/ MIGRATION ACTION

LIBRARY Vol. XVIII, Number 1 BROTHER' I00D GF ST. LA0EL1CE May, 1996 67 BRUNSWICK STREET FITZROY VICTORIA 3065 Working with Interpreters

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Interpreting and Translating Services in Australia Books from the CHOMI Bookshop

New Translators Through History RRP: $45.00 edited and directed by Jean Delisle and Judith Woodsworth, 1996

New InterculturalCommunication: Pragmatics, Genealogy, Deconstruction RRP: $26.95 by Robert Young, 1996

New Liaison interpreting: a Handbook RRP: $24.95 by Adolfo Gentile, Uldis Ozlins and Mary Vasilakakos,1996

New The Politics of Language in Australia RRP: $36.95 by Uldis Ozlins, 1993

New 24 Hours RRP: $45.00 by n.O., 1995

B649 Interpreters and the Legal System RRP: $35.00 by Kathy Laster & Veronica Taylor, 1994

B669 Speaking of Speaking RRP: $20.00 by Maree Pardy, 1995

B702 Housing and Refugee Women Research Report RRP: $10.00 by Sherron Dunbar, 1995

B715 Teaching for Justice in the Age of Good Universities Guide: a working RRP: $12.00 paper by Les Terry, 1995

B726 Improving Intercultural Interactions: Modules for Cross-cultural Training RRP: $39.95 Program s edited by Richard W. Brislin and Tomoko Yoshida, 1994

B727 Assessing and Treating Culturally Diverse Clients: a Practical Guide RRP: $29.95 by Freddy A. Paniagua, 1994

B729 Emma: a Recipe for life RRP: $24.95 by Emma Ciccotosto and Michal Bosworth, 1995

B730 Judaism in Australia RRP: $8.95 by W.D. Rubinstein, 1995

B731 The General Langfitt Story: Polish Refugees Recount their Experiences of RRP: $14.95 exile, dispersal and resettlement by Mary on Allbrook and Helen Cattalini, 1995

B732 Racism and Criminology RRP:$38.95 Dee Cook and Barbara Hudson, 1993

Purchases from the CHOMI bookshop may be made by calling the EMC on Ph.(03) 9416 0044 or Fax(03) 9416 1827 or by using the enclosed order form. / igration A ction MIGRATION ACTION Contents VOL XVIII, NUMBER 1, Interpreting for women — time for a rethink MAY 1996 Maree Pardy...... 3 ISSN: 0311-3760 Sign language interpreting and the Australian Deaf community Jan Branson and Don M iller...... 9 Migration Action is published by the Interpreting and translating services to Aboriginal communities Ecumenical Migration Centre, Peter Carroll...... 14 161 Victoria Pde, Collingwood, Court interpreting and the war crimes prosecutions: what went Victoria, Australia, 3066. wrong? Tel: +61 3 9416 0044 Fax: +61 3 9416 1827 Ludmila Stern...... 19

EMC is a non-government agency which, through B last from the Past: How much have things really changed? its welfare, educational, project and community Editorial Committee...... 24 work fosters the development of Australia as a multicultural society. The centre has been working Australian model for language services with migrants since 1962. Uldis Ozolins ...... 26 Its work is diversified, from community service Interpreting services in a community based welfare agency and development to social action and community education. Sherron Dunbar...... 27

Within a framework of ensuring equal access and Family interpreting in the ageing Italian community... rights for all Australian society, EMC provides Patrizia Burley-Lombardi...... 30 counselling services and community development activities to a number of ethnic communities, both The world of interpreting and translation comes to Australia established and newly arrived. Sandra Hale...... 34 EMC also initiates research towards an understand­ Translation — the 21st century horizon ing of a range of issues, and promotes change where necessary. Geoffrey Kingscott...... 37 EMC operates a Documentation Centre comprising Book Review a library, a bookshop and a publishing house, for­ Lauren Williams...... 43 merly the Clearing House on Migration Issues (CHOMI), This is an unique information centre on We are Going migrant, refugee and ethnic issues. The library Oodgeroo of the tribe Noouccal...... 44 holds over 40,000 documents and 250 periodicals which are used by students, teachers, government departments, community organisations and other seeking up-to-date information and undertaking research.

Editorial Committee: Basil Varghese, Kathy Laster, Anne Seitz, Glen Coomber, Margret Holding, Kimba Chu, Hugh Martin and Vivian Papaleo

Editing, design and production: Ecumenical Migration Centre Printing: Art Offset

It is not the intention of this journal to reflect the opinions of either the staff or the committee of EMC. In many matters this would be difficult to ascertain, nor do the editors think it desirable. The aim of the journal is to be informative and stimulating through its various articles, sug­ gestions and comments.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (per volume of 3 issues) — $20.00 (EMC member) — $25 (Student) —$36.00 (Individual) — $45.00 (Institutions) — $50.00 (Abroad) — Single issue: $8.00

MAY 1996 1 IGRATION ACTION E D I TO R I A L Working with Interpreters

For over thirty years EMC has been helping to meet the the linguistic and cultural dimensions of the witnesses’ practical needs of newly arrived communities. Not surpris­ testimony meant that key evidentiary issues were over­ ingly, language needs and services have been a crucial part looked or misunderstood. of EMC’s policy and advocacy activities. The good news is that from difficult beginnings there is now, at least in The papers all emphasise the demands placed on interpret­ theory, an acknowledgment of the importance of language ers. As Sherron Dunbar illustrates, the work of welfare rights and the need for professional interpreters. The less and other agencies would have been impossible without optimistic reading is that the competing agenda of cost the assistance of skilled interpreters. Nor could these cutting means that the rhetoric of rights will not be agencies make proper use of such essential-services with­ matched by a commitment of necessary resources. This out appropriate training for their staff about the challenges issue of Migration Action looks at interpreting and trans­ of cross-cultural communication. Too easily, as Patrizia lating in Australia against the backdrop of this paradox of Burley-Lombardi found, the linguistic, emotional and eth­ service delivery. ical demands of interpreting are underestimated by service providers and even NESB communities themselves. How­ All the papers in this collection provide evidence of the ever more convenient or cheap it may appear, there is no importance of communication for all cultures and the haz­ substitute for skilled professional interpreters. ards of poor facilities for cross cultural communication. According to Maree Pardy’s research, NESB women Despite the many shortcomings of our system for meeting appreciate the link between language and identity and are the language needs of the diverse language communities acutely conscious of the loss of autonomy even when they in Australia, we have managed to develop a sophisticated have access to skilled interpreters. In the provision of network of language services unparalleled in other coun­ access to language services she argues, we reproduce the tries. As Sandra Hale notes in her account of the XIVth social structures of inequality based on gender, race and Congress of FIT (International Federation of Translators) class. Women, the greatest users of interpreter services, held in Melbourne earlier this year, maintaining and are also the most disadvantaged under current models of improving the quality of professional interpreter services delivery. The theme of structural inequality is further depends upon raising the professional standing of the explored in the paper by Jan Branson and Don Millar who interpreting in Australia while the remuneration, working highlight how the failure to appreciate the particular com­ conditions and career prospects of interpreters are poor munication needs of the Deaf in Australia has contributed there is little likelihood of improving the reach and effec­ to the political and cultural oppression of that community. tiveness of interpreters. Alas, as Geoffrey Kingscott In the case of Aboriginal communities recognition of the observes about the trends in translating, market forces will significance of language in the preservation of culture and soon determine quality of service — technologically identity may have come too late-only twenty of the two sophisticated approaches will be commandeered by indus­ hundred plus Aboriginal languages remain. The added dif­ try. Ironically government and industry now acknowledge ficulty, according to Peter Carroll, is that monolingual and the importance of high quality language services to meet monocultural White service providers and decision mak­ the demands of a global market In this changed cultural ers in the Northern Territory (as elsewhere) still do not climate where communication is regarded as vital it is appreciate the linguistic disadvantages experienced by money, in the ideology of economic rationalism, that is Aboriginal people required to communicate in English now the biggest hurdle to the provision of essential serv­ without assistance. It is not just the NESB person who ices to less privileged sections of the community misses out as Ludmilla Stern’s case study of the Australian war crimes trials illustrates. There the failure to appreciate Kathy Laster on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Front cover: Thanks to Ron Tanbergfor his permission to reprint his cartoon from “Working with Interpreters: a guide to government departments and funded agencies. ” Photos: Thanks to The Victorian Interpreting and Translating Service pp. 20, 31, 34, 38; The Age p.28 and The National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Language Research, La Trobe University p.10.

2 MAY 1996 / igration A ction Interpreting for women — time for a rethink

Maree Pardy tributors to decisions regarding those matters. We see the cultural inequality of institutions such as hospitals, based A social work student spoke about her frustration while on as they are, on hierarchies both between the staff and placement recently at one of the state’s major hospitals. between staff and patients. Hospitals operate according to She relayed the situation of a mother who spent almost all their own cults of efficiency valuing outcomes which often her waking hours with her sick child; however, at meetings don’t depend on effective communication between all par­ with medical staff where the child’s condition and progress ties. We also see in this situation the ways in which society were discussed it was the child’s father who was called in and its institutions fail to address the particular communi­ to participate. The father had a greater grasp of spoken cation needs of people who may be proficient in languages English than the mother. The student insisted that it was other than English. All these factors and more combine to necessary for the mother to be an active participant in these reinforce the relative social marginalisation of immigrant meetings. She requested that the presence of an interpreter women. be arranged to enable such participation. The hospital could not see the necessity for this. It may be inconvenient This article deals with issues related to women and their — the meeting would need to coincide with the availability experiences of interpreting and calls for a re-orientation of of the interpreter and the meeting may take longer. The stu­ the frameworks which inform policy development around dent was unsuccessful in her attempts to ensure the interpreting services and the training of interpreters. woman’s participation. Emerging from the experiences of agencies working with immigrant women and from community based research, it This situation demonstrates how larger social issues of is argued that the experiences of women and issues of gen­ structural inequality including those of class, gender and der need to occupy a central place in informing discussions ethnicity are continually reflected and reproduced in eve­ and directions about interpreting policy and training. ryday life. Immigrant women are less likely to be fluent in English than their male counterparts. Moreover, while they Why Women? may be primarily responsible for direct care of children and family matters, they are not necessarily accorded pub­ The findings of a month long survey conducted in South lic recognition as either decision makers or valuable con­ Australia in 1990, showed that 75% of Telephone Inter­ preter Service clients were women raising issues related to welfare, social services, domestic violence and medical or legal problems. (National Agenda for Women — Mid Term Implementation Report on the 1988-92 Five Year Action Plan, Office of the Status of Women, August 1990:61). This is not surprising when we consider that women are less likely to be proficient in English than their male coun­ terparts. (McRobbie & Jupp, 1993) Furthermore, the Women and Language Services Report (1993) notes that women are the major providers and recipients of interpret­ ing services and the report suggests rhetorically that it might make more sense to see interpreting as a service to NESB women, with NESB men ‘added on’ as a ‘minority’. The point being made is that for interpreting services to truly reflect the needs of their constituencies, women’s needs should be central to their planning and policies.

In addition, many agencies providing services to immi­ grant women have been aware for some time that gender is

MAY 1996 3 M igration A ction

a factor influencing the quality of services available to is more complicated than it may appear at first glance. immigrant women. Three agencies in particular — Ecu­ What became clear was that it was not simply a matter of menical Migration Centre, Centre Against Sexual Assault having someone to assist with processes of communica­ and the Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture tion, but the very decision to. utilise such assistance — have identified many examples of situations in which involved very high degrees of both faith and anxiety. These their capacity to provide high quality services to women women explained how they were continually engaged in has been compromised by matters related to interpreting. processes of handing themselves over to someone else to The services summarise their major concerns as: the lack represent them. This process can be best understood by of availability of female interpreters; the inconsistent qual- reflecting upon the centrality of language to our identity ity/competence of interpreters who are often unfamiliar and to the ways in which we choose to present ourselves to with issues affecting women in these settings; and the lack the world. Language is the means by which we seek to of training and professional development opportunities present and have understood who we are; to relate what we available to interpreters working in sensitive and crisis sit­ know and think; and to express how we feel. For the uations. These difficulties are experienced even more women of this study these processes were highly if not acutely when endeavouring to service newly arrived refu­ totally dependent on another person — the interpreter. It is gee women, survivors of sexual assault, torture and trauma at the very moment of deciding to work with an interpreter and women in the health arena. that a complex relationship between interpreter and woman has begun. In response to these concerns the three agencies sponsored the Interpreting for Women Project to document some of This dependence upon interpreters nearly always height­ these issues and to negotiate for some practical changes to ened the degree of anxiety about whether or not the women interpreting policy and interpreter training. This article were being represented adequately and whether or not they will draw on some of the findings of the project’s research were being understood. Any communication is made diffi­ and the implications for change at the level of policy and cult by high levels of anxiety and particularly so if the sub­ training. ject of the communication feels that her identity is compromised or undermined. The women continually Speaking of speaking: experiences of women wondered whether their words and meanings were being and interpreting transmitted precisely and these concerns also in turn often blocked the communication flow. Communicating through Through discussions and interviews with 56 immigrant an interpreter is a difficult, disruptive and often alienating women, this study, (conducted by the Interpreting for way of representing oneself. These women were clear that Women Project) sought to explore the experiences of their very ‘being’ and thus they themselves were continu­ women in situations where they required interpreters and ally undergoing processes of change and alteration by their on the basis of their experiences sought ideas from the very participation in the interpreting interaction. An inter­ women on how to improve interpreting services. action in which they of necessity had to surrender high degrees of control over to the interpreter. What emerged from the study was a very complicated set of responses. The centrality of language to their identity For these women, descriptions of interpreting as a rela­ and social participation was a major theme of the women’s tively straightforward process in which the interpreter responses. Perhaps surprisingly, the degree to which inter­ “renders orally and into another language, one person’s preter-mediated communication could actually undermine speech for other listeners at the time the speech is made” rather than enable their sense of autonomy and in turn con­ (COPQ, 1977:6) obscure the complexity of the highly per­ strain their capacity to participate fully in society was high­ sonal and social processes in which they are engaged. lighted. In addition to these complex issues the women Interpreting is the critical process by which their social and recalled very concrete examples of what they considered to human interaction, in all its dimensions, is made possible. be both positive and negative experiences of interpreting. They then made suggestions about how these experiences Participation could inform changes to both policy and training. A person’s capacity to actively participate in society, to Communication and identity exercise rights and to gain access to services is directly linked to her capacity to communicate. Having access to For the women of this study, interpreters are often the crit­ interpreters is a prerequisite to many people’s participation ical link between themselves and their social setting. This in Australian society. The study highlighted that for many

