Presentation by Ms Veena Krishnamurthy
Creative Summary by Madhu Shree Dwivedi
How to handle localization problems while doing consecutive interpretation in the context of tourism. A brief introduction: she is an expert for French and English, an IELTS trainer and one of the certified trainers also a versatile linguist. She had her venture called "liveguru" an online training program for languages from Chennai.
She shared about how tourist guide and interpreters face problems while explaining the local or very regional touch of culture or society or a language or situations. How these problems are tackling cross-cultural elements called third space (literal and sense to sense interpretation). She shared about the "Impact of multilingualism in interpretation especially in the tourism industry and above all in Indian context".
Firstly talking about the difference between bilingual and multilingual interpretation and secondly about how it impacts the quality of interpretation finally the effect it has on the listener.
Bilingual means when a tour guy and the interpreter both come from the same linguistic background both speak the same languages and they are in a locale which is familiar to both of them. They understand the place the kind of interpretation that is going to happen and when the interpretation happens they are sort of prepared for it they know what exactly has to be shared so there are no surprises.
Whereas when you look at the multilingual interpretation it is something that throws up many obstacles many unexpected challenges. Different multilingual context and the problem faced, there can be four scenarios and its impact on interpretations. There will be a tour guide, an interpreter, and a visitor. In the first scenario the tour guide and interpreter are from different linguistic background there is a lot of difference in their language. For example, one speaks English and the other speaks Telugu and the common language between them is English.
In this case, the language is not very clear to the person so the interpreter is not prepared for the different words that are used by the tour guide so he passes on the message to the visitor it might come out as something different from what was intended.
In the second scenario tour guide and the interpreter are from the different cultural background and probably speaks the same language. They grew up with their own customs and traditions and are unaware of what happens at the other place. Here if they are not aware of the culture that is being discussed or if they are influenced by their own culture, when they pass on the message to the visitor the information that goes out is a wrong one and if the visitor knows something about it then he understands that there is something that is being said is not correct.
The third scenario can be the tour guide is from a different cultural background whereas the interpreter is a local person the interpreter knows everything about the place but the tour guide has come from the different place.
If the tour guide is saying something which is not correct about the local place whereas the interpreter knows the correct information that has to be shared then that could create a problem between the two of them and that could impact their final output to the visitor and also the relationship between them.
The fourth scenario can be the tour guide is local whereas the interpreter is to form the different cultural background. In this case, the tour guide is trying to explain something about the place but the interpreter has absolutely no idea about it so they again pass on the wrong information or they delete it, they don't bother to interpret that part at all.
More often than not the tourist does not get the accurate information about the place, it hinders the seamless interpretation. There can be various reasons. The problem between the tour guide and the interpreter. Information is twisted and wrong information goes out. When all the that the information is not correct and only one person does not know that the information is incorrect, this creates an impact on visitor's mind that the interpreter is probably not capable of delivering correct message. The interpreter might be very good with language but doesn't have a good understanding of local tradition and culture and gives the wrong information, this could hinder the interpreter authenticity or skills or his genuineness. The tour guide may use local words and the interpreter might not have done enough research about it, as he knows only say English and not the local language so he manages to say something which is absolutely wrong.
In such situations, the interpreter loses their credibility and it can be quite harrowing for the interpreter.
How to cope up with this situation as an interpreter
- First thing is to have a recede, go to the place to look at the place mingle with the local people
- Creating a sort of data bank on probably your own experiences.
- Before the interpreter start interpreting should interact the tour guide creates a rapport with them. Spending the little time with the tour guide getting both of them to relax and treat each other as friends and not as competitors help a lot.
Lastly, there is not much training for interpretation in tourism tour guide is people who are certified but most of the interpreters are either at B-2 level. It is time took cognizance of this fact and started working on it to get a more enriching experience.
