Corpus-driven interpreter training is based on the idea that the internet provides a wealth of easily accessible language data; today, an increasing number of texts by authors specializing in a specific area are also available online, which means that the internet is also becoming of interest to interpreters preparing for interpreting jobs in certain specialized areas. In the case of community interpreters - health-care interpreters, court interpreters, and other public service interpreters - one must also take into account the fact that they often cannot resort to established terminology resources; therefore it is important that the educational process include information on language management options based on text resources.
COBISS.SI-ID: 46509666
Health care interpreting is substantiated by the growing number of people in Slovenia who do not speak or understand Slovenian. The current state of play of health care interpreting in Slovenia is managed through improvisation and goodwill of all parties involved. The article analyses the state of healthcare interpreting in Slovenia and puts forward suggestions on how to improve the current situation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 50632802
Modern society is facing challenges previously unknown to such extent due to globalisation, increasing mobility and, in the case of Slovenia, a constant positive net migration of foreigners, all contributing to a great linguistic diversity. Interpreting and translation for the community thus emerge as inevitable in times of increasing awareness about legal rights to use one’s own language in front of state officials and in the public services and to safeguard linguistic rights as basic human rights. On this ground, research on community interpreting has only recently started to develop in Slovenia. In order to ensure equal access to public services, community interpreting needs to be comprehensively organised. The essential requirements are organized language services in the form of an obligation for institutions and a high-level policy for generic and field-specific services, interpreting training and accreditation with a generic approach.
COBISS.SI-ID: 52735330
The book chapter focuses on the issue of the recommended position and the gaze of the interpreter in health-care settings. The traditional assumption in theoretical works and codes of conducts assumes that the ideal position of the interpreter in a medical environment is in a triadic position, i.e. in a perfect triangle where the patient, provider and interpreter can maintain appropriate eye contact. The book chapter challenges this claim from the point of view of communication studies and by examining the reality of interpreting in the clinical setting, focussing on spatial constrictions in different health-care institutions and on the actual practice of 60 public-service interpreters working in health-care settings in Slovenia. Finally, suggestions how to address this topic in interpreter training are discussed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 52778850
The article presents a study as part of on-going research on community interpreting. It investigates the interaction of foreign-speaking persons with officials in public service administration by exploring the settings, the participants and the characteristics of these situations through empirical survey research. Despite fair language skills, immigrants and officials often encounter difficulties in mutual understanding, whereas an impromptu interpreter may either mistakenly take control over the conversation or empower clients to exercise their rights. Above all, results show that different steps should be taken to enhance successful interlingual interaction and that employing trained interpreters for facilitating communication in the public services should become standard in order to enable equal opportunities for all, regardless of immigrant background.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12433485