Volunteer Interpreters Research Articles

Museum as active aging place for elderly volunteer interpreters:from the perspective of Chinese ‘Family’ and ‘State’

ABSTRACT As global populations age, examining how museums can promote active aging holds practical significance. In China, an increasing number of elderly individuals are entering museums as volunteer interpreters. As they serve the museum, this engagement profoundly impacts their active aging. This paper, based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, analyzes the motivations, behaviors, and impacts of 20 elderly volunteer museum interpreters in China. The study reveals that the dialectical relationship between the individual and the ‘family’ and ‘state’ in Chinese traditional culture serves as an intrinsic motivation for the active aging of elderly volunteer interpreters. It also identifies this relationship as an outcome of the active aging they pursue. Chinese museums have contextual specialties in addressing the issue of aging. The study illustrates the value of museums in challenging the perspective of ageism and underscores the importance of cultural context for understanding elderly people’s active aging.

Challenges Encountered during the Interpretation and Translation of the Sermons in the Pentecostal Churches in Vihiga County

This study sought to analyse challenges encountered during interpreting and translating of sermons in the Pentecostal churches in Vihiga County. Interpretation and translation are a reflective professional undertaking fraught with linguistics challenges. The challenge is pronounced during sermon delivery in Pentecostal churches, where untrained volunteer interpreters and translators predominantly undertake interpretation and translation. Marianne’s Interpretive Theory of Translation guided the study. The descriptive research design was employed, and the target population consisted of the clergy, translators, interpreters and congregants drawn from the Pentecostal churches in Vihiga County. Purposive sampling was used to select five preachers, interpreters, translators and congregants from five Pentecostal churches in Vihiga County. Audio-video recording, guided interviews and structured observations were adopted to collect data. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic content. The results showed that the interpreters and translators faced numerous challenges during sermon interpretation and translation. The challenges included inadequate language and biblical knowledge, the use of complex terminologies, pronunciation problems and unpredictable preaching styles, insufficient preparation, cultural differences and inability to fulfil community language expectations, lengthy utterances and prolonged elicitations, the use of independent and non-contextual translation and lack of synonyms for different linguistic features. It is recommended that interpreters and translators undergo adequate training in interpretation and translation to enhance their ability to deal with the dynamics of translation and interpretation of the sermons in Pentecostal churches.

Stakeholders’ Experiences and Perceptions of the Provision and Practice of Language Support for Ethnic Minority School Children in Japan

This study examines experiences and perceptions concerning the provision of Japanese language support for ethnic minority school children between the ages of 6 and 12 enrolled in public elementary schools in a city located in the Kansai region of Japan (hereinafter referred to as “City M”). This paper will focus in particular on interpreting the experiences and perspectives of language support teachers, volunteer interpreters, mother-tongue language supporters (hereafter referred to as MTLS) as well as three principals of three public elementary schools located in particularly different areas of the City M. Each of the school’s history, backgrounds and current situations are varied and unique. One-on-one interviews of 40 to 60 min in length were conducted with a total of 9 participants consisting of public elementary school principals and Japanese language support teachers. These results of the data collection provided a deeper understanding and explanation of the reasons behind current trends and challenges regarding the accessibility, implementation, provision, and practice of language learning support for ethnic minority school children. The findings from this research will increase awareness of current issues faced by practitioners supporting ethnic minority children in their learning. The research findings also provide insight into what obstacles need to be overcome in order to provide adequate, sufficient, and sustainable educational support for children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds within the mainstream Japanese education system.