4 MAY 1996 f

immigrant women, in particular those who are newly ‘punished’ for being ‘pushy’. Some said they were so used arrived and from small communities, the first hurdle to par­ to not receiving an interpreter, that they had devised strat­ ticipation was finding out about the existence of interpret­ egies to ‘cope’ without one. ers. This was largely a ‘hit and miss’ process and dependent on information gained from informal commu­ Gender nity networks. By gaining such information through infor­ mal networks women often did not receive clear or The study found that the gender of the interpreter was often comprehensive information about: who provides the serv­ central to women’s definition of good quality interpreting; ices; who is eligible for access; and what rights a client has however, it did not necessarily follow that they always to interpreting services. The ad hoc nature of information wanted a female interpreter. provision also meant that the women did not even know they could request an interpreter. When asked directly The importance of gender specificity was related to a range whether they would request the services of an interpreter, of factors, including the nature of the consultation and the or leave this to the service provider to initiate, the women’s setting of the interpreting situation. The majority of responses while diverse, pointed to a dependency on the women were insistent on their preference for female inter­ goodwill and knowledge of the organisations they were preters in health and other ‘sensitive’ areas. In these attending. They relied upon the willingness of individual instances, they believed they should have a right to female professionals to ensure that interpreters were made availa­ interpreters. What the women articulated as crucial was ble. their right to choose. They stated that in situations where they could choose, they may in fact decide that gender is Many women lacked the confidence to be assertive about not a critical factor. The capacity to have this choice how­ their need for interpreters, often fearing they would be

MAY 1996 5 M igration A ction

ever, enabled them to approach the situation with a height­ gender of the interpreter. Another issue of concern to some ened sense of control and confidence. women was ‘continuity of care’. That is, in particular situ­ ations especially in health and in situations of crisis, In this context it was notable that the failure of hospitals to women, having established an initial working relationship ensure the provision of female interpreters was commonly with an interpreter, should have the right of access to the cited as a major factor contributing to women’s recalled same interpreter over several appointments or visits. worst experiences of communicating through interpreters. The women expressed their difficulties in speaking can­ The need for more interpreters generally, featured over­ didly to health professionals whilst in the presence of a whelmingly in the policy suggestions, reflecting the fact male interpreter, frequently explaining that in these situa­ that access and availability are still outstanding issues in tions they remained relatively silent, did not ask questions, the provision of language services — particularly in hospi­ nor discuss their symptoms in any detail. tals, courts and government departments.

The failure by medical and other hospital staff to accord Of all the issues raised by the women it would seem that importance to the gender of interpreters meant that com­ the most pragmatic and most straightforward policy rec­ munication was greatly impeded, with clear implications ommendations are those related to gender and choice. The for quality of care. In certain situations women were effec­ report calls on interpreting agencies, social institutions and tively denied the opportunity to request information about indeed the community to ensure that women have choice in their health condition, and have their fears and anxieties relation to gender of the interpreter. An examination how­ allayed. ever, of the resistance to such apparently simple policy change reveals the massive rethinking required in the phil­ On the attributes of a good interpreter osophical and policy frameworks informing the delivery of interpreting services and interpreter training. Policy initia­ The women identified and described with ease, a combina­ tives related to gender would involve guarantees of access tion of skills, attitudes and knowledge they thought essen­ to and availability of female interpreters. This would tial for high quality and competent interpreting. Not require increases in employment levels to ensure that suf­ surprisingly they highlighted the need for proficiency in ficient numbers of female interpreters were available. It language skills and technical aspects of interpreting which would also involve approaches to training which could relate to precision and accuracy. They also stressed the incorporate an analysis of the lived complexities of inter­ need for the interpreter to be knowledgeable about the area preting as expressed by women. These ‘simple’ changes in which s/he was interpreting whether it be health, the however, immediately throw into question, notions of legal system, immigration or welfare. It was, however, the ‘gender neutral’ interpreter training as it is currently human relations skills of interpreters which were the sub­ described by the major training institutions. These simple ject of women’s greatest concerns. The women emphasised policy changes therefore, call for a major shift in the mind­ such characteristics as the interpreter’s demeanour, help­ sets of those responsible for interpreter training and inter­ fulness, understanding and capacity to relate in a relaxed preting policy. What is also required is a corresponding and warm manner. These are qualities or ‘competencies’ increase in the allocation of resources to interpreting. not often referred to in mainstream interpreting discourse, however when we consider that the women perceive the In order for such major conceptual and practical shifts to interpreter as the one responsible for representing her to occur, the broader issues around identity and communica­ the person or situation in which they are working together, tion (while not lending themselves to simple translation to it is not at all surprising that these qualities and skills of policy) do need to inform the framework and environment human relations are stressed. These concerns serve as a within which the development of policy and training reminder that interpreting is about communication and that occurs. An appreciation of the links between language, communication is a very complex and fraught set of proc­ communication and identity emerges as an important pre­ esses. requisite to the design of appropriate language policies.

Policy implications Training

The issue of gender featured in the majority of policy sug­ It became clear throughout the research, that the women gestions. These included both the need for increased avail­ experienced varying levels of ‘competency’ among the ability of female interpreters and policies and practices interpreters they encountered. When the women spoke which ensured that women always had a choice about the directly of training, they raised issues which are likely to

6 MAY 1996 / igration A ction challenge conventional notions of what it takes to make a associated with the role and practice of the interpreter in good interpreter. Historical explanations of interpreters as light of what actually occurs. Interpreting, according to something akin to a ‘black box’ or ‘conduit pipe’, or a Laster and Taylor is best understood as facilitating commu­ “...bilingual transmitter...not different in principle from nication. The role of the interpreter therefore should be that which in another case an electrical instrument might reconceptualised as that of communication facilitator. fulfil in overcoming the barrier distance.” (Kitto, cited in They argue that “‘facilitation’, rather than ‘conduit’ Laster and Taylor, 1994:112) stand in stark contrast to both acknowledges the active and discretionary role performed the purpose and practice of interpreting in Australia. Fur­ by interpreters.” (ibid: 127) At the same time it imposes thermore, such explanations are at total odds with the limits on the role by not expecting them to be ‘advocates’ expressed experiences of the women involved in the or ‘cultural experts.’ Laster and Taylor (ibid.) contend that project’s research. It was the human, interactive and com­ seeing interpreters as ‘communication facilitators’ has municative aspects of interpreting that the women empha­ three important consequences for interpreting — profes­ sised. And it was these areas which they felt should be the sionalism, education and accountability. focus of improved training curricula for interpreters. 1. Professionalism: Acknowledgement of the ‘work value’ Although it is often agreed by policy makers, educators, of interpreting and recognition of interpreters’ power to interpreting practitioners and institutions working with make discretionary decisions — the key attribute of profes­ interpreters, that this metaphor (the conduit or black box) sionalism. is grossly inadequate, it still retains enormous legitimacy. A major finding of the Interpreting for Women project has 2. Education: “Training interpreters to adhere to the con­ been that this metaphor is often invoked to justify the lack duit model rigidly has not assisted them to deal with the of change in policy and training. pressures of their work in practice.” (ibid.) Attempts to embrace the complexities of interpreting will lead educa­ Time to rethink tors to “openly discuss and debate resolution of role con­ flict and ethical problems.” (ibid.) There has been a real resistance to tackling the complex human relations, gender and social aspects of interpreting 3. Accountability: “In addition to high-level linguistic skill in Australia. This is bewildering given that interpreting and technical competence in interpreting, a ‘communica­ services emerged as a social policy response to multicul- tion facilitator’ must be accountable for their discretionary turalism and that most interpreting in Australia is “commu­ choices. Currently interpreters make ethical decisions cov­ nity” interpreting. According to the National Language ertly.” (ibid.) This reconceptualisation of the role of the and Literacy Institute ninety per cent of interpreting and interpreter provides a clearer framework of accountability translating is carried out in the health, social welfare and for all involved in the interpreted encounter. legal areas. (NLLIA, 1993:4) Unlike interpreting interna­ tionally, which emerged primarily to facilitate communica­ To broaden both the policy discourse and the social under­ tion at conference, diplomatic and trade levels and which standing of interpreting by reconceptualising it as a means has emphasised communication between countries rather of ‘facilitating communication’, would provide an enor­ than within countries, interpreting in Australia has not mous opening for the redevelopment of interpreting policy involved a great deal of one-way interpreting. On the con­ and training. trary it has been extraordinarily interactive. Such a framework would enable critical questions to be Given the context within which interpreting has emerged raised. For example: What are the elements crucial to ena­ and developed in Australia it would seem that the changes bling ‘effective communication’?; What are the obliga­ suggested in the research report sit easily with the role of tions of the agencies and interpreting services to establish interpreting as it actually exists. Nevertheless, govern­ conditions conducive to good communication?; What are ments, public agencies and training institutions have the differing practices of interpreters in different situa­ largely ignored the need to act in any meaningful way on tions?; What training in human relations skills, attitudes, the gender and human relations aspects of interpreting. knowledge, behaviours and awareness of gender issues needs to occur to ensure optimum levels of communica­ A major contribution to the ways in which interpreting dis­ tion? course requires change is provided by Laster and Taylor (1994) in their detailed analysis of legal interpreting in The framework would also enable interpreting curricula to Australia. They argue that it is time to rethink the language include theoretical and practical material on the interrela­

M AY 1996 7 M igration A ction

tionship between language, communication and identity Pardy, M., (1995,) Speaking of Speaking: Experiences of — themes which have emerged as central to the women’s Women and Interpreting, CHOMI, Melbourne experiences of interpreting. Likewise, the scope of profes­ sional development frameworks for interpreters could be broadened. Maree Pardy worked from 1992-1995 with the Interpreting for Women Project. She is author of the Project’s report, Interpreting providers and training institutions have “Speaking of Speaking — Experiences of Women and resisted serious consideration of gender issues and Interpreting.” women’s experiences. They continue to limit their imagi­ nations about what is possible or appropriate by resorting to outmoded knowledge bases and inappropriate theoreti­ cal frameworks. This is leading to an increasing remote­ ness between these institutions and their client bases. It has become apparent that their approaches do not reflect the reality of interpreting in Australia today. The role of inter­ preting in Australia is extraordinarily complex, yet its incorporation into government policies and programs is ad hoc and often ill considered. In policy terms interpreting is not adequately recognised as an integral basis of access and participation within a multilingual society. The rela­ tionship between language, identity, participation and citi­ zenship is not sufficiently appreciated, reflecting an approach to multiculturalism informed more by notions of marginalised assimilation (Kalantzis,1990) than notions of ‘citizenship’ and cultural diversity. The training institu­ tions continue to be driven by idealised rather than real notions of the role of interpreters in Australia today and policy is constrained by notions of assimilation and cost Speaking of Speaking cutting. - Experiences of Women and Interpreting - References

Committee on Overseas Professional Qualifications by (COPQ), (1977), The Language Barrier, AGPS, Canberra Maree Pardy Kalantzis, M., (1990), Ethnicity Meets Gender Meets Class in Australia, in Watson, S. (ed) Playing the Reprinted by CHOMI, 1996 State, Allen and Unwin, Nth Sydney Laster, K & V. Taylor, (1994), Interpreters and the Legal See enclosed order form for details. System, The Federation Press, Leichardt, NSW McRobbie, A and J. Jupp, (1993), Women and Language Services Report— How can we tell you...how will we know?, Commonwealth-State Council on NESB Women’s Issues, AGPS, Canberra National Health Strategy, (1993), Removing Cultural and Language Barriers to Health, Issues Paper Number 6 National Language and Literacy Institute of Australia, (1993), Towards a Training Strategy for Inter­ preters and Translators, Final Draft Paper of NLLIA Working Party, Melbourne Ozolins, U., (1993), The Politics o f Language in Australia, Cambridge University Press

