów transgranicznych oraz zaprezentowanie mediacji jako metody ich rozwiązywania, alternatywnej wobec sądów powszechnych, dającej zwaśnionym stronom możliwość zarówno ich szybszego i mniej kosztownego zakończenia, jak i kontynuowania relacji gospodarczych oraz rozwijania dalszej współpracy pomiędzy przedsiębiorcami. W pierwszym kroku określone zostaną cechy konstytutywne mediacji oraz specyfika mediacji transgranicznej ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem aspektów interkulturowych. W tym kontekście przedstawione zostaną specyficzne kompetencje mediatora, niezbędne do skutecznego przeprowadzenia postępowania mediacyjnego w tego typu konfliktach oraz podstawy prawne zastosowania mediacji w odniesieniu do sporów pomiędzy podmiotami z Polski i Niemiec. Omówione zostaną zarówno regulacje prawa polskiego i niemieckiego dotyczące mediacji, jak i ramy i uwarunkowania instytucjonalno-prawne postępowania mediacyjnego w UE w zakresie sporów gospodarczych o charakterze transgranicznym. Ponadto analizie poddane zostaną dane empiryczne dotyczące zakresu upowszechnienia mediacji w obu krajach, stosunku polskich i niemieckich przedsiębiorców do mediacji jako metody rozwiązywania sporów gospodarczych pomiędzy podmiotami z obu krajów oraz trudności w jej zastosowaniu wynikające z różnic kulturowych.

Actualités en psychiatrie transculturelle en France

The classical therapeutic approach to care can sometimes be unproductive when working with migrants, especially for those coming from traditional societies where group mediation is required when solving problems. An adaptation of the clinical framework, including working with an interpreter and a group of therapists trained in a transcultural approach, allows for stories normally kept out from an individual setting to be revealed, whether they are about cultural etiological theories, pre- and post-migratory experiences, or transmission and hybridization issues. We will first describe the variable geometry group framework and its evolution, led by Dr. Moro at Cochin Hospital's Maison des Adolescents which welcomes migrants and their children. We will then illustrate various derived clinical frameworks which emerged in order to respond to the needs observed in recent years, including “unaccompanied foreign minors” consultations, “international adoptions” consultations, intercultural mediation in a hospital setting…

El papel de la traductora en el campo literario gallego

Este artículo tiene como objetivo principal contribuir a dar a conocer el papel de las responsables de las traducciones literarias hacia la lengua gallega realizadas a partir del período democrático, así como establecer una propuesta de clasificación de sus perfiles profesionales en el marco de la actividad del sector editorial. A partir del análisis de los datos registrados en el catálogo BITRAGA, investigamos sobre la función de las personas que traducen y su desarrollo social como mediadoras interculturales, agentes de transferencia, iniciadoras de proyectos y fabricantes de repertorio con capacidad para introducir nuevos debates en la política editorial de las obras traducidas. Con este trabajo damos a conocer cuáles son los circuitos que permiten descubrir si la selección de los textos responde a un encargo o a una propuesta personal de la traductora que busca darle visibilidad a una determinada obra y autoría. El estudio de los casos seleccionados y los proyectos analizados atienden a su representatividad y significación para el campo literario gallego.

Strategies in public service interpreting

Strategies have been far more widely researched in conference interpreting than in the interactional setting of public service interpreting (PSI), although studies of the latter by Wadensjö and other authors suggest a strategic rationale for certain types of rendition (especially non-renditions). The present article describes an exploratory, qualitative study, based on roleplay, to identify strategies in PSI: the roleplays were designed to incorporate a variety of ‘rich points’, coinciding with peak demands on the interpreter’s problem-solving capacities and therefore particularly relevant to empirical study of interpreting strategies. Five interpreter-mediators with the Chinese–Spanish/Catalan language combination were each asked to interpret three different dialogues, in which the primary participants’ input was a re-enactment of real situations. Analysis of the transcribed video recordings was complemented by a preliminary questionnaire and by retrospective interviews with the interpreters. Their strategies, classified according to whether the problems concerned were essentially linguistic or involved the dynamics of interaction, in some cases reflect priorities typically associated with intercultural mediation. The advantages and limitations of using ‘rich points’ and roleplays in the study of interpreting strategies are briefly discussed

ISSUES OF TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE IN ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

The article highlightsthe issues of Intercultural Communication as anacademic discipline in the Economics University. The methodology of teaching Intercultural Communication depends on the language of teaching. Employing a foreign language as a tool for learning the subject area makes this academic discipline integrated that requires applying specific methodology. The author has identified the challenges and advantages of teaching this discipline to students with high level of foreign language proficiency, justified the application of Content and Language Integrated Learning methodology to teaching Intercultural Communication as an integrated discipline and contributed to the teaching methodology by outlining a teaching and learning framework, proposing the structure of the integrated class tailored to the development of effective intercultural communication and mediation skills and ways of achieving the dual goal of the discipline.

Intercultural Mediation at the End of Life. Different Perceptions of the Same Process

Abstract The aim of this study was to identify the perceptions of palliative care professionals with regards to the management of patients from a different culture, and if there is a need to incorporate an intercultural mediator. To understand the influence of the intercultural mediator as a facilitator in the decision making of the patient and family at the end of life. The methodological approach is centered in pluralism, reinforced by triangulation of data and information. The intercultural mediator is crucial because they can provide light in a multitude of conflict situations caused by lack of knowledge about the patient's culture.

Challenges of Intercultural Mediation from Decolonized and Collaborative work Through Experiences in Spain and MesoAmerica

Abstract This space will be exploited to make a compendium of relations on different cultures on how mediation takes place in Spain as well as in some of the countries from which participants (Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco, Algeria and Senegal). From difficult realities to compare we can approach features of mediators that endure today as examples of prophets of otherness, and yet become visible what is favoring the realization of active processes in formal and non-formal educational spaces, where we priority to meeting and community development. The research is based in an ethnography in-depth interviews and participant observation mediators officially named and who have the same function of mediators.

Perception of Health and Healthcare amongst Senegalese Immigrants in Andalusia

Abstract Immigrant healthcare boundaries are one of the most important indicators of health inequality. If health institutions want to take action against barriers and difficulties, it would be necessary to identify immigrant perceptions of health and their views of the Healthcare System. In the Spanish context, earlier studies show that sub-Saharan immigrants find it more difficult to gain access to the public health system. The aim of this study is to describe the health perceptions and views on the healthcare system of Senegalese population, in Andalusia through 61 in-depth interviews. The results indicated processes of deterioration in the immigrant health status and their health behaviours with regard to their arrival, as well as a pathogenic and utilitarian conception of health, linked to their work occupation. In their health speeches we observed a dialectical relationship between the hegemonic health model and the model of traditional Senegalese health. Regarding the quality of the Andalusian Healthcare Service, participants positively emphasize its universality, its infrastructure and easy access to information while, at the same time, they demand reduction of waiting time for care or cultural adaptation of certain service, criticizing discriminatory attitudes from professionals. It would necessary to implement transcultural advisory services in health and to promote intercultural mediators to eliminate some of the barriers to access and health communication.