Online ethnography of activist networks of interpreters: an “ethnonarrative” methodology for socio-political change

ABSTRACT Narrative theory in translation studies has been mostly used to examine how translators mediate and refract meaning as they contribute to circulating political agendas across contexts and audiences. Building on this heritage but extending narrative theory beyond cross-language analysis, this paper proposes an ethnonarrative methodology to enquire and write about contemporary activist networks. It provides an epistemological-theoretical framework to explore identity, action and space in prefigurative transnational social movements, and a set of narrative methods and analytical techniques to conduct an ethnography of communication. Drawing on my on-site and online ethnography of Babels, the international network of volunteer interpreters, the paper first discusses the ethical and political questions raised by my practice in, and by my writing about Babels, in the interdisciplinary context of social movement studies and interpreting studies in the first decade of the 21st century. It then exposes the ethnonarrative methodology developed in this context and illustrates its use through a detailed narrative account of how Babels constructed and negotiated its financial structure in and out of Babels.org. Finally, it discusses the extension of the methodology beyond 2.0 (so called participatory) web, as activist networks increasingly communicate through social media and videoconferencing platforms.

Non-professional Medical Interpreting as a Contextualized Practice: Chinese Volunteer Interpreters’ Role-Spaces in Mediating Provider-Patient Conflicts Amid the Pandemic

ABSTRACT Non-professional medical interpreters are frequent participants of bilingual health communication. Yet, scholarly attention paid to this group’s roles in less routinized medical encounters is insufficient. Adopting the concept of “role-space,” this study explores volunteer medical interpreters’ (VMIs) roles in mediating provider-patient conflicts at a designated hospital tasked to admit and treat foreign patients in City Y, China. In-depth interviews with eight VMIs, two doctors, two patients, and one Foreign Affairs officer indicate that VMIs took on the roles of provider proxy, patient advocates, information gatekeepers, and emotional supporters while navigating through challenges at the macro-, meso- and micro-level; Their practices led to four role-spaces that featured high presentation of VMIs’ self-driven actions during dyadic communication with patients only and, in most cases, minimal interaction management and participant alignment in provider-patient encounters.

Tłumaczenie dzieci i dla dzieci w obecnej sytuacji migracyjnej w Polsce

Interpreting of Children and for Children in the Actual Migration Situation in Poland The paper describes the actual scene of public service interpreting and translation in Poland since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the influx of a vast number of Ukrainian refugees into Poland. In particular it is focused on the role played by volunteer interpreters and translators who offer linguistic and cultural assistance to Ukrainian children in medical and psychotherapeutic contexts. It also deals with the activities of non-governmental organizations offering linguistic and translational support for immigrants in Poland.

Volunteering for Legal Status. Putting Asylum System Interpreters to Work in the Non-profit Sector

This article examines the manufacture of consent around the unpaid employment in the asylum-seeking population, based on an ethnographic survey of volunteer interpreters in a non-profit organisation that supports asylum seekers. While non-profit actors seek the support and loyalty of interpreters through the implementation of a selective and preferential recruitment process, the latter find in this privileged relationship the ad hoc protection necessary for their financial and administrative survival. Exiles’ volunteer work may be motivated by financial compensation, but also — in the case of those whose applications for refugee status have been refused — the promise of one day obtaining regularisation of their status. This article shows the ways in which non-profit organisations act as the guarantors of exiles’ “good conduct” in processes to obtain regularisation, by producing certificates of volunteer work, while at the same time participating in their recruitment, screening and selecting the individuals likely to be the most employable on the labour market in the future.

Self-care as an ethical responsibility

Abstract This article presents a pilot research project which examined the effectiveness of remote, formal support, provided by Colleagues Across Borders, for volunteer interpreters in an immigration detention support NGO. We consider the occupational stress and susceptibility to vicarious traumatization and burnout for interpreters working in sensitive (e.g., refugee) contexts. It is argued that it is an ethical responsibility to keep oneself fit and well-prepared to perform interpreting assignments to the highest standards. The project offered an intervention of remote support for non-professional interpreters in a detention center who needed professional advice and emotional relief. Analysis of pre- and post-intervention focus groups and questionnaires indicates an improvement in self-care, resilience, confidence, and effectiveness after three support sessions, suggesting that a remote yet personal support program can mitigate the effects of vicarious trauma and burnout for non-professional and professional interpreters working in ethically challenging refugee contexts.

