http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6302-581X
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ABSTRACT
Sight translation (ST) has always been considered one of the tasks covered in Public Service Interpreting (PSI). It has been included in handbooks, and it is also a frequent exercise in PSI assessment. However, few studies have analysed how ST is performed in the framework of a triadic interaction. This study is an attempt to redress this gap and is part of a larger experimental research project based on simulations. Five Chinese-Spanish/Catalan interpreters and intercultural mediators were asked to interpret in a series of interactions that recreated meetings between public service providers and Chinese users in social services and education. One simulation included an ST task, which is the focus of this article. It was possible to draw comparisons between the participants in the study because they all had to perform the same ST task under almost identical conditions. The simulations were recorded so they could be transcribed and analysed. Analysis of the data reflects that ST is not monologic, as is often presented in handbooks or assessment exercises, but dialogic, either dyadic or triadic, with meaning being co-constructed orally. The intercultural mediation strategies used by some of the participants in the study are also considered in the discussion.
Acknowledgments
This article is part of the project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness: “The quality in translation as an element to safeguard procedural guarantees in criminal proceedings: development of resources to help court interpreters of Spanish – Romanian, Arabic, Chinese, French and English” (FFI2014–55029-R). It has also been supported by the AGAUR’s recognition of MIRAS research group (2014SGR545).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. For a detailed and updated revision of previous research in sight translation, see Li (Citation2014) and Chen (Citation2015).
2. Emphasis in the original.
3. For more information about the group, see: http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/miras/ .
4. For more information about the methodology used for the general project, see Arumí and Vargas-Urpi (Citation2017).
5. Subjects concerning PSI have been introduced relatively recently in Spanish Degrees in Translation and Interpreting (Vargas-Urpi Citation2016).
6. Participants’ utterances have been translated from Spanish and Chinese into English for the purpose of this article.
7. This conversation after the meeting was also recorded.
8. Participants in the study only had access to the Spanish version. The English translation has been produced for the purpose of the present article.
9. The numbers used to identify each turn do not reflect the original numeration, buth
ave been reassigned to avoid repetitions for the purpose of this article.
10. The hukou is the household registration system in China and Taiwan. The main difference with the register in Spain is that the hukou is not granted immediately and that it limits people’s access to public services to their residential status.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Mireia Vargas-Urpi
Mireia Vargas-Urpi is a tenure-track professor at the Department of Translation and Language Sciences of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She holds a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has a degree in Translation and Interpreting from the UAB, where she also completed a Master in Professional Chinese-Spanish Translation and Interpreting and an Official Master in Research on Contemporary East Asia. Her research interests include public service interpreting with the Chinese community, intercultural mediation, translation of welcome materials for the Chinese, non-verbal communication in interactions with Chinese people and sociologies of translation and interpreting.