Emotional Aspects of Language Brokering among Mexican American Adults

Abstract

Children of immigrant parents often are asked to language broker, translating documents and face-to-face interactions, for their parents and other adults. Many individuals continue to language broker as adults for their parents and other relatives, despite their adult status and living away from home. Twenty Mexican American college students (female = 17, male = 3) who currently language broker answered a questionnaire about their experiences language brokering, frequency of brokering, type of items and situations translated, emotions when language brokering, self esteem and level of acculturation. Participants translated most often for parents, on the phone, and for grandparents and other relatives. Overall, participants reported feeling positively about their language brokering experiences. More frequent language brokering was associated with higher self-esteem. Participants rated feeling helpful, proud and useful when language brokering as the highest three emotions among a list of emotions. Feeling angry, anxious, frustrated, guilty and uncomfortable when language brokering was associated with more problematic family relations. Being more Mexican-oriented than Anglo-oriented in acculturation was associated with better family relations.

Keywords:

• language broker
• family relations
• Mexican American
• translation
• emotions