by Lauren Nemec
"Lost without Translation", written by Mario Cacciottolo for BBC news, follows the linguistic and cultural challenges in the day-to-day work of a British midwife named Jayne Cozens. Though it's fascinating to read about the cross-cultural aspects of the job (ex: advising women of certain cultures to avoid SIDS/cot death by refraining from sleeping with their babies and other family members in the same bed), what is particularly interesting and relevant about this story regards the methods that Ms. Cozens uses to meet her language needs- and their drawbacks.
Ms. Cozens works with many immigrant mothers and expectant mothers, many of whom speak and understand little or no English. In order to communicate effectively with her patients, she often requires the assistance of language interpreters. Sometimes she is able to find interpreters for her patients quite easily, but sometimes interpreters must come from many miles away - and they're not cheap. She laments, "The costs are phenomenal, absolutely huge, and they get their travel expenses paid as well."
Since she cannot always have an interpreter physically present during hospital appointments, antenatal classes, or house calls, Ms. Cozens often relies on a telephone interpreting service. But even that is not without hassles and complications- "...you have to call the interpreter on the phone, speak to her, hand the receiver to the woman, get it back, and hear the translated reply. Everything takes three times as long."
While Ms. Cozens finds that the telephone interpreting service can be time-consuming and perhaps inefficient, many people in corporations, governmental agencies and non-profits find this kind of service to be an incredible asset to their organizations.
For example, take a situation where a non-English speaking woman in the United States is in labor and not able to reach a hospital. Emergency response officials would need to communicate with her to get important information about the baby and her health, inform her of the situation, and keep her calm - but serious complications could arise in the time it takes to arrange for an interpreter to come to the scene. Solution? Many police departments, hospitals, call centers and emergency response agencies depend on subscriptions to telephone interpreting services to give them inexpensive, immediate access to interpreters in virtually any language. (
Click here to watch a video of how telephone interpreting company "Language Line" would respond to this situation).
In a business setting, when important deals hang in the balance, a telephone interpreter can help you to decipher not only your business counterpart's message, but the cultural context of that message as well. For example, a telephone interpreter could tell you that your Japanese client's response of "It would be difficult" or "I will consider it" most likely means that the answer is "no", since a direct negative response might cause discomfort or loss of face.
Telephone interpreting does not come without difficulties, as Ms. Cozens has realized. Telephone interpreters cannot see and interpret body language, which is quite a serious drawback considering that most of what we communicate is done non-verbally. The quality of the connection is not always ideal- echoes, static and other noise can interfere with the process. And interpreting via the telephone can leave more room for error.
However, this method of communication provides instant access to interpreters in all of the world's major languages. It saves the cost of paying an interpreter's travel expenses to be on site. Telephone interpreting can be a blessing - whether you're helping to deliver a woman's baby or trying to get a big contract with a company in a foreign country.
Labels: Culture, Translation and Localization Industry