8 MAY 1996 / igration A ction Sign language interpreting and the Australian Deaf community

Jan Branson and Don Miller children. As the churches involved themselves in the lives of the Deaf and the formal education of deaf children In multicultural Australia there is a minority group with its began, missioners and teachers joined the small band of own language and subculture which often tends to be interpreters. Later as the missions became formally known ignored. It is not a recent migrant community but a unique as welfare organisations, secular welfare workers took over Australian community, its members having been some of the role of interpreter. It is only recently however that the Australia’s earliest immigrants, often compulsory ones, in profession of sign language interpreting has developed, the European wave of migration from the late 1700s. Many resulting in the entry into the interpreting arena of people are also members of other cultural minority ethnic groups, with no familial or welfare links to the Deaf but who make but their prime identification is usually with the commu­ a conscious choice to train as sign language interpreters. nity with which they share a language, with the Deaf1 com­ munity of Australia. Unlike many other groups who use interpreters, the Deaf need interpreters all their lives. Access to interpreting facil­ This article introduces readers to a range of social, cultural ities must therefore, in the case of the Deaf, be considered and linguistic issues associated with the process of inter­ a right and not just a need. As one Deaf colleague said preting between Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and recently, “I was born through an interpreter and I will be English. In so-doing we discuss issues which apply more buried through an interpreter”. Who are the Deaf commu­ generally to interpreting between sign languages and spo­ nity? ken languages. While interpreting between Auslan and English involves processes and issues common to inter­ The Deaf community preting between spoken languages — for example, certain central ethical issues, negotiations and expectations with The Deaf are a fluid population. Only a minority are from regard to pay, cultural sensitivities — we concentrate here Deaf families, most coming from hearing families. They on the differences between, on the one hand interpreting are not born into a community in the same way as Aborig­ between sign languages and spoken languages, and on the inal Australians or other minority ethnic groups. The Deaf other interpreting between spoken languages. By high­ also have no special territory. They do not come from a lighting these differences the particular problems faced by Deaf country like Greek migrants come from Greece or signers in accessing the resources of the wider society are Dutch migrants from Holland. And they do not have spe­ brought into focus, and the issues that face the interpreting cial and sacred attachments to the land in the same way as profession as a whole as they follow the Federal govern­ Aboriginal Australians. They do, however, have their own ment’s lead and recognise Auslan as a fully fledged lan­ sacred sites such as the old Deaf schools. The Deaf com­ guage, the language of one of Australia’s distinct cultural munity is a network of Deaf people that come together in communities, are highlighted. Of central political impor­ family gatherings, at restaurants, on sporting occasions, at tance, is recognition of the part that the interpreting proc­ churches, at homes for the elderly Deaf, at clubs, espe­ ess can play and has played in the oppression of the Deaf cially at Deaf clubs and societies, and of course at school. community. They are bound together by their deafness, their sub-cul­ ture and above all their sign language with its immediate In the process we will also briefly trace the development of and total accessibility. the profession of sign language interpreting. For a long time the people who acted as sign language interpreters Many if not most Australians are still completely unaware were hearing members of families with deaf parents or of the existence of a Deaf community, seeing deaf people as simply individuals who cannot hear and who are there­ fore assumed disabled. But there has been formal govern­ 1. The use of a capital letter for the word ‘Deaf’ in this context indicates that we are referring to those deaf people who are part of the Deaf com­ ment recognition both of the community and of their lan­ munity, to the cultural aspects of Deafness and not simply to the sensory guage. In 1991, the White Paper, Australia’s Language: aspect. The Australian Language and Literacy Policy stated1 2:

MAY 1996 9 M igration A ction

a completely different language from American Sign Lan­ guage (ASL).

The sign languages which laid the ground for the develop­ ment of Auslan came to Australia with the first deaf con­ victs and settlers. The varieties of British and Irish sign languages brought by early English, Scottish and Irish set­ tlers developed into a distinct language with its own dis­ tinctive lexical and grammatical features, the language that today is called Auslan. In this sense it is as much an Aus­ tralian language (albeit a minority one) as English and Aboriginal languages3, a language unique to Australia. Like ‘ethnic languages’ it is also, as the policy statement quoted above recognises, a community language, playing a vital role in the transmission of both Deaf and hearing cul­ ture, and in providing members of that community with social and emotional identity.

The relationship between Auslan and English

The interpreting process examined below is the two-way interpreting process between Auslan and English, Auslan to English and English to Auslan. The interpretation is It is now increasingly recognised that signing deaf therefore between two distinct languages, as distinct as people constitute a group like any other non-Eng­ English and other ‘foreign’ languages, made even more lish-speaking language group in Australia, with a complex by the different modes involved. We will explore distinct sub-culture recognised by shared history, the impact of the signing mode on the interpreting process social life and sense of identity, united and symbol­ further below. What must be established first, is that the ised by fluency in Auslan, the principal means of interpreting process between English and Auslan does not communication within the Australian deaf commu­ involve the transfer of English to a manual mode. We are nity. Auslan is an indigenous Australian language. not referring to the use of the artificially derived manual code called Signed English4 Through the 1990s, an increasing number of States have recognised the right of a deaf child to be educated in their As a minority language, as the language of a sub-cultural first language, Auslan, or to have access to it as a second group of a kind quite distinct from other minority groups, language, so that by now Auslan is both incorporated into Auslan has a complex relationship with the dominant lan­ the national LOTE curriculum and also incorporated into guage English, a relationship that has led to much misun­ some state government education policies. This demand derstanding among linguists, teachers and signers them­ for interpreting in educational settings has led to a sudden selves. It is hardly surprising therefore that English is not demand for educational interpreters which is radically dif­ only a constant domineering linguistic reality for the Deaf ferent from the demands of interpreting in other languages but that the relationship with English has been a dynamic in Australia. Some children now have all their schooling — primary, secondary and tertiary — through an interpreter.

3. It should be noted that we are not able to deal here with sign language Auslan use among Aboriginal Australians. Levels of deafness among Aboriginal Australians are particularly high and preliminary enquires by members of Auslan, Australian Sign LANguage, is one of many sign the NID indicate that sign language use is common among Aboriginal languages used throughout the world. While it is related to school children and therefore among Aboriginal deaf people in general. The signing used is not the same as the language used among deaf people British Sign Language (BSL), it is more different from of predominantly British decent, it is not Auslan. The sign languages of BSL than Australian English is from British English. It is Aboriginal deaf people have yet to be documented and represent a large gap in our knowledge of deaf people and sign language use in Australia. An excellent study of the Aboriginal signing systems associated with periods of ritual silence among Aboriginal people was conducted by 2. Australia’s language: The Australian language and literacy policy, Adam Kendon (A.Kendon, The sign languages o f Aboriginal Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. [Companion Volume, p. 20] Cambridge University Press, 1988).

10 MAY 1996 // M igration A ction factor in the development, and particularly the everyday • EA and GM can at least potentially learn each use, of Auslan. other’s languages and dispense with the interpreters.

Suffice to say for the moment that Auslan is a viable, • EA and GM can potentially not only learn the other dynamic language, separate from English but which, like language and dispense with interpreters but can poten­ many a ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ ‘world’ languages, borrows tially become interpreters themselves. The interpreter, from English for concepts relating to matters outside tradi­ GI, simply has a skill (bilingualism) that EA and GM tional everyday experience. In the case of the Deaf, the lack do not currently have. of specifically Auslan concepts in some situations is due in large part to their situation as a deprived minority. They • There will be an expectation in the Australian con­ have developed some registers and not others. To this must text that GM will learn English and thus in future not be added the fact that the oppression of the Deaf by Eng­ need an interpreter. lish-based oral culture has generated for most a level of lin­ guistic deprivation and oppression not experienced by any • EA and GM can use an interpreter from either com­ other group. While many groups have seen their languages munity, one with English as a first language and Greek die as English was forced upon their community, e.g. Abo­ as a second language, or an interpreter with Greek as a riginal communities in Australia, the Deaf community first language and English as a second language. found itself in a peculiar situation where hearing educators imposed a manual code with an English grammatical struc­ • Both languages are literate languages. ture upon them and downgraded Auslan. • Both languages are recognised as distinct lexically The Auslan/English Interpreting Process — Its distinctive and syntactically. There is no assumption that word for Qualities Interpreting between spoken languages is charac­ word interpreting is possible or that either language is terised by the following qualities, among many. For ease of in any sense dependent on the other. comparison let us use the example of an English-speaking Australian (EA), using a Greek-speaking Australian inter­ • Both languages operate in the same mode and are preter (GI) to communicate with a Greek-speaking Greek assumed to differ due to their distinctive cultural and migrant to Australia (GM). historical roots.

The interpreting process can be accessed by all those For Deaf people who use Auslan, their sign language is the involved. If GM has some knowledge of English but feels only language of free and easy communication, and the more comfortable using an interpreter, GM can still access only language to which they can have total access, the way her Greek is being interpreted. If GM cannot mon­ although they may develop excellent written and reading itor and critically assess the interpreting process, there are skills in spoken languages. It should be pointed out that people within the Greek community who are able to do so. some Deaf people are very skilled orally, being able to The community can monitor the effectiveness of interpret­ voice and lip read very effectively, and can therefore often ing in both directions. 4 deal effectively with the sort of face to face situation exem­ plified below. They still do not have total access to spoken English and are particularly disadvantaged in situations 4. The Australian version of Signed English was developed in the 1970s by a committee of hearing educators. The Deaf who were asked to join the where the speaker is distant or where there are many peo­ committee left in protest. This code uses manual shapes to represent Eng­ ple engaged in a discussion. lish words and thus allows for a signed representation of grammatical English. For the Deaf these signs are devoid of the phonemic level of meaning that is fundamental to the hearing person’s reading of the written Here we examine a situation where a Deaf person (D) is word or perception of the signed English word. They are shapes devoid of communicating with a hearing person (H) through an inter­ expression. Sign Languages, in contrast, exploit space and facial expres­ preter (I). sion, to develop a range of grammatical techniques peculiar to sign lan­ guages which create an expressive language with as much creative potential as any spoken language, the sort of medium required by children • D cannot access the voiced English of I to monitor in the early years of their intellectual development. As a first language, therefore, Signed English does not allow its users to experience the crea­ the interpreting process even if she has a good knowl­ tive potential of language. Signed English is not a language of communi­ edge of English. There is also no way that fellow Deaf cation but is confined to contrived situations like the class room. It is not members of their community can monitor the interpret­ used within the Deaf Community, and thus has none of the dynamics of a ing process in either direction. Even if I’s signing natural language, having no internal dynamic, not being developed by those it is ostensibly designed for but rather being designed and imposed makes sense, there is no way of Deaf people checking from outside. It is in fact not a language at all, but an artificially derived code.

MAY 1996 11 M igration A ction

whether it is an accurate interpretation of the speech of The hegemony of spoken English H. As indicated above, the majority of Deaf people access • H can potentially learn D’s language but D cannot sign language through school friends or beyond school in potentially learn spoken English in all its dimensions, clubs and societies. Schools have had a major impact on even if they are skilled at voicing and lip-reading. The signing skills in a number of ways. Ever since the late only way they can dispense with interpreters is if H 1800s when Deaf teachers were driven from the schools for learns D’s language. the Deaf and the development of oral skills began to dom­ inate formal education of the deaf, the signing used in • H can potentially become a sign language inter­ schools tended more and more to take an English structure, preter but D cannot. Current NAATI (National Austral­ to ignore the distinctive grammatical features of Auslan ian Association of Translators and Interpreters) regula­ which are the basis for effective expression, leading to the tions prevent Deaf people from training as interpreters. formal codification of Signed English in the 1970s. Other Potential interpreting between sign languages is not students in totally oral schools were provided with no sign­ considered. ing at all but picked up snippets of spoken language through relentless speech therapy as well as varying • The need of D for an interpreter is a lifetime need, degrees of literacy in English, having been denied a true despite the fact that they may be skilled readers and first language — a language to which they had total expres­ writers of the language and even good voicers and lip- sive access. readers. The result of these varying educational traditions has been • D cannot use a fellow Deaf person as an interpreter a wide range of signing skills ranging from the fluent Aus­ but is constantly dependent on hearing people for the lan of children from Deaf families through to what can interpreting process. only be described as the semi-lingualism of people who have had little or no access to the richness of any language • English is a literate language and Auslan a non-lit­ as a communicative form. At the same time, there has erate language, giving rise to quite markedly different developed in schools and clubs, as well as through infor­ orientations to language and its link to human activity5. mal association, a range of signing forms about which we are just beginning to have coherent data. Whether these • While recent linguistic research has shown that languages can be described as pidgin or dialects or whether Auslan is quite distinct lexically and syntactically from they demand entirely new concepts is beyond the scope of English, the educational processes discussed briefly this paper. What is particularly evident is the impact of below have generated widespread assumptions that English-based signing accessed through teachers and inter­ sign for word interpreting is feasible and effective, thus preters. The hearing society has not only devalued the lan­ making the signed version dependent on the spoken guage of the Deaf community but actively sought to trans­ language. There will thus be a tendency for I to inter­ form it in their own image. pret H to D in a way that is dominated by English syn­ tax, even voicing and signing at the same time, and to Through the interpreting process these educational tradi­ interpret D to H in a way which, by assuming that tions of language dominance and hegemony are perpetu­ simultaneous word for sign voicing is possible, gener­ ated beyond the school. The Deaf remain dependent on the ates a spoken form which comes through as a weird, hearing society for the interpreting of their language confused and even nonsensical English. throughout their lives and must subordinate that language to the linguistic orientations and skills of available inter­ These contrasts highlight the difficult situation frequently preters. Even at family gatherings interpreters are often faced by Deaf people in the interpreting process and the required, unlike with similar “ethnic” groups where the structurally unequal relationship that exists between Deaf bilingualism of younger generations ensures that the gath­ and hearing people in and through the interpreting process. ering can proceed through the language which all under­ stand.

5. For discussions of the contrast between literate and non-literate lan­ The Sign Language interpreting profession guages and their associated cultural behaviours and orientations in rela­ tion to sign languages see Branson et al. “Everyone here speaks sign language too: a deaf village in Bali, Indonesia — an initial report", C. Sign Language interpreting has a very long history. Lucas (ed.), Sociolinguistics in sign lanaguage communities, Gallaudet Records exist in England going back as far as the 1500s University Press, Washington DC, 1996.

