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Abstract
Public service interpreting (PSI) for the Chinese is a reality in many European states. However, research on the specificities of interpreting for this community is rather scarce. I therefore conducted a study to shed light on this topic, focusing on PSI for the Chinese in Catalonia, a region where this service began only relatively recently. This paper discusses the results of the research. The research was conducted using a mixed method. Qualitative interviews were held with interpreters and mediators who work with Chinese people and with coordinators of PSI and intercultural mediation, while quantitative questionnaires were distributed among Chinese users of public services. The three sets of data were analysed independently, and triangulation was used to validate the results and to compare and contrast the information collected from each sample of informants. This article presents the triangulation and elucidates some specificities and challenges of PSI for the Chinese, namely, Chinese linguistic diversity, mediating between cultures and gaining users' trust. The discussion and conclusions stress the importance of including specific strategies to face these challenges in training and education, while also underlining the critical role of coordinators in the professionalisation of PSI.
La interpretación en los servicio públicos (ISP) con el colectivo chino es una realidad en muchos países europeos. Realizamos el presente estudio con el fin de arrojar luz a esta nueva práctica, centrándonos en la ISP para el colectivo chino en Cataluña. Nuestra investigación se realizó a partir de un método mixto. Se realizaron entrevistas cualitativas con intérpretes y mediadores que trabajan para el colectivo chino y con coordinadores de servicios de ISP y de mediación intercultural. Por otro lado, se distribuyeron cuestionarios cuantitativos a usuarios chinos de los servicios públiocs. Los tres corpus de datos se analizaron por separado y, a continuación, se utilizó la triangulación para validar los resultados y comparar y contrastar la información obtenida de cada muestra de informantes. Este artículo presenta la triangulación y dilucida algunas de las especificidades y retos de la ISP para el colectivo chino, como pueden ser la diversidad lingüística del chino, la mediación entre culturas o la cuestión de la confianza. La discusión y las conclusiones enfatizan la importancia de incluir estrategias específicas para afrontar estos retos en los cursos de formación, y subrayan también el rol clave que tienen los coordinadores en el desarrollo de la profesión.
Funding
This paper has been supported by MIRAS and InterAsia research groups. It is part of the RDI projects MEC: ‘El impacto de Asia Oriental en el contexto español: Producción cultural, política(s) y sociedad’ [grant number FFI2011-29090].
Notes on contributor
Mireia Vargas-Urpi is a visiting professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where she teaches the subjects of IM and English–Catalan/Spanish translation. She has previously taught Chinese for translation purposes (UAB) and PSI in different courses and MA degrees in Spain (UAB, UAH, UPO). She holds a Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, with a dissertation on PSI and IM with the Chinese in Catalonia. She is an active member of InterAsia, MIRAS and TXICC research groups (UAB) and has also participated in SOS-Vics, an European project led by the University of Vigo.
Notes
1. Data from Idescat, the Catalan Institute of Statistics. In 2012, there were 49,612 registered Chinese citizens in Catalonia. http://www.idescat.cat/ (accessed 31 May 2013).
2. Original in Catalan; translation into English by the author.
3. The first period of collection of questionnaires was part of a study developed by the MIRAS research group and funded by the Catalan Agency for Research (ARAFI 2010; Vargas-Urpi, Gil-Bardají, & Arumí, Citation2013).
4. The original questionnaire can be consulted in Appendix 1.
5. They came from Zhejiang (4), Fujian (2) and Shanghai (1).
6. They came from Jiangsu (2), Beijing (1), Shandong (1) and Taiwan (1).
7. The abbreviation ‘INF’ followed by a number will be used to refer to interviewees. Informants 1–20 are interpreters and mediators, while 21–30 are coordinators of PSI or IM services. For users, the letter ‘U’ followed by a number will be used.
8. One respondent declared two native languages: Chinese and the dialect of Changle (Fujian).
9. There is a third official language, Aranese, which is a dialect of Occitan and is spoken in the Val d'Aran county, in north-west Catalonia.
10. Patients give the hongbao (红包) or red envelope with extra money to doctors in the hope of receiving better treatment. Some Chinese hospitals now strictly prohibit this practice.
11. Gadamer (Citation1975, Citation1977) introduces the concept of a cultural horizon ‘that is common to everyone who forms part of a given sociocultural group in a given place in a given era. Members of such a group will share the same cultural references within (but not beyond) their horizon’. (Golden, Citation2009, p. 388).
12. Users could choose more than one option in this question and some of them chose two answers.
13. Bahadir (Citation2004, p. 816) quotes Bhaba (Citation1996, p. 54) to introduce the idea of the interpreter's third culture, an intermediate culture based on the two cultures that the interpreter works between.
14. In 2011–2012, the MIRAS research group provided the first course in Catalonia specialising in PSI. In 2012–2013 the course became a postgraduate degree (see http://pagines.uab.cat/formacio_isp_catalunya/, accessed 30 May 2013). Previously, only short, ad hoc courses (40 hours) had been taught in Catalonia.