Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Applied to Community
Interpreting in Hong Kong
Ester Leung
Outline
Interpreter’s Role
Interpreter’s Training
Interpreter’s Performance
Provision of Interpreting Services
The Views of Service Providers / Receivers
the definition of community interpreting
(Alexieva 1997, Robert 1997) ,
the roles of community interpreters (Angelelli
2004, Fenton 1997, WadensjÖ 1997, Roy 1993,
Tate & Turner 1997, Leung 2008)
the professional training and education of
community interpreters (Morris 2003, Mikkelson
& Mintz 1997, Bell 1997),
the provision of community interpretation
services in different communities (Fortier 1997,
Benmaman 1997, Leung 2003, 2008, Hale 2004).
Participatory-Action Research
Father of PAR: "Paolo Freire (1970), one of
the world's leading educationalists, in his
classic text Pedagogy of the Oppressed broke
away from the tradition of gathering data on
oppressed people and instead carried out
research with participants, placing capability
in the hands of disenfranchised people so that
they could transform their lives themselves."
(Koch & Kralik 2006)
Research partners rather than objects
of research
“People are treated as intelligible partners rather
than mere respondents to inquiry instruments”
Legal Interpreting
Role Play
Site visits:
introductions of public hospital services,
common medical terminology and
prescription procedures
Institutionalize the rights and the Association of
Interpreters’
Questionnaires were sent out via emails to
organizations / agents who work with
interpreters; interviews, services meeting
The formation of Multilingual Interpreters’ and
Translators’ Association (MITA)
www.mitahk.org
The association has now got thirty-some
interpreters members, and 5 advisory committee
members (service users), 1 legal adviser (Bar
Association), 1 honorary adivser (Legislative
Councilor)
The Constitution of MITA
Multilingual Interpreters and Translators Association
(MITA) is a non-profit independent organization/
company formed by the multilingual
interpreters/translators working in Hong Kong in various
sectors primarily to voice for the better working
condition for the professional interpreters, promote
quality interpretation/translation service, advocate for
professional development and recognition. MITA strives
to serve people who need and care about
interpreting/translation services irrespective of religious,
political and social background. MITA will be a common
forum for sharing information for the interpreters and
the service providers in its network.
Code of Practices
Cultural awareness
Some organizations allow cultural bridging
in certain contexts or conditions, some
never. Please refer to each service
provider’s code of conduct to ensure you
are in compliance.
Trainers’ Training
1) Interpreting
: modes of interpreting – how do we learn and
how do we teach interpreting skills
: the expected roles of an interpreter working
in the legal and medical settings
2) Syllabus design of a medical / legal
interpreting course
3) Evaluation
:What makes a good / bad interpretation)
:Code of Practices
Analyzing cases and examples from the medical
and the legal settings
Mixing authentic data with made-up
examples to illustrate different issues:
Linguistic differences between the
languages
Contextual influence on the interaction
Different roles that interpreter can take
and its consequences
01:D(octor): basically the check-up is normal. If you want to
have further check-up we can arrange another scan. But I think
if you would not like another you can just observe=
02:P(atient)= yes of course
03:I(nterpreter): observe now? It’s up to her?
04:P: toh haan iske ilaaj ka iske paas koi nai hai ….mere ko
aisa jaane dega ?
(Then, he does not have any treatment for it…will he let me go
in this condition?)
05:I: toh aap kya chahti hain ?
(Then what do you want?)
06:P: nai main to ilaaj karna chahti hoon ..Kyun, Kya masla
hai mera andar ka?
(No, I want to have treatment for this. Why, what is the
problem inside me?)
07:I: She says that she wants to have treatment because she
feels pain you have to do something for her
In the Courtroom