12 MAY 1996 f M igration A ction and 1600s of the use of interpreters in court and at wed­ an interpreter and a notetaker, for you cannot watch the dings. It is only over the past decade that Australian sign interpreter and take notes at the same time. language interpreters have begun to assert their profes­ sional status and sought to formalise training and their Complicating this already complex interpreting scenario, association with spoken language interpreters. Until is the changing ethnic composition of Australia’s deaf pop­ recently the Deaf were dependent on teachers, church per­ ulation. Australia’s current immigration strategies have sonnel, welfare officers and above all the hearing children resulted in an ethnically and linguistically diverse school of Deaf adults (CODA) to act as interpreters. It has been population among both deaf and hearing students. Students the CODA that have dominated the sign language inter­ can by no means be assumed to come from English-speak­ preting process, often providing the most fluent interpret­ ing backgrounds. A recent survey found, for example, that ers from English into Auslan but also highlighting a range almost twenty five percent of the deaf children in schools of ethical problems and the dependence of parents on their came from a home where English was not used6. The inter­ children. The lack of interpreter training until very recently preting process is thus potentially extremely complex with has also laid the stress on ability to use Auslan rather than the need for interpreting not only between Auslan and Eng­ on the ability to interpret Auslan into fluent English. This lish but between the Auslan that students will learn and use also reinforced a wider attitude to deaf people, that they in school and the non-English languages of home and com­ needed to be taught rather than having anything to contrib­ munity. ute. Jan Branson and Don Miller are at the National Institute The formation of ASLIA, the Australian Sign Language for Deaf Studies and Sign Language Research at La Trobe Interpreters’ Association, and the formalisation of inter­ and Monash Universities. preting through testing for NAATI accreditation, has ensured that sign language interpreting has now firmly established its place in the broader interpreting profession, but the imbalances peculiar to sign language interpreting remain where only one of the language groups can provide the interpreters and monitor the process.

Beyond these problems associated with the structural imbalances between the Deaf and hearing communities lie problems associated with the skills required for effective sign language interpreting. Not only is there a growing demand for interpreters skilled in specialised registers, as Deaf people enter the professions such as the law and academia, but the educational heritage outlined above has given rise to a wide range of signing competencies which demand very varied responses from interpreters, akin to being fluent in all the dialects and slangs of a spoken lan­ guage. Currently the growth area in sign language inter­ preting is educational interpreting at all levels through pri­ mary, post-primary and tertiary into postgraduate work. These situations require the development of specialised skills and a wide variety of linguistic and intellectual com­ petencies despite the relatively small size of the Deaf com­ munity. While students from other non-English speaking backgrounds operate in bilingual environments and move constantly towards fluency in English, the increasing involvement of Deaf students in all levels of education demands an increasing role for interpreters as the Deaf stu­ dents access the educational resources of the hearing world. The overseas or migrant student learns English to 6. Jan Branson, Don Miller, John Flynn, John Beasley & Lois Foster, The access lectures and tutorials. The Deaf student must have Impact o f Government Immigration Policies on the Ethnic Composition of the Deaf Community in Australia, a report prepared for the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, 1995.

MAY 1996 13 if f i] IGRATION ACTION Interpreting and translating serv­ ices to Aboriginal communities

Peter Carroll languages. It should not be a surprise in a land mass of a similar size there are also many different languages. If a In this article I first provide an overview of the situation map of Australia is placed over a map of Europe the fol­ concerning Aboriginal languages in Australia, touching on lowing correspondences are found: the historical impact of white settlement with the dramatic loss of many indigenous languages. Secondly, I refer to the • the Kimberleys relate to England; situation in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Terri­ tory1, where Aboriginal languages continue to be spoken • Arnhem Land relates to Denmark; and significant numbers of Aborigines do not need to use English. This effectively creates an Non English Speaking • Cape York relates to Poland; Background (NESB) for many residents of these commu­ nities. In multicultural Australia there is a need for inter­ • the Sunshine Coast relates to Turkey; preting and translating services in Aboriginal communities that is similar to the need for such services in migrant lan­ • Alice Springs relates to Italy; guages. Thirdly, I outline the history of interpreting and translating services in the Northern Territory and review • Perth is off the coast of Morocco; the current situation1 2. Finally, I look at the reality that indigenous languages in Australia are essentially oral lan­ • Adelaide and Melbourne relate to Libya. guages and an understanding of that reality is essential for those who wish to use the various Aboriginal languages to The nature of the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle effectively communicate with speakers of these languages. In pre-contact times Aboriginal people moved about by Aboriginal languages in Australia walking. Their focus was very localised. They lived off their own land and interacted with a range of neighbouring The number of languages groups. This interaction was in specific regional areas. Within these regions, different groups would have commu­ It is uncertain exactly how many languages were spoken by nicated easily either using a common language or through the indigenous people of the Australian continent prior to knowing each other’s language. In today’s terms a Kun- European settlement in the eighteenth century. One esti­ winjku speaking Aborigine from western Arnhem Land mate has been about “200 distinct languages” (Dixon would have had no contact with an Anindilyakwa speaker 1980:1); another has suggested “at least 250 distinct lan­ from Groote Eylandt, which is only a distance of about 500 guages each with its own range of dialects” (Schmidt kilometres. 1990:1). This reality comes as a surprise to most white Australians who seem to suppose there was just one lan­ So considering the Australian geography and the Aborigi­ guage spoken throughout the continent. The naivety of this nal lifestyle it is not surprising that there were many differ­ view becomes apparent on several grounds. ent languages spoken by Australia’s indigenous people.

The geographical area of Australia White settlement

The area of Australia is similar to the area of the continent Over 200 years of European settlement in this country has of Europe where there are many different countries and led to the loss of many languages. In 1990, Schmidt esti­ mated there were only about 90 of the original 250 lan­

1. A similar situation exists in parts of Western Australia, South Australia guages still alive and only 20 of these were in a “relatively and Queensland. healthy state” (Schmidt 1990:1). The loss of Aboriginal 2. A more detailed presentation of the situation concerning interpreting languages correlates with the pattern of settlement. If a and translating in the Northern Territory can be found in Carroll 1995. traveller started in the south east corner of the Continent

14 MAY 1996 / igration A ction and headed north and west, the further the person travelled they would be faced with several realities: TABLE 1. Major Northern Territory Aboriginal languages Language Name No. of Main communities • there would be a higher proportion of Aboriginal speakers where spoken people in the population; (est.) Alyawarr(a) 500 Ammaroo, Tennant • these Aboriginal people would generally retain Creek. stronger links with their traditional culture through lan­ Anindilyakwa 1000 Groote Eylandt guage and ceremony etc. Anmatyerr(e) 800 Nth of Alice Springs Arrernte (Central) 500 Alice Springs & to the Northern Territory census statistics north Arrernte (Eastern) 1,000 Santa Teresa Twelve of the twenty strong Aboriginal languages identi­ Arrernte (Western) 1,000 Hermannsburg fied by Schmidt (1990:1) are spoken in the Northern Terri­ Burarra 600 Maningrida tory. The importance of Aboriginal languages in the Dharlwangu 200 Yirrkala, Gapuwiyak Territory is heightened by the fact that Aboriginal people Djambarrpuyngu 450 Galiwinku are more than a quarter of the population (approximately Djapu 200 Yirrkala 44,000 people), whereas in most of the States the propor­ Djinang 300 Ramingining tion of Indigenous people is just a few percent. The Census Gaalpu 200 Galiwinku, Yirrkala, reports in both 1986 and 1991 indicate that an Aboriginal Milingimbi language was spoken in over 70% of Aboriginal homes Garawa 300 Borroloola (approximately 30,000 people) in the Territory. The pro­ Gumatj/Dhuwaya 300 Yirrkala portion in rural areas was much higher: in 1986 it was 91 % Gupapuyngu 450 Milingimbi, Gapuwiyak and in 1991 it was 87%. Some ABS statistical local areas Gurindji 400 Daguragu, Kalkaringi record figures exceeding 95% of households using an Abo­ Iwaidja 180 Minjilang riginal language — e.g. Daly (south west of Darwin), East Jawoyn 100 Barunga Arnhem, Groote Eylandt, Tanami and Petermann in Cen­ Kaititj 200 Neutral Junction tral Australia. Kriol 20,000+ Ngukurr, Katherine Kunwinjku 900 Oenpelli Northern Territory Aboriginal communities Liyagalawumirr 160 Galiwinku Luritja 300 Alice Springs & south In the Territory the great majority of Aboriginal people live Maung 200 Warruwi in their own communities, many of which are located in the Murrinh-Patha remoter areas. There are over 800 such communities that 1,000 Wadeye range from small centres that may only be visited on a sea­ Ngaliwuru 100 Victoria River sonal basis, from small outstations or homeland centres Nalkbun 200 Barunga where there may be only a family or two, to larger outsta­ Ngankikurungkurr 100 Daly River tions, with up to a hundred residents and to the 60 major Ngarinman 170 Victoria River communities with populations that vary from several hun­ Nunggubuyu 400 Numbulwar dred to nearly 2,000. Within these communities there are at Pitjantjatjara 600 Areyonga, Docker least forty different languages spoken by groups of more River than 100 people. There are many other languages spoken Pintupi 800 Haasts Bluff, Papunya by smaller groups. The major languages3 are set out in Rembarrnga 150 Barunga, Bulman Table 1 and the accompanying map. Ritharngu 300 Ngukurr area Tiwi 1,500 Tiwi Islands Wangurri 150 Galiwinku, Yirrkala, Milingimbi Warlpiri 2,800 Yuendumu, Willowra, Lajamanu Warramiri 1753 Galiwinku, Yirrkala, Milingimbi 3. Estimated numbers in 1983 compiled by Paul Black. For some lan­ guages the number includes first and second language speakers. In most Warumungu 200 Tennant Creek cases the languages will also be spoken in smaller communities surround­ Yanyuwa 150 Borroloola ing the nominated area.

MAY 1996 15 M igration A ction

In some of these communities there is one dominant lan­ either do not speak English at all or do not speak English guage. In other communities several languages are spoken. well. This 30% (approximately 13,000) are some of those In some communities a major language spoken by a domi­ with greatest need of interpreting services. nant group places considerable pressure on other lan­ guages spoken by small minorities. In many communities Interpreter and translator services in the northern part of the Territory the use of Kriol4 lan­ guage is expanding and placing pressure on some tradi­ Historical Overview tional languages. In many communities there is increasing employment of Aboriginal people in community councils, The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and schools and health centres. This means that in such com­ Interpreters (NAATI) supports training through recogni­ munities Aboriginal people can use their own language for tion of courses and the provision of accreditation for those most communication needs within the community. This who successfully completed the training. In the Northern has significant implications for organisations from outside Territory such training was available during the 1980s the communities because many people in the communities through the School of Australian Linguistics5 at Batchelor come from a NESB. It is this reality that creates an imme­ and the Institute of Aboriginal Development in Alice diate need for effective interpreting and translating serv­ Springs. The NAATI register contains 65 Aboriginal peo­ ices in many Aboriginal languages. ple from the Northern Territory who speak a total of 11 lan­ guages. Of these 37 gained accreditation as language aides A feature of traditional Aboriginal society is that most (formerly level 1) and 28 as interpreters at the paraprofes- adults are multilingual. In addition to speaking their own sional level (formerly level 2). It is significant that there is language they will usually know one or more other lan­ no accredited interpreter at the former level 3 which guages spoken by relatives of neighbouring groups. The NAATI regards as “the minimum level of competence for increasing use of English over the past thirty years has professional interpreting or translating”. This will involve added another language to the repertoire of some Aborigi­ “interpreting in both language directions for a wide range nes. The expansion of education and the greater interaction of subject areas usually involving specialist consultations with non-Aboriginal Australia has given many Aborigines with other professionals, e.g. doctor/patient, solicitor/cli- a good command of English. However this is not a univer­ ent, bank manage/client, court interpreting” (NAATI sal reality throughout Aboriginal communities in the Terri­ 1994:6-7). tory as shown by the census statistics in Table 2. It is interesting to note the reaction that some of these train­ ees received when they completed their training. Many of TABLE 2. Census of population and housing — Aboriginal people them were unable to gain employment. Officials in com­ munities did not understand the language situation and saw 1986 1991 no need for interpreters. This same situation also existed in Speaks English well 55% 59% Darwin because six or so years ago the Department of

Speaks English not well 2 4 % 2 6 % Aboriginal Affairs provided funding for an interim coordi­ nator. On appointment the coordinator surveyed Govern­ Speaks English not at all 6 % 5 % ment agencies about their need of interpreters and was No response given 6 % 1% surprised and dismayed to find no recognition of this need Speaks English only 9 % 9 % amongst Government officials in Darwin. Most of these officials would only have spoken English. The National Census invites people to answer questions on their English speaking ability. The responses in relation to In October 1995, the Commonwealth Department of the rural areas, where the majority of Aboriginal people live Attorney General sponsored a conference on Aboriginal are given under five headings listed in Table 2. Torres Strait Islander Interpreting called the Proper True Talk Forum. Some of the Aboriginal interpreters attending These figures record improvement in the perception of the Forum had received their initial training at either people’s ability to speak English. It needs to be noted that Batchelor or at the Institute of Aboriginal Development. in both census years over 30% have indicated that they They are well placed to play a leadership role in the devel­ opment of interpreter training and the provision of inter­

4. The Kriol language is spoken by an estimated 20,000 Aboriginal peo­ ple in Northern Australia. It is a development from a ‘pidgin English’ spo­ ken in the Katherine and Roper River areas of the Territory (see Harris 5. The former School of Australian Linguistics is now the Centre for Aus­ 1991). tralian Languages and Linguistics (CALL) at Batchelor College.