The value(s) of volunteering: asylum seekers’ trajectories through language work in refugee assistance

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, ‘work’ and ‘citizenship’ are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal ‘object’). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capital – including language – required for success in the ‘markets’ of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

Occupied Philadelphia

This article explores the aims and delivery of a living history event conducted in a contemporary urban environment. It reports on a pilot program, “Occupied Philadelphia,” delivered in October 2017 by the Museum of the American Revolution in downtown Philadelphia. This program re-created events and incidents from the fall of 1777 and included a walking tour with three main stops highlighting the lives of everyday Philadelphians and British soldiers. Occupied Philadelphia provided a framework for volunteer interpreters to engage in a form of “guerilla interpretation,” taking public history into unexpected places as a means of inspiring historical empathy and encouraging the public to make connections between the past and present.

Contracts and capabilities: public service interpreting and third sector domestic violence services

ABSTRACTThis article evaluates the role played by professional and non-professional volunteer interpreters in the care trajectories and institutional itineraries of survivors of domestic abuse in the third sector and is informed by Martha C. Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to contractarian theory. Reporting on a case study involving an organisation in the North West of England, it sheds light on how interpreter provision supports survivors in converting capabilities into effective social participation, and the extent to which survivors are able to influence the initial contract position in relation to language services provision. It finds that rather than being used as a replacement for professional interpreting, nonprofessional volunteer interpreters support survivors in ways that help them to achieve a range of service outcomes. Further, it finds that the evolving contractual relation places demands on professional interpreters to limit their role in interaction as the service user prepares to move on independently. I conclude that the capabilities approach provides a useful theoretical lens for examining service user empowerment in multilingual service spaces, especially in light of recently observed failings in rights-based approaches to interpreting and translation provision. The approach widens the debate about what constitutes socially responsible language services provision in this setting.

Interpreting Service: Educating Child Language Brokers through Service-Learning

How might a service-learning course help child language brokers (Tse, 1996) minimize negative effects and maximize the cognitive and academic benefits of language brokering? This question is answered with data from an ethnographic case study of a high school service-learning course in translation and interpreting. Heritage speakers of Spanish and less commonly taught languages serve as volunteer interpreters at local schools while learning the skills, habits and ethics of professional interpreting in this course. The theoretical lens of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977; 2006) is used to analyze how this curriculum affects students. This article also contributes to evolving definitions of service-learning for heritage language speakers, arguing that language brokering that students do for their families and communities should be seen as a pre-existing “service” that can be utilized in the prepare-act-reflect cycle of service-learning. Analysis of the data shows that this cycle is key to supporting students in building the confidence and skills to pursue careers in professional interpreting and helping them manage their family interpreting experiences. Students demonstrated increased self-efficacy perceptions in terms of interpreting, academic achievement and general life events, although the role that service-learning played in the latter two outcomes is still unclear.

Non-professional volunteer interpreting as an institutionalized practice in healthcare: a study on interpreters’ personal narratives

This article discusses the process of institutionalization of a migrantoriented NGO where volunteers work as non-professional interpreters and where this had led to the integration of volunteer interpreting services in two hospitals in the Costa del Sol region in southern Spain. It explores the processes of socialization of volunteers and institutionalization of interpreters, leading to the development of an official NGO, drawing on the personal narratives of volunteers collected through focus groups and participant observation. The article begins by looking at the early stages of socialization of volunteers, through which they internalize the field structures and a series of dispositions shaped by empathy and compassion, resulting in volunteers adopting different positions available to them such as interpreters, caretakers and patient advocates. After the initial process of socialization, a process of institutionalization was requested by the regional government for the official establishment of the NGO. Drawing up the constitution of the now official NGO entailed the bureaucratization of the volunteers’ position as interpreters, which provided them with a series of assets and the legitimization of their activity as institutional agents. This study demonstrates how in this particular case volunteer non-professional interpreting became essential for the institutions in which the services are provided. The volunteer interpreters of this NGO are now legitimate institutional agents with a strong degree of professional autonomy that allows them to adopt a series of positions that belong to the domain of intercultural mediators and cultural brokers.

