The community interpreter, a cultural broker : The role of the interpreter and the issue of representation

• “It was a family in a situation where social authorities had taken their children into care. I was interpreting for them four or five times. It was a clear case of cultural clashes. In their country of origin there are no social authorities and the parents did not at all understand how serious the situation was. The man was a heavy drinker and the woman was offered a choice, to stay with her husband and lose her children or to leave her husband and keep the children. It was immensely difficult to interpret. And it is very important to keep in mind that I am interpreting for both the couple and the public officer.”In many cases it is very difficult to meet the expectations from the persons you are interpreting for. The couple in the example did not have an understanding of the Swedish public officer’s way of thinking and vice versa. The expectations projected on the community interpreter were also totally different. The interpreter moves from different perceptions of “normality” and is expected to facilitate communication between these understandings of the situation at hand. In our paper we will analyze different sociocultural expectations and realities the interpreter has to handle and what it means to understand the significance of perceived normality when performing an interpretation. The analysis is based on 50 interviews with community interpreters and a two year long fieldwork among interpreters in Sweden. Theoretically we will discuss the role of the community interpreter (one job or many?) and the issue of representation by using the academic discussion about self- reflection.

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Socialt arbete

Social Work

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