16 MAY 1996 t M igration A ction preter services. There are a number of reasons why greater • Alice Springs — The Institute for Aboriginal emphasis needs to be given to training: Development;

• those who have received accreditation need to • Batchelor — The Centre for Aboriginal Languages upgrade their level of skill; and Linguistics, Batchelor College;

• there are not interpreters for all the languages spo­ • Darwin — The Summer Institute of Linguistics; ken in the Territory; • Gove — Aboriginal Resource Development Serv­ • there are only limited numbers of interpreters at the ices; paraprofessional level at present. • Katherine — Katherine Regional Aboriginal Lan­ Recent initiatives in interpreter training have come as a guages Centre; result of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The Commonwealth Attorney General’s Depart­ • Tennant Creek — Papulu Aparr-kari, Barkly ment has supported interpreter training in South Australia, Regional Aboriginal Languages Centre. Western Australia and Queensland and the Northern Terri­ tory. The Royal Commission included references to inter­ Each of these agencies competes with other organisations preting needs in its recommendations: for limited funds. The fact that many decision makers in the Public Service are monolingual and monocultural and Recommendation 99 — provision of a competent inter­ do not appreciate the linguistic and cultural realities in preter if there is doubt over the ability of the defendant Aboriginal communities does not help these agencies in to fully understand proceedings in English, without their search for support. It is the Aboriginal people in com­ cost to that person; munities that do not have a good command of English that continue to suffer. This major communication difficulty is Recommendation 100 — recruit and train Aboriginal a significant factor, though rarely acknowledged, in the people as court staff and interpreters; continuing poor health situation.

Recommendation 249 — non-Aboriginal health profes­ Effective communication with remote Abo­ sionals...should have access to skilled interpreters. riginal communities

Interpreter Training in Queensland has been provided in In the western world the use of the printing press over sev­ the Torres Strait Kriol language through the Southbank eral centuries has been the basis for the dominance of print College of TAFE in Brisbane. In South Australia training media in education and information provision. Despite the for Pitjantjatjara interpreters was provided through the increasing use of electronic media such as television and Adelaide Institute of TAFE. In Western Australia the train­ the internet, the printed page remains influential. In tradi­ ing has been provided through the Perth Central Metropol­ tional Aboriginal societies information was passed on by itan College of TAFE in association with the Karrayili word of mouth and knowledge was retained in the mind. Adult Education Centre at Fitzroy Crossing and with Abo­ The printed page was unknown, though some groups made riginal communities in the north west of W. A. extensive use of visual images in art to record and transmit information. However in the past oral communication was There have been significant developments in interpreter dominant and this remains a reality today, despite the wide training in the Northern Territory during 1995. Courses ranging use of faxes and computers. This reality is found were provided through Batchelor College for 14 students in traditional societies throughout the world. In relation to in several different languages. This includes the Yolngu the Kuna people of Panama, Joel Sherzer (1990:1) com­ family of languages (from Northeast Arnhem Land) at the mented: Batchelor Campus and the Kriol language in association with the Katherine Regional Aboriginal Languages Centre. It is through oral discourse that knowledge and information is conceived, perceived, learned, Current Situation taught, and transmitted ... such discourse shapes life and experience in this nonliterate tropical island Within the Territory several agencies provide language and and forest society in which all knowledge and infor­ interpreting services: mation from history and geography to the latest

MAY 1996 17 in

sports news from Panama City is orally conceived, Peter Carroll is currently working as an independent con­ perceived and transmitted. sultant in the Northern Territory.

In Aboriginal society the information that is most highly valued is that which comes by word of mouth from a known and trusted friend. This reality has major implica­ tions for agencies wishing to communicate with members of Aboriginal communities. Some agencies have accepted the language reality that exists in Aboriginal communities and provide information translated into Aboriginal lan­ guages. Invariably this information is provided in printed form. However the printed form by itself will not be an effective communication medium in a language situation that has its focus on oral communication. Such printed material needs to complemented by information in other media. Audio tapes and video cassettes are two alterna­ tives. One practical option adopted by some agencies is to provide translated material to Aboriginal communities in both printed and audio cassette formats.

A feature of multi-cultural Australia is the increasing rec­ ognition that languages other than English are used on a regular basis throughout many parts of the country. This recognition should be extended to Aboriginal Australians who continue to use their own languages on a daily basis in many communities. The provision of adequate inter­ preter and translator services in Aboriginal languages remains a high priority in many parts of Northern Aus­ tralia.

References

Black, Paul, 1983, Aboriginal Languages of the Northern Territory, Darwin Community College, Darwin. Carroll, Peter J., 1995, An Aboriginal Language Inter­ preter Service, A Consultancy Report, N.T. Office of Aboriginal Development, Darwin. Dixon, R.M.W., 1980, The Languages of Australia, Cam­ bridge University Press. Harris, John, 1991, Kriol — the creation of a new lan­ guage, pp. 195-203 in Romaine, Suzanne ed., Language in Australia, Cambridge University Press. NAATI, 1994, Interpreting and Translation in Australia: A Concise Guide for Employers, National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, Hawker A.C.T. Sherzer, Joel, 1990, Verbal Art in San Bias: Kuna Culture Through Its Discourse, Cambridge University Press. Schmidt, Annette, 1990, The loss of Australia’s Aborigi­ nal Language Heritage, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

18 MAY 1996 / igration A ction Court interpreting and the war crimes prosecutions: what went wrong?

Ludmila Stern Crimes Prosecutions (although the large number of non English speaking witnesses on whom the prosecution Heinrich Vagner, Ivan Polyukhovich, and Mikolay Bere­ depended did compound the problems), and I would like to zovsky were accused of the mass murder of civilians in treat the communication in the above cases not as excep­ Russia and the Ukraine during the period 1941-1943. tional but rather as a case study illustrating the many diffi­ Their trials took place in Adelaide between 1990-1992. culties that arise when dealing with non-English speaking witnesses or witnesses of non English speaking back­ Introduction ground.

It is more than three years since the Attorney General Unrealistic expectations of the interpreting process decided to end the Australian War Crimes Prosecutions, a decision that was taken prior to the trial of Heinrich Vag­ Ignorance of the interpreting process, including specific ner, the third person charged in Australia with War Crimes. linguistic issues like the untranslatability of a large portion By that time Ivan Polyukhovich and Mikolay Berezovsky of the vocabulary, the lack of equivalents in different lan­ had already been acquitted. The Australian War Crimes guages and grammatical differences between languages Prosecutions, in any case never widely supported by the led many in the courtroom to have unrealistic expectations Australian public, were regarded as a failure, as no convic­ of the performance of the interpreter. The lack of interrup­ tions were achieved. tions or additional questions by the interpreter was consid­ ered a virtue, and not a potential source of hidden However it is not the legal or political aspects of the Aus­ problems. Indeed, certain words, phrases or concepts are tralian War Crimes Prosecutions that I will discuss but the impossible to translate without explanation or clarification. linguistic and socio-cultural issues that arose in court dur­ For example, details of Russian/Ukrainian life, including ing these proceedings, and the treatment of the non English the country’s cultural, social and administrative back­ speaking witness brought to Australia from Russia and ground could not always be translated successfully into Ukraine on whose evidence the cases largely depended. I English or replaced with satisfactory equivalents (e.g. will discuss the problems of communication that arose in mestechko — a small town or village in pre-WWII Poland, court between the Australian judiciary and the non-English Ukraine and Byelorussia with predominantly Jewish pop­ speaking witnesses, problems which certainly affected the ulation, or khutor — a farmstead or type of village in proceedings and possibly the final outcome of the hear­ Ukraine). On the other hand, Australian legal terms, even ings. the most common ones, such as solicitor, barrister, magis­ trate, allegation, affidavit, committal, parole, do not have What went wrong an exact equivalent in Russian/Ukrainian and require explanation of how the legal system works. The same Communication problems became obvious early in the applies to terms that have a broader or a narrower meaning course of the first hearing, but their origin at that stage was in one language than in another. Thus, ruka in Russian unclear. I was accordingly asked by the South Australian means both arm and hand, and noga leg and foot, while Director of Public Prosecutions to identify the reasons for gorod can be a city or a town, and nevestka can mean both these problems and, possibly, suggest some solutions. My sister- or daughter-in-law. The English vehicle can stand findings were subsequently tendered in court in the form of for a bus, truck, car or cart, and in order to translate into affidavits, which formed the basis of an article, Non-Eng­ Russian the verbs to bring someone or to take someone lish Speaking Witnesses in the Australian Legal Context away it has to be specified whether it was done on foot or (Law. Text. Culture., 1995), which was published after the by means of conveyance. In order to translate all of the completion of the prosecutions, and which contained a above correctly one needs additional clarifications, and not detailed analysis of communications in court between the expectations of a smoothly running procedure. Australian lawyers and the Russian/Ukrainian witnesses. These problems are certainly not peculiar to the War

MAY 1996 19 igration A ction

Failure to appreciate the cultural background and dif­ accustomed, a difference which was not recognised by ferences of the witnesses many as legitimate. Here are some of the areas that elicited ‘strange’ answers: These large groups of witnesses (over 20 in the case of Ivan Polyukhovich) came mainly from the rural parts of the Months and seasons. As countryside residents of a certain Ukraine, were mainly elderly, had very little schooling, age and educational level, the Ukrainian witnesses were have limited means of existence and have not been exposed often unable to identify the month of the year or season to modern technology (e.g. video camera). Coming from when an event took place, and used a reference system of the former USSR, many had their native Ukrainian agricultural and religious signs. These included the height affected by years of Russian political and cultural imperi­ of the crops, the harvesting of buckwheat, the ripeness of alism, thus understanding both languages and expressing apples and festivals such as Easter, Whitsunday, Transfig­ themselves in a mixture of the two, frequently unable to uration, as well as less known ones (the Finding of the distinguish between them. Only additional questions from Head of John the Baptist or Low Sunday). Sometimes it the interpreter could have helped to understand whether was simply the weather that indicates the season: “It was some of the almost identical words had the Ukrainian or chilly, so it was either spring or autumn”. the Russian meaning. Thus, nedelya said in Russian would mean ‘week’, and nedilya in Ukrainian ‘Sunday’. Listopad Time o f the day. The day is subdivided differently in Eng­ means ‘fall of leaves’ (which occurs in September) in Rus­ lish and in Russian/Ukrainian, and although equivalents to sian and ‘November’ in Ukrainian. Vsekh pobili in Russian the words morning, day, evening and night do exist, they do means ‘they were all beaten up’, whereas in a local dialect not fully coincide. It is particularly difficult to find equiva­ of Ukrainians from Poles’ye (homeland of Polyukhovich) lents to concepts such as ‘late morning’, ‘early afternoon’ vsikhpobyly means ‘they were all killed’. or ‘late afternoon’. Reference to ‘night’ needs to be extremely precise as in English there is frequently a lack of Some responses by the witnesses did not seem to relate distinction between ‘evening’ and ‘night’. Similarly, directly to the questions asked or appeared unexpected, apparently translatable expressions such as ‘early morn­ and these were often also the result of a lack of understand­ ing’ or ‘in the early hours of the morning’, when used to ing of cultural differences. It was not the inability of the describe the hours following midnight, cannot be directly witnesses to answer some of the questions put to them, but translated into Russian, since the Russian/Ukrainian con­ rather a different system of references to which they are cept of ‘morning’ implies daylight. The Russian/Ukrainian

20 MAY 1996 / igration A ction speaker refers to ‘lunchtime’ (‘before lunch’ being similar the purpose of their participation in the hearings was to mid- to late morning, and ‘after lunch’ in the afternoon). defeated. Occasionally the Ukrainian witnesses mention church services — the pre-sunrise service (zautrenya), the lunch­ Poor or inappropriate questioning technique time service (obednya) and the early-evening service (vechernya) which correspond very approximately to There are, among the Australian legal profession and matin, mass and vespers. police, commonly accepted questioning techniques and expected responses. Lack of the witnesses’ familiarity with Age. Rather than say how old they were the witnesses these caused considerable difficulty. For example, certain would name the year of their birth, e.g. “I’m from ‘32’” common courtroom expressions that are supposed to evoke (meaning “I was born in 1932”) — a common thing to say a predictable response did not have the desired effect when for residents of the former USSR of an older generation. translated. Among these expressions were “Do you mind...”, “Do you appreciate...”, “May I suggest...”, “I put Population. Rather than give an estimate of the population it to you...”. A common response from the witnesses to of the village the witnesses use the word dvor — household questions beginning with “Can you tell me...” was “Yes, I (literally ‘yard’) and might reply, “There were two or three can”, not followed by any additional information. This is hundred households.” due to the different way of phrasing requests in English as opposed to Russian/Ukrainian. In Russian/Ukrainian it is The demeanour of the witness is culturally determined, and usually in the form of a direct request in the imperative: such things as body language and the facial expression “Tell us whatever you know of the man...”. English uses a may be misleading as they are not shared by people from less direct form of request and phrases it as a question. different cultures. For example, the public expression of When translated literally into Russian/Ukrainian in the emotions would be expected in the Soviet courtroom (the form of a question “Could you please...?”, it is also under­ dispassionate giving of evidence being considered calcu­ stood literally, as an inquiry about the witness’ ability to lating), whereas in the Australian context it would tend to provide information, and is answered accordingly, “Yes, I undermine the evidence, as the witness would be thought can.” Questions starting with “Do you remember...?” to be hysterical and unreliable. This problem Was exacer­ received a similar response. Thus, during the preliminary bated by the witnesses’ frequent use of words which, when investigation one of the witnesses answers these questions translated into English, convey the wrong impression. The by saying “Why wouldn’t I (remember)?” Another odd word nu, for example, which essentially means ‘yes’ said reply is “I can’t tell you”, this being a literal translation with a reservation, a caution and a slightly questioning from Russian which does not demonstrate any unwilling­ intonation, was often translated as “so?” or “well?”, rather ness to answer, but simply means “I don’t know.” than “well, yes” or “yes, go on”, or else “yes, and so?”, thus conveying the wrong impression of the witnesses’ A questioning technique unfamiliar to the Soviet witnesses reaction, making them appear aggressive rather than hesi­ was referring them to their earlier statements. These ques­ tant. tions would be usually phrased thus: “Do you agree that in your previous statement on (date) you said this (quotation Essential to the witnesses’ mental attitude and reactions follows)?” Questions of this type were usually misunder­ was their idea of courtroom procedure. Accustomed to the stood and seen as requests to agree or disagree with the inquisitorial Soviet legal system, where the person brought actual statement quoted, rather than to acknowledge hav­ to trial was almost invariably convicted, the witnesses had ing made this statement. The witnesses tended to comment pictured a different role for themselves in the proceedings, on the content of the quotation and not answer the ques­ and did not expect to be cross-examined in the way it is tion. done in Australian courts. One procedure none of them was prepared for was for their credibility to be questioned and Referring to earlier statements made by the witnesses their evidence destroyed, an aspect that had a most stress­ caused additional difficulty because what was quoted by ful and demoralising effect on them, making them feel as the interviewer in English was in itself a translated version if they themselves were on trial. Another difference lay in of the original words used by the witness. By the time they the way of obtaining evidence, less precise in the former reached the witness’ ears they had undergone a process of USSR where evidence would be presented in the form of double translation and may have resembled the original free narratives rather than concise answers to specific only remotely. questions. At the end of the day the witnesses felt that they had not been given the opportunity to tell their story, and

MAY 1996 21 M igration A ction

Serious problems arose when witnesses were referred to The following question contains one quotation inside their earlier evidence recorded on video-tape. Usually the another, and is untranslatable and incomprehensible due to replayed version was that of evidence which had been its excessive length, making it impossible, as a result, for given weeks, if not months, earlier, and the lack of famili­ the listener to relate the final question “Is that correct?” to arity of those witnesses with video prevented most from any specific reference: identifying themselves as the person on screen: Q: Do you remember him asking you this question, Q: What did you just say on television then? and this was a question that Mr. M. asked you, and he was reading from the statement that you’d given A: I can hear what I had said, but I do not remember Mr. P. before, and she said this, “I’m reading from saying that. Neither had it entered our heads. our translation of your previous protocol from 1987 and it states ‘when I saw G. I heard that she was ask­ Q: And tell again what you said. ing the policeman who was guarding the column — she said her husband was Russian.’ ...And instead A: Where? of answering her the policeman beat her with the lash and also beat the child”. Is this correct? Q: On the television that’s just been played. Sometimes, in the case of long questions, the interviewer A: Do I remember what I said then? would split it into clauses or sections and expect them to be interpreted in sequence as he or she would speak, a method Q: Tell us what you just heard. that destroys the dynamics of the sentence and the logical links between clauses, thus resulting in additional translat­ A: I did not look closely, I did not see. ing difficulties and errors.

Often, problems such as lengthy or badly structured ques­ Some non-leading questions were made difficult to under­ tions, lack of precision or poor choice of words became stand, as they lacked in sufficient precision and were far exacerbated in translation. Here are some examples of too vague to be understood by the witness. Some of the each. deliberately vague phrasings, such as “Was there a time...”, do not convey the desired nuance, when trans­ Questions with a number of subordinate clauses are fre­ lated, and cause confusion: quently difficult to understand in the original, and become still more confusing in translation. Too much information Q: Was there a time after that when the Germans makes it difficult for both the interpreter to interpret and for came? the witness to assimilate and respond to appropriately. Often the witnesses were unable to identify the actual A: In what time? I don’t understand. question among the agglomeration of clauses: Some of the other unexpected responses of the witnesses Q: The clothes he was wearing when you saw him appeared to be the result of a situation of stress under pro­ kill T., when you saw him wearing those clothes at longed questioning, and should not have been taken liter­ other times, where was he? ally, as they were an emotional outburst of witnesses (something that is socially acceptable in their culture, as A: As he killed T., where was he? indicated earlier) and were a sign of their inability to with­ stand the pressure of the situation any longer rather than of Some other questions contain more than one question, and uncooperativeness. In some cases, pressing repetitive ques­ some contain quotations in the form of a question: tioning resulted in emotional outbursts and the rejection of previous evidence. For example, a witness in the Poly- Q: Were you asked to say what you saw on televi­ ukhovich case became uncooperative as a result of confu­ sion in that question and answer, “Did you see sion under cross-examination during the committal police guarding the column?” and did you reply hearing and ultimately gave negative answers to almost “Yes, of course”? everything about which he had been testifying earlier.

A: Did I not reply what? Q: Had you seen him before the occasion that you saw the Jews led into the pit.

22 MAY 1996 A: No, I did not see. Did not see. Did not see. ... division of such a question into a sequence of short and self-contained questions. A lengthy question should not be Q: So you had seen him before that day that you say split into unfinished sections — it is preferable to ask a you saw him at the pit. whole question, then have it translated, and perhaps then repeat it for the benefit of both the interpreter and the wit­ A: No, I did not see. ness.

Q: But you told us you saw him at his wedding. More communication is needed with and through the inter­ preter. Whenever the information is unclear or more infor­ A: That was in 1940 as he was getting married. mation is required for an accurate translation, the interpreter (or a bilingual observer in court) should be Q: I’m not talking about on that day. I’m talking encouraged to ask questions and provide comments, about before that day. prompted or unprompted. It should be understood that such interruptions may be necessary and should never be treated A: I did not see. I did not know him. Up until that as an impediment to a smooth procedure. time I did not know him... Although an interpreter should aim to be as accurate as Q: To be absolutely fair and clear, I’m talking about possible, he or she should never be expected to provide a occasions you’ve seen him before that day, not on literal translation, which is impossible in any case, and that day. may only harm the witness by making sensible statements sound ridiculous and discredit the witness as a result. A: I did not see... No matter how accurate the translation may be, it is not the Q: Before the day the Jews were killed. original and should never be treated as such. The words of the interpreter should not be quoted as the exact words of A: I did not see. I did not see. the witness. For the purpose of reference the original should be used, in the original language. Sound recording Another witness in the Polyukhovich case threatened to should be mandatory in proceedings that require interpret­ stop giving answers if the prosecution continued its cross- ing, especially in the courtroom, as it is the only means of examination in the same fashion; another in the Bere­ accessing the original evidence. zovsky case eventually gave up during cross-examination and agreed with whatever was suggested to him (“Do you Ludmila Stern is Head of German and Russian Studies at want me to say it was Gorobets? Let it be Gorobets”). the University o f New South Wales.

The impression conveyed by this kind of behaviour was that of unreliable witnesses. In fact, however, it was often a reflection of an inadequate questioning strategy.

Conclusions

A number of lessons can be learned from the Australian War Crimes Prosecutions, among the most important of which are the correct use of interpreters in court and the treatment of non English speaking witnesses. Not only the legal profession but other professionals — doctors, social workers, educators — should be aware of the difficulties of the interpreting process, and cross cultural differences and their repercussions, as well as their potential to exacerbate these difficulties. Greater attention should be paid during interviews to the structure of sentences, and attempts should be made not to overburden them with information, but to make them short, precise and well structured. Avoid­ ing lengthy subordinate clauses may be achieved by a sub­

MAY 1996 23 migration A ction Blast from the past: How much have things really changed?

Editorial Committee Law accused of insularity on languages

In this segment "Migration Action ” reprints relevant head­ * * * lines and portions from previous issues and other CHOMI publications. Language policies should be developed and coordinated at the national level on the basis of four guiding principles, Gardener ‘did translating’ namely: * competence in English, * maintenance and development of languages other than English, * provision * * * of services in languages other than English and * opportu­ nities for learning second languages. Possibly the predominantly monolingual and monocultural nature of the health profession as well as the history of Migration Action Vol. IX, no.2, 1987 interpreting in Australia — a service provided by taxi driv­ ers, cleaners, children, or kitchen hands — contributed to a * * * view equating interpreting with a basic competence in a language. Professionals seemed to know very little about Interpreter bridges the gap between black, the training of an interpreter except that they would have to white worlds acquire proficiency in two languages. * * * * * * Many of the hundreds of Aboriginal languages are in great NESB patients frequently lack the necessary vocabulary to danger of becoming extinct (some have died out already), discuss health problems. For example, instead of using while some 50 are in a healthy position within some cases such expressions as “move your bowels”, “pass water” numbers of their speakers growing. For many of the lan­ etc., they will use terms generally associated with the col­ guages in greatest danger, essential work of systematically loquial register, e.g. “poo, “shit”, “wee”. These are consid­ recording the language needs to be undertaken urgently to ered inappropriate in a medical setting. This can cause preserve these languages for posterity. For the groups embarrassment in both patient and health professional. whose languages are stronger, questions of language main­ tenance, bilingualism, education and media arise in the * * * same way as for immigrants’ languages. Bilingual educa­ tion for Aboriginals has been undertaken for over a decade Health spelt out in seven languages in some parts of northern Australia, but in some state sys­ tems Aboriginal languages have been ignored totally. * * * Migration Action Vol. VII no. 1, 1984. Health professionals need to ask patients questions in order to establish their medical history. Some question formula­ * * * tions may be difficult to process and cause difficulties of reply. For example “either-or” questions can cause difficul­ The slips are not so funny ties for NESB patients who may reply inappropriately to them. Q: Would you like to take it intravenously or orally? * * * A: Yes. Q: Would you like an appointment tomorrow or next week? A: Yes. A health care interpreter was delayed in meeting a call to the postnatal ward. “It’s OK, I managed without you,” the Migration Action Vol. XIV, no. 1, 1992 hospital sister beamed. “We’ve just given the patient a vac­ cination to protect her from German measles next time

24 MAY 1996 ______she’s pregnant. I’ve told her she mustn’t get pregnant for municate in a foreign language or by translating from one three months. I just said loudly and slowly “Good injection language to another. They tend to imagine that different — no babies — three months! ’ She kept smiling and say­ languages are essentially different sets of labels to be ing ‘Yes’ when I asked if she understood.” The interpreter attached to the objects spoken about. turned to the mother: “Did you understand what the sister said?” “Yes,” she said. “She’s given me a wonderful injec­ CHOMI Reprint no. 403 tion that will stop me from getting pregnant for the next three months.” * * *

* * * Telephone interpreter helped save man’s life

“Interpreting involves competence in at least two lan­ * * * guages, an understanding of the dynamics of human inter­ action in two quite different modalities and appreciation of The recognition of interpreting as a service to immigrants social and cultural differences, the ability to concentrate has been eroded, to be replaced by its presentation as a and maintain one’s attention, a good deal of tact, judge­ service to government, business and the professions. ment, stamina and above all a sense of humour.” Nancy Frishberg. Interpreting: an Introduction. RID Publications, Migration Action Vol.VIno.l, 1982 1990. * * * * * * An important distinction should be made between “inter­ Many health professionals, including doctors, believe that preting” and “translation”. An interpreter works “in per­ if you speak another language you can be an interpreter. son”, translating back and forth between two or more Many are also amazed to find out that some interpreters individuals. A translator works with written material, actually go to university to study to become interpreters translating documents from one language to another. and that, just like themselves, interpreters are covered by a code of ethics by which they must abide. They do not seem * * * to realise that interpreting is a skill which is learnt and not an automatic consequence of being able to speak another Low pay ‘causes language experts to quit’ language. * * * * * * Interpreters draw much of their working “style” from their Libs axed language course, says Innes personalities. Therefore, as many different approaches exist as there are interpreters. The various approaches can * * * be placed on a continuum, however, ranging from verbatim interpretation to independent intervention. The trained I/T threatens some commonplace stereotypes of the profession in Australia. They will refuse to perform The only task more difficult than working with an inter­ work for which they feel they are not qualified, they will preter is being an interpreter. Many problems are inherent challenge the behaviour of those who work with them if in providing casework services in such a manner, yet often such behaviour compromises the tenets of the I/T profes­ no alternative exists There are positive aspects to working sion which are accepted the world over. In other words they with an interpreter, however. The primary one is the oppor­ will stimulate thinking and change. tunity for the worker to learn more about another culture and receive ongoing feedback from someone who can act Migration Action Vol.XVII, no.2, 1995. as an advocate for the client population.

* * * CHOMI Reprint no. 435

People who can speak only one language rarely have any idea of the difficulties involved in crossing the boundaries between different languages - whether by learning to com-

MAY 1996 25 ______nsdigration A ction An Australian model for lan­ guage services

Uldis Ozolins language policies; secondly, to analyse the crucial policy developments that built the interpreting and translating Australia’s immigration policy, which has led to a large field in both the public and private sectors in Australia, and proportion of migrants from non-English speaking back­ have continued to expand the scope and breadth of inter­ grounds, together with the use of a considerable number of preting and translating initiatives despite changing cli­ Aboriginal languages and Australian Sign Language, have mates of public policy; and, thirdly, examine the resulted in the creation of a multilingual society with dis­ interpreting and translating situation a number of other tinct communication needs. Interpreting and Translating in countries with multilingual populations, documenting their Australia has developed to provide a highly innovative response to communication needs and identifying areas in response to these needs, and some Australian innovations which knowledge and understanding of Australian and of world significance (e.g. the Telephone Interpreter Serv­ overseas experience may be exchanged to mutual benefit. ice, the five-level system of national accreditation for inter­ preters and translators, widespread provision of language The project aims to build on existing achievements arising, services) can provide a valuable model for other countries for example, from the International Conference on Com­ seeking to develop language services for their community munity Interpreting (Canada, June 1995), the Third Lan­ or business needs. A new project analyses the crucial pub­ guage International Conference on Teaching Translating lic policy developments that have led to effective language and Interpreting (Denmark, June 1995) and other confer­ services in Australia and examines the international rele­ ences, and sufficient interest is generated, may lead to vance of Australian developments. ongoing communication between interpreting and translat­ ing professionals around the world. The research will The project, to look at interpreting and translating in Aus­ result in a major publication on interpreting and translating tralia as an international model for response to communi­ in Australia, including details of services, training, and cation needs in multilingual settings, is financed by the policy developments which may be of assistance in the for­ Australian Research Council, and the principal researcher mulation of interpreting and translating policies, the reso­ is Dr. Uldis Ozolins, Senior Lecturer in Interpreting/Trans- lution of policy dispute and development of training and lating at Deakin University, under the auspices of the Cen­ services in other countries. Information on agencies and tre for Research and Development in Interpreting and institutions in Australia for further contact will also be Translating. included.

While Australia has developed a wide range of Interpreting As a part of this research, the project team Members (Dr. and Translating services to meet the needs of its multilin­ Uldis Ozolins plus research assistants Vivian Pagourelias gual population, in the current climate there is considerable and Anne Richardson) wish to exchange information relat­ concern over the type of language services appropriate in ing to the interpreting and translating field with other our society, and some significant differences over desirable countries and are seeking documentation (e.g. articles, future directions. There is intense debate over such issues professional newsletters, manuals and publicity material) as private versus public provision, registration of interpret­ and, in particular, unpublished or limited circulation mate­ ing and translating professionals and suitable levels of rial relating to any of the following: training, provision of rarer languages, costs and benefits of different models of service provision, as well as significant 1. Organisation of interpreting and translating services reorganisation of ongoing services. 2. Interpreting and translating training 3. Policy development (planning papers etc.) The purposes of the present research project are, firstly, to document the establishment and development of Aus­ Reprinted from “Language International” 7.6 1995 with tralia’s interpreting and translating services, their related permission from Uldis Ozolins. infrastructure of training and accreditation, and the place of interpreting and translating within Australia’s broader

26 MAY 1996 / igration A ction Interpreting services in a com­ munity based welfare agency

Sherron Dunbar TAFE-trained volunteer staff conduct the majority of inter­ views. Without the service of interpreters at the Springvale Com­ munity Aid and Advice Bureau (SCAAB) for the past two Lobbying for language services decades, communication with thousands of migrants and refugees would have been impossible. Most of the inter­ All of its work, whether case-work or resulting follow-up preting services provided to this busy community based work, community education, community development, agency have been provided by the Translating and Inter­ research and policy advocacy, involves people who prefer preting Service (TIS — formerly the Telephone Interpreter to speak and are proficient in languages other than English. Service). In the early 1970’s, a far-sighted Springvale Council and Springvale bureau 1996 local residents decided to ensure that people arriving from overseas, moving from the migrant hostel into the munici­ This information, counselling and advocacy agency pro­ pality, should be able to play active permanent resident and vides service to people living in the South East metropoli­ citizen roles. tan Melbourne. As it shares client group, premises and facilities with the Springvale Legal Service, individuals There were no formal interpreting or translating services at and groups come seeking a very broad range of advice and the time, so, true to its community advocacy role, the assistance. Bureau helped to lobby for services that now exist. It has been active at all government levels throughout the past 25 Project workers provide specialised service in the areas of years, in trying to ensure fair access by all to language housing and tenancy, youth housing, financial and gam­ services. Concurrent with that lobbying work has been the bling counselling, personal counselling, immigration law work done to ensure fair access to English Language and and procedure, income security, taxation and Child Sup­ Literacy classes. port (formerly known as ‘maintenance’), goods and serv­ ices consumer problems, unemployment and re­ It was actively involved for many years on the State Advi­ deployment. Bi-lingual workers either employed by the sory Panel for Translators and Interpreters (SAPTI), thus agency or outposted at the agency include Italian, Vietnam­ informing itself and influencing change in the areas of ese, Cambodian, Turkish, East Timorese, Slavic, and Chi­ accreditation and education of interpreters and translators. nese. The Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture and Trauma, and the Red Cross Asylum Seeker In accordance with its Language Policy, people are able to Assistance Scheme have counsellors based at the Bureau express themselves in whatever language they prefer. To do (SCAAB) also. It administers a number of emergency that, they have to be interviewed in first language, or with houses, and distributes emergency relief monies and inter­ the assistance of an interpreter, in person or on the phone. est free loans. This is all in keeping with its Service state­ Diverse information that is provided is expressed in a large ment that “The Bureau exists to provide practical services variety of languages. to people experiencing any form of socio-economic disad­ vantage”. Multilingual white board messages give topical informa­ tion about, e.g.Social Security or Immigration changes. At Extensive case work services are offered day and evening, the reception desk the language of choice is determined so to people who attend at the agency, and those who call this that the interviewer can ensure that the appropriate service “Citizens’ Advice Bureau”. An average of 70 people is provided. If the interviewer is unable to speak the client's present at the agency daily for assistance and over 80% preferred language, an interpreter is sought. Interview were not born in Australia or are of parents born outside rooms contain ‘conference’ or ‘hands free’ phones around Australia. Mono-lingual, bi-lingual and multi-lingual, which people sit to communicate through the interpreter on the phone if necessary.

MAY 1996 27 The most frequently required languages usually mirror the As in all its work, the Bureau extrapolates theory from current state of a troubled world, as the most frequently tried and tested practice. The workshops reflect that. They nominated languages are those spoken by displaced people are firmly and squarely based in practice, and they require and their relatives, who have been resettled in Australia — active participation by the participants. Though there is a Arabic (Iraqi), Somali, Tigrinya, Chinese, Tetum, Tamil... common framework, each workshop is unique, because the You will hear these and more in the waiting and interview experience and the needs of the participants vary greatly. rooms. It is, in fact, a linguist’s delight! The difference in experience and requirements of a group of social work students, hospital social and welfare work­ TIS has based different interpreters at the Bureau for the ers, and government housing staff is considerable. Individ­ past 20 years, and a study of those tell you a lot about uals within each workshop group also vary in already migration waves into Australia. Spanish and Chinese are established knowledge about and feeling for language and currently based at the agency. communication.

As it is also a teaching and training centre, the Bureau and A positive reaction to the workshop experience is almost Legal Service are eager to accept interpreting and translat­ inevitable, with its emphasis on the practice of communi­ ing students from Deakin University. Some of those stu­ cating with interpreters, and of reviewing and changing dents have returned to work as volunteers at the Bureau, organisational practice and structures to allow for the prac­ and as role play workshop presenters. tice to be implemented and maintained in various organisa­ tions. Working-with-interpreter workshops The workshops are presented by three or four people, Training has been provided for paid and volunteer staff in depending on the size and composition of the group — the working with interpreters for the past 20 years; in the past GIA trainer, the bi-lingual ‘client’ and the interpreter who decade, many outside organisations have undergone such speaks that language. TIS has kindly provided interpreters training run by the Grant In Aid (GIA)1 social welfare for training purposes for many years. Often, the interpreter workers. Undertaking at least one workshop is obligatory has only a very short briefing before stepping into role. for all staff. This reflects the true demands of his/her interpreting work.

The workshop format alluded to already is simply the fol­ 1. Grant In Aid workers are community development workers funded by lowing: the Federal Government.

28 MAY 1996 /

(i) actively observe trainer (GIA worker) interviewing cli- All sorts of extra information and attitudinal analysis are a enteles-lingual volunteer; by-product of the workshops.

(ii) discuss observations of how the interviewer maintained Working with groups and interpreters responsibility for the interview in the large group and list points as “The do's and don't's of work with interpreters”; Because it is an information gathering, disseminating and and changing agency, it does work with groups. Information sessions are frequent. The latest examples of this have been (iii) Interviewer repeat the above either simulating phone the gathering of East Timorese asylum seekers who are communication or actually involving a TIS interpreter in kept informed about the Australian Government's opinions the interview with the ‘client’; about and processing of current protection Visa applica­ tions. TIS interpreters, sometimes a number of them (with (iv) break into different groups to role play interviews; to the Timorese, we have worked simultaneously with Hakka get and discuss resource information about education and and Tetum interpreters), make such session possible. accreditation etc. of interpreters (this entails a thorough knowledge of National Australian Accreditation of Trans­ In interpreter workshops, the skills of working with groups lators and Interpreters (NAATI)2 etc.), gender sensitivity are presented, as appropriate. and many other issues; to watch and discuss an appropriate video (e.g. working with interpreters in legal or sexual Recruitment assault counselling settings) — participants rotate to ensure they experience each situation; The Bureau encourages interested bi- and multi-lingual people to inform themselves about interpreter and transla­ (v) regroup to summarise. tor courses, and has recommended many to TIS, especially amongst the ‘newer’ language groups, where education Throughout the workshop, each of the presenters is and training are not available, e.g. in Homeric, Timorese actively involved as well, prepared to respond to question Hakka, Somali. raised. This often leads to extensive questions of the inter­ preter about education, appreciation of the skills and The future knowledge of the interpreter, exploration of the language and culture that is featured in that particular workshop. The Bureau supports the Federal Government's allowing community based agencies’ free access to interpreting A more advanced workshop involves working through dif­ services and will lobby to maintain that situation. Without ficult situations that do arise in interviews, e.g. where cli­ interpreters, it could not work with its community. ent wants to work with a friend or relative counter to the organisations’s policy and practice, where the interpreter Sherron Dunbar is a community development worker at the interferes, where the client is suspicious of the interpreter Springvale Case and Community Advice and Advocacy The participants raise problems they want addressed, and Bureau (SCAAB). possible ‘resolutions’ are actually role played. Housing and Refugee Women Research Report Central to the workshop is the message that the interviewer is responsible for the conduct of the interview, needs to by interact with the ‘client’ directly, and can trust the inter­ preter and her/his skills and knowledge and ethical behav­ Sherron Dunbar iour. is available The best training sessions involve no more than 15 people and run for three hours. The most beneficial sessions are at those where two stages are offered — introductory and advanced. This is offered to staff at the Bureau. The CHOMI Bookshop

see enclosed order form for details 2. National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) is the national body which regulates the registration and accred­ itation of interpreting and translating services in Australia

MAY 1996 29 dsiiigration A ction Family interpreting in the age­ ing Italian community...

Patrizia Burley-Lombardi overlooked: in 1991 the number of, Italy born immigrants aged 55 or older had increased by 26.5% on 1986 figures ... a question of increasing real need against the (BIR, 1991 Census). “Greeks and Italians have one of the official figures which show a declining demand. lowest levels of mortality of any birthplace group in Aus­ tralia” (Young, C.1986). One day last year in the classroom, one of my tertiary stu­ dents in Italian Studies apologised for her absence the pre­ In 1991, 47.8% of Italy born immigrants were aged above vious week: “I had to accompany my mother to the hospital 55 years, allowing for a percentage of deaths we were told and interpret for her”. As I was to learn, her mother was that in 1991 there were 253,332 Italy born immigrants liv­ totally dependent on her. ing in Australia, 105,513 (41,7%, a decrease of 3.3% over the 1986 census). A very rough estimate on the basis of This was by no means the first time in my 26 year of terti­ those figures would indicate close to 50,000 Italians in Vic­ ary teaching that a student had apologised for missing a toria aged 60 or older in 1996. Even allowing for another class on account of family interpreting. This time, how­ 5% decline in the next five years, there will still be a large ever, the penny finally dropped. The young student in ques­ number of older Italians in full language regression, revert­ tion was trying her very best to assist her mother, ing to their native dialects, needing medical attention and unfortunately she had very limited competence in the Ital­ possibly hospitalisation, they will also need places in nurs­ ian language overall. This was simply repetition of a situa­ ing homes. tion I had witnessed many times before: here was a very poor Italian language speaker (but a good dialect speaker) Is it responsible enough to look at current demand or who was a habitual interpreter, yet when a student is should we make projections about future needs? The lim­ trained to become a professional interpreter in Australia, a ited sample collected so far from students of Advanced good command of both English and one other language is Italian in two universities, will be used to express some the required standard. concerns and to suggest some ways to alleviate the prob­ lem. We are told that training for Italian interpreters is no longer needed as enough have been trained in Victoria and official The following are the questions posed. figures show a declining demand. I Question 1: Have you ever helped one of your par­ I felt it was time to acquire a clearer insight and even ven­ ents and/or relatives acting as an interpreter for ture possible future projections: I compiled and distributed them? to 49 tertiary students of advanced Italian a very short and rudimentary questionnaire in an attempt to obtain a feeling • 34/45 were affirmative answers. of the situation and more knowledge about the percentage of students who are virtually ‘would be’ untrained, but Question 2: If yes, in what setting? (i.e. legal, med­ experienced family interpreters operating within the sys­ ical, police, other): tem; I also suspected they may be the ‘fudge factor’, obscuring our figures on real need. This is only a prelimi­ • Medical situations were the overwhelming majority nary research, limited in number (49 respondents from two (29); he next most common situation was shopping (8) universities) but the findings, although not representative, legal (8); banking/fmancial (4). Others were: school­ in a statistical sense, could be confirmed by further and ing, Social Security, family, social welfare, translation wider probing. of official document, ‘doorknockers’, personal matters.