Panorama da interpretação em contextos médicos no Brasil: perspectivas

<p>Dentre os contextos comunitários em que há necessidade de mediação por meio de interpretação, o da saúde demanda cautela, dado à natureza complexa da atividade médica, que, consequentemente, impõe diferentes desafios aos intérpretes. No Brasil, as barreiras linguísticas enfrentadas por pacientes que não falam a língua portuguesa são tratadas de forma improvisada por intérpretes voluntários sem nenhum treinamento específico. Este artigo discorre sobre as atuais demandas por intérpretes em contextos médicos no Brasil e a necessidade de análises e ações com vistas à formação de um campo profissional que garanta o acesso a serviços de saúde no país por minorias linguísticas. Nesse sentido, este estudo aponta para a necessidade de debater a criação de políticas públicas que não somente reconheçam a demanda, mas que criem ferramentas de acesso linguístico. Aos profissionais e instituições voltados aos estudos da interpretação no contexto brasileiro, cabe colocar em pauta o debate sobre as pesquisas na área da Interpretação Comunitária, a fim de atualizar abordagens teóricometodológicas que atendam demandas de treinamento para intérpretes atuantes em contextos comunitários, entre eles, os da saúde.</p>

Revolutionizing Volunteer Interpreter Services: An Evaluation of an Innovative Medical Interpreter Education Program

In our ever-increasingly multicultural, multilingual society, medical interpreters serve an important role in the provision of care. Though it is known that using untrained interpreters leads to decreased quality of care for limited English proficiency patients, because of a short supply of professionals and a lack of formalized, feasible education programs for volunteers, community health centers and internal medicine practices continue to rely on untrained interpreters. To develop and formally evaluate a novel medical interpreter education program that encompasses major tenets of interpretation, tailored to the needs of volunteer medical interpreters. One-armed, quasi-experimental retro-pre-post study using survey ratings and feedback correlated by assessment scores to determine educational intervention effects. Thirty-eight students; 24 Spanish, nine Mandarin, and five Vietnamese. The majority had prior interpreting experience but no formal medical interpreter training. Students completed retrospective pre-test and post-test surveys measuring confidence in and perceived knowledge of key skills of interpretation. Primary outcome measures were a 10-point Likert scale for survey questions of knowledge, skills, and confidence, written and oral assessments of interpreter skills, and qualitative evidence of newfound knowledge in written reflections. Analyses showed a statistically significant (P <0.001) change of about two points in mean self-ratings on knowledge, skills, and confidence, with large effect sizes (d > 0.8). The second half of the program was also quantitatively and qualitatively shown to be a vital learning experience, resulting in 18% more students passing the oral assessments; a 19% increase in mean scores for written assessments; and a newfound understanding of interpreter roles and ways to navigate them. This innovative program was successful in increasing volunteer interpreters' skills and knowledge of interpretation, as well as confidence in own abilities. Additionally, the program effectively taught how to navigate the roles of the interpreter to maintain clear communication.

Freelancing eagles: interpretation as a transient career strategy for skilled migrants

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the role that transient interpretation jobs play in the career development of skilled migrants.Design/methodology/approachBased on interviews and correspondence with ethnic Albanian interpreters in the USA and Britain, this study analyzes the bonding and bridging effects of transient careers. Respondents include a diverse group of freelancers, as well as volunteer and professional interpreters and the interpretation experiences of the dozen Albanian skilled migrants are analyzed through a grounded theory approach.FindingsInterpretation jobs enable highly‐skilled immigrants to initially sustain themselves abroad while adjusting to the host country. Interpretation is one area where skilled women can find a professional voice. Yet, the social capital value of interpretation exceeds its economic benefits. Migrant interpreters acquire human capital and social and cultural networks through their jobs and pass this “know‐how” to their communities through their volunteer work.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research beyond the limited ethnic scope of the study is necessary to assess the links between migration and translation activism.Practical implicationsAs an initial career choice for migrants, interpretation jobs remain typically transient, ad hoc and low‐wage, and the important functions they provide in economic, social and cultural capital, and their role in enabling migrants to get skilled through their migration remain unrecognized in studies of career development.Social implicationsTalented young immigrants in a transient career also get skilled through their migration process.Originality/valueYoung Albanian interpreters, invisible as immigrants and refugees, are indicative of the potential talent hidden in many such transient careers. The social, economic and cultural gains from interpretation indicate the need to view transient careers as more than short‐term strategies to make a living.

