Analysis Of An Interpreter’s Role And Behavior In Business Negotiation

With the accelerated internationalization of China, business cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises has become more and more frequent. In any business activity, corporations usually choose negotiation to solve issues no matter they are aimed to promote cooperation or solve disputes. As a result, negotiation interpretation has become the most common form of business interpretation. Due to different negotiation goals, customers usually have different expectations on and requirements for the interpreter. Therefore, interpreters need to behave differently in different negotiations, namely, setting different roles for themselves and taking different interpreting actions. An interpreter’s role and behavior is directly determined by whether he can meet the customer’s expectations and influences the final result of the negotiation. To become a qualified interpreter, one has to have a clear idea of his multiple roles in interpretation besides seeking the high quality. In this way, the expected result can be more likely to be achieved.The writer has participated two business negotiation interpretation practices---Destination NSW & Tourism and Events Queensland Joint Greater China Mission 2015 and compensation negotiation of steel wire ropes project. In negotiations with different aims, the interpreter has to play different roles and take different actions. This thesis is to analyze an interpreter’s roles and behaviors in different business negotiations and explore the factors based on the two interpretation practices mentioned above. This thesis is composed of four main parts. The first part is task description, a brief introduction of the background, contents and significance of the thesis. The second part is task process, mainly introducing the preparing and interpreting process so as to offer the analysis in the next part a general background. The third part is case study. It is to compare and analyze different roles and behaviors of the interpreter in concrete negotiation context, i.e, assistant in negotiation on tourism cooperation and negotiation representative in negotiation on compensation.Based on the analysis of interpreter role and behavior, the thesis is to explore three factors that influence the change of roles and behaviors --- relations between the two sides of negotiation, relations between the interpreter and customers and the interpreter’s character. And a practice inspiration is followed. The fourth part is to conclude the whole thesis.