| The world is multilingual and intercultural.Interpreters,with their cross-cultural and cross-linguistic abilities,play an important role in facilitating communication among participants from different countries.Traditionally,invisibility,faithfulness,accuracy,neutrality,impartiality and detachment are the persistent and dominant notions given to the role of interpreters.However,interpreting process is extremely complicated with multiple contingencies,especially in the highly-interactive educational setting of interpreting.Hence more recent literature are suggesting more flexible and diversified roles of Interpreters in this setting so as to realize the desired purpose of the communication activity.This report is based on the author’s consecutive interpretation practice for a Pilates Workshop,in which she highlights a number of situations that happened in this educational setting that threatened to undermine the quality,effectiveness and cross-cultural communication of that workshop and how they were handled properly.In summary,the author took on three roles,i.e.,the role as a co-instructor,an intercultural agent and a power figure.From this reported task,the author gained practical insights into the complexity of interpreter’s role.The author believes that in real practice,an interpreter is not a mechanical transmitter of information,she does not carry one static and pre-established identity.Rather,she is an active third party who monitors and mediates the whole interpretation process. |