Influence of Activity Involvement and Place Attachment on Volunteer Interpreters’ Satisfaction in Taiwan

The purpose of this research was to establish a conceptual model of volunteer interpreters’ satisfaction in Taiwan. The objectives were: (1) to understand Taiwanese volunteer interpreters’ activity involvement, place attachment, and personal satisfaction and (2) to propose a hypothetical structural model representing the association between activity involvement, place attachment, and interpreters’ satisfaction. A total of 378 surveys were collected from volunteer interpreters at six Taiwan national parks and the Taipei Zoo. Based on the findings, research targets’ activity involvement was high and place attachment was moderate. Their satisfaction, however, was high. Furthermore, the results showed that the volunteer interpreters’ activity involvement and place attachment positively and significantly influenced satisfaction; their activity involvement also positively influenced place attachment. Based on the results, researchers proposed suggestions for agency managers who use volunteers, among them promoting interpreters’ activity involvement and place attachment in order to enhance volunteer satisfaction.

The use of volunteer interpreters during the 2010 Haiti earthquake: Lessons learned from the USNS COMFORT Operation Unified Response Haiti

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude Richter earthquake devastated Haiti, leading to the world's largest humanitarian effort in 60 years. The catastrophe led to massive destruction of homes and buildings, the loss of more than 200,000 lives, and overwhelmed the host nation response and its public health infrastructure. Among the many responders, the United States Government acted immediately by sending assistance to Haiti including a naval hospital ship as a tertiary care medical center, the USNS COMFORT. To adequately respond to the acute needs of patients, healthcare professionals on the USNS COMFORT relied on Haitian Creole-speaking volunteers who were recruited by the American Red Cross (ARC). These volunteers complemented full-time Creole-speaking military staff on board. The ARC provided 78 volunteers who were each able to serve up to 4 weeks on board. Volunteers' demographics, such as age and gender, as well as linguistic skills, work background, and prior humanitarian assistance experience varied. Volunteer efforts were critical in assisting with informed consent for surgery, family reunification processes, explanation of diagnosis and treatment, comfort to patients and families in various stages of grieving and death, and helping healthcare professionals to understand the cultural context and sensitivities unique to Haiti. This article explores key lessons learned in the use of volunteer interpreters in earthquake disaster relief in Haiti and highlights the approaches that optimize volunteer services in such a setting, and which may be applicable in similar future events.

The Significance of Volunteer Interpreters in Medical Tourism

The Significance of Volunteer Interpreters in Medical Tourism

“What Did She Say? What Did She Say?” the Impact of Interpretation on Recruiting and Interviewing European Migrant Women in the United Kingdom

Although a few researchers mention that involving interpreters can have an impact on the research process and research findings, little is published regarding methods of assessing the interpretation work's quality and impact. The impact of lay volunteer interpreters used in audiorecorded semistructured interviews on collecting data and the data quality and subsequent analysis is examined. A new systematic approach is presented comparing original interview transcripts (conducted with volunteer interpreters) with independent transcripts, reinterpretations by professional interpreters. Findings indicate that involving volunteer interpreters had an impact on the validity and reliability of a portion of the data, the subsequent analysis, and some practical research aspects. Researchers involving interpreters should pay careful attention to the interpreters' influence on the research, the data produced, and critically bring this to bear in their analysis and interpretation. The systematic comparative approach is a cost-effective tool that can be used successfully to examine the influence's effects.