Generally, family interpreting is needed to assist older fam- Question 3: Did you feel adequate? ily members, therefore the official facts and figures, rela­ tive to the ageing Italian population should not be

30 MAY 1996 // M igration A ction

• 33 of those who had acted as interpreters specialised nature requiring by all accounts a NAATI III answered.One did not, which could be interpreted, qualified interpreter. among other things, as a sign of doubt or uncertainty. 22 had felt adequate, 9 inadequate and 2 uncertain. Could those 9 who had felt inadequate overall have unwit­ tingly deprived their community of potential services, by Question 4: Has your family ever used a profes­ modifying the figures which could show the “real” need? sional interpreter? Here the breakdown of answers Yet, all those who act as family interpreters do so because begins to reveal a more complex picture and possi­ they want to and have to help their families, and in so doing bly a pattern: they also relieve the system of some duty of care and ulti­ mately they save money. Whatever the reason though, we, • 25/49 had never used an interpreter in the family (it as a society should be both aware and wary of those who is worth noting that the question applied to the family, had handled specialised interpreting situations. not an individual), the reasons given, however, varied considerably between those who had acted as interpret­ Self-evaluation about feeling or Dot feeling adequate, after ers and had felt adequate (21), those who had acted as alp is no guarantee of quality or lack of it. interpreters and had felt inadequate (5) and those in whose family interpreting had never been needed (11). As the analysis proceeded to the next 5 answers, it became 8/49 had used an interpreter within the family although, obvious, that quality of service in family interpreting is when interpreting themselves 3 had felt adequate, only generally self-assessed. Where need is concerned, it is 4 had felt inadequate and one had mixed feelings. common knowledge that the assessment by funding bodies is strictly based on demand, thus services will be created Considering the settings were overwhelmingly of a medi­ and subsequently provided, only when demand is heavy cal nature, (37/49) and some legal/police(8), we are con­ and backed up by figures. Therefore, while there is a need fronted with 45 situations of a highly delicate and for Italian interpreting but the demand is absorbed by fam-

MAY 1996 31 M igration A ction

ily members, the figures will show that there is no demand, because no interpreter could be found when irrespective of need. needed?

Question 5: Why yes or why no? • Only 9 answers were in the affirmative, 34 were negative and 2 were blank. However we do not know if • In the 8 affirmative cases, the people who had any of the 34 tried to find an interpreter and did not or resorted to interpreters each gave a different reason: if they never tried. I believe this question needs to be difficulty with an overseas letter, unable to understand refined. English fully, an interpreter was provided and no fam­ ily member was available, social services, adequate and Finally, just to be sure, I had to find out if cost was a con­ concise communication was needed, CES and Social cern. Security, a professional and trained interpreter could get messages across more accurately. Question 9: Was cost a concern in choosing a fam­ ily member instead of an interpreter? • The reasons why an interpreter was not used vary from having good bilingual skills in the family (10), to • The majority of those who had not used an inter­ no need felt (7). One daughter acted for her parents and preter (30) were not concerned with cost and did not felt inadequate. Generally though, the family (children give that as the reason for not using an interpreter or grandchildren) is expected to support the member although 2 declared cost as a concern. 7 had used the with poor bilingual skills and will consider being on services of an interpreter and were still not concerned call for interpreting an assumed part of family life. with cost, 3 answers were blank, one not applicable and one who had used an interpreter was uncertain. Question 6: Does your family feel embarrassed at the thought of involving an outsider (i.e. interpreter) So, why is it that out of 34 people needing interpreting, in a family matter? some of it of a specialised nature, most chose family mem­ ber? • Yes — 6 who had never used an interpreter per­ ceived embarrassment as an issue along with 2 who had Very few declared embarrassment or dialect to be an issue used an interpreter and cost was not a worry, (except in 2 cases), yet Italian families will continue to use their children and grandchil­ • No — 26 who had never used an interpreter and 6 dren as their preferred interpreters. who had used an interpreter and had no problem with embarrassment. One was uncertain and 3 were unan­ Other comments: only in 2 forms out of 49 some swered. comments were offered:

Question 7: Was dialect an issue in deciding • it is a valuable service for those who need it; whether or not to call for an interpreter? • coming from a family were one parent is Italian and • Unexpectedly, dialect was only an issue for the the other one Australian makes no difference as to same two respondents who, having used an interpreter whether an interpreter is required. in the family, felt it was embarrassing to involve an out­ sider in a family matter. Thus, of those who had used an In general, a heavy commitment towards the family interpreter, 6 had no problem with dialects. Of the appears to be paramount but families do grow and age, and remaining 25, 22 were unconcerned and only 3 saw their commitments multiply as they grow. dialect as an issue, 4 did not answer. We know that the Italian aged are among the most resilient To try and move out of the immediate family and into the Australian residents (Young: 1986), how do or will third extended family circle and also to monitor perceptions on generations cope with their elders? Will children and interpreter availability, I asked: grandchildren always be on hand? Should we assume that in Italian families there is no mobility? Question 8: Did anyone you know need an inter­ preter but had to make do with a family member Should children and grandchildren have to tell mum or grandma what the doctor is going to do to them? Is it not

32 MAY 1996 / igration A ction embarrassing for both parties, not to mention heart-rend­ This society could not train and finance interpreters to sat­ ing, when having to tell another member of the family that isfy all of the ethnic communities’ interpreting needs, such they are going to die? as accompanying grandma shopping or to the bank. How­ ever I believe we have a responsibility to see to it that needs It is considered culturally correct not to tell Italians that are satisfied in the medical and legal areas and that, where they are dying of cancer. Does this mean that being an Ital­ interpreters cannot be found and the expertise and skills are ian accompanied by a family interpreter you lose the right lacking, at least a bilingual translation could support fam­ to be completely informed if your family decide to with­ ily members’ mixed language skills with information and hold information? correct terminology thus eliminating some of the inherent risks of misinterpretation. Finally are we assured that the well meaning family mem­ ber understands medical/legal terminology and that they References are passing down the correct information? Bureau of Immigration and Population Research, (1994), Are we using a trial and error rule of thumb, hoping that no Community Profiles, 1991 Census, Italy born hospital will operate wrongly due to miscommunication or (Canberra) that no one will ever be sued? Burley-Lombardi, P., (1996), Community Translation, The Theory, The Practice, The Pain and the Clearly, not enough money is injected into the system to Rewards, 1996 XIV World Congress o f the Feder­ accommodate the interpreting needs of all communities ation Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT), Pro­ and it is assumed that the Italians, having been here the ceedings, Vol. 1, pp. 209-218 (Melbourne) longest, can now manage. Although this is a mere assump­ Minas, H. et ah, (1996), Mental Health Services for NESB tion not backed by evidence it is a reality Italian families Immigrants, (AGPS/BIMPR, Canberra) accept and try to cope with while the general community Young, C., (1986), Selection and Survival, Immigrant are happy to ignore it. On the other hand, there is evidence Mortality in Australia (DIEA, Canberra). that like other NESB immigrants, Italians are far more likely to suffer from mental illness than Australia born peo­ Acknowledgements: ple (Minas: 1996). This is definitely a type of situation where family members must not and are not expected to My deepest thanks to both students and lecturers at the help out. Australian Catholic Universities Flemington and at RM1T University, Coburg for their substantial assistance. Language regression in older people is an accepted fact but consideration must also be given to the passing of time Patrizia Burley-Lombardi is a lecturer in Advanced Italian where the younger generations are concerned, as their lan­ Studies at the RMIT University, Coburg Campus. guage skills become further and further removed from the family’s country of origin.

Rather than pretend that the heavily burdened 2nd and 3rd generations, who are clearly the preferred family interpret­ ers, are coping, why not devise ways of assisting them? This will by no means solve their problems, as professional interpreters should still be the preferred choice, but they could at least be given a measure of support.

One good example could be the expanded use of translated medical and or other specialised texts/pamphlets/leaflets similar to the ones currently available, but including the English original which, I believe, would greatly assist fam­ ily interpreters who may not be completely bilingual to take stock of the subject matter and of some of its linguistic and contextual difficulties.

MAY 1996 33 i i igration A ction The world of interpreting and translation conies to Australia

Sandra Hale increasing and that the ‘problem’ was not at all temporary. Horror stories about the consequences of using unqualified Interpreting and Translation (I&T) in Australia has always interpreters also helped to emphasise the need for change. been closely linked to migration. The Community Inter­ It was decided that a recognised profession needed to be preting and Translating profession of today developed out established. In direct response to such a need, the National of the need to satisfy the linguistic demands of successive Accreditation Authority of Translators and Interpreters waves of immigrants who were unfamiliar with English, (NAATI) was set up by the Department of Immigration and the.language of their host country. Australia was certainly Ethnic Affairs in 1977. The main aim of such an entity was not linguistically prepared for its non English speaking to try and put some order to the ad hoc profession, by intakes; because the premise was that all migrants would establishing levels of accreditation, setting accreditation learn English in the short term and be assimilated fully into examinations, setting standards and accrediting courses in the Australian culture. With this attitude, whatever meas­ I&T. However, NAATI's existence was meant to be short. ures were initially taken to provide language assistance, Among their original objectives was the expectation that were considered as only temporary. So-called ‘interpreters within five years a professional body would assume the and translators’ were unfortunately those migrants with a responsibility of regulating the profession and that accred­ grasp of English marginally better than that of the people itation and training would become the responsibility of they were supposedly assisting. As the migrant children universities.1 began attending school and learning the language, they were also considered adequate for interpreting and trans­ Today, almost twenty years later, those initial goals remain lating. unfulfilled. NAATI not only continues to exist but has

As the levels of migration increased and time passed, it 1. NAATI (National Accreditation Association of Translators and Inter- became ever more apparent both that the need for I&T was prefers) 1978.

34 MAY 1996 assumed the major role for accreditation of I&Ts and in the The first international conference on Community Inter­ profession in general. Our only national professional body, preting took place in Ontario, Canada, from 1-4 June the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators 1995. It was called “The Critical Link: Interpreters in the (AUSIT), is struggling to survive with a handful of finan­ Community”. A number of practitioners and academics in cial members. Only two universities, namely the Univer­ the I&T field from Australia attended the conference and sity of Western Sydney-Macarthur in NSW, and Deakin presented papers. Very quickly it became apparent that in University in Victoria, run NAATI accredited courses at the field of Community Interpreting and Translation Aus­ undergraduate and post graduate levels in a limited number tralia led the world. We were the only country to have a of languages. The University of Queensland offers one national accreditation authority, university degrees in the NAATI accredited post graduate course in Interpreting in field, albeit very few, and national and state interpreting one language only. This creates an immense disparity and translation services. Countries like the United States, between trained, professional I&Ts and untrained practi­ Canada and the United Kingdom, major countries repre­ tioners. sented at the conference, all seemed to be at the stage we were at twenty years ago, where the majority of I&T is The status of the profession remains low. Its humble begin­ done by untrained volunteers. nings continue to haunt it even today. I&T is not widely recognised as an industry that requires highly specialised More recently, from 12-16 of February 1996, AUSIT professionals. University courses in the field have received hosted the XIVth FIT (International Federation of Transla­ very little support from all areas, including I&T employers tors) Congress in Melbourne. The FIT congress is a pres­ and NAATI itself, which continues to examine people in tigious international event that takes place every three the languages for which courses are available. Working years and this was the first time it has been held outside of conditions are generally appalling, pay is inadequate and Europe. More than 400 I&T professionals from 46 coun­ positions are limited. I&T attracts little academic research, tries attended the congress. hence the paucity of theoretical literature available, partic­ ularly in Interpreting. Such a situation denies the industry The congress consisted of 30 sessions which were divided credibility and discourages graduates of I&T from pursu­ into six streams: Literary Translation, Scientific and Tech­ ing careers in the filed, thus defeating the purpose of train­ nical Translation, Status, Translation Studies, Interpreta­ ing courses. The cultural cringe also applies to the tion, and Languages of Limited Diffusion. Australia was Australian I&T industry, with the general feeling that the represented in all six streams, with a total of 28 papers pre­ profession is better regarded, paid, equipped, trained and sented by local delegates throughout the congress. All six regulated overseas. streams dealt with a wide variety of topics. Under Literary Translation there were papers on how to deal with stylistic So, have we made any progress at all in the last twenty devices, the influences of place and climate on the transla­ years? We have, although at an extremely slow rate. During tor, how to translate authors' errors, how to substitute col­ the late seventies and early eighties, the profession seemed loquialisms for regional dialect, working with the author, to thrive with new developments and enthusiasm from all and dealing with cultural hibridity. The Sci-Tech Transla­ sides. Such excitement dwindled and virtually died during tion stream suggested innovative ways of using technical the late eighties and early nineties. Fortunately, it seems tools to aid the translators. The papers included topics such that the I&T profession in Australia has begun to awaken as speech recognition technology in translation, using the again in the past few years and has regained some self CD ROM as an important resource, textual data bases and esteem. With the introduction of I&T courses at Masters their use in translation, term banks in Canada, and the level at a number of universities, the profession is begin­ teaching of technical and scientific translation in Argen­ ning to mature academically in that much needed empirical tina. The stream on Status included papers on Australia's linguistic and social research is beginning to be conducted. NAATI, quality considerations, language policy, survival A number of important publications dealing with issues of strategies for the freelance interpreter, the development of I&T have emerged. Other professionals, especially in the the profession in various countries, and some anecdotal legal field, are beginning to take an interest in the area. papers. The Translation Studies stream provided more Deakin University, NAATI and UWS Macarthur, have diversity in topics. It presented the different research being hosted a number of successful conferences in the last three carried out in the field of translation globally. There were years. However, the two events that seem to have made a papers on the role of cognition in translation, new methods difference to the way Australian interpreters and translator in translation research, historical translation research, perceive themselves, are the two international conferences translation and lexical field, self editing strategies in stu­ that took place in 1995 and 1996. dent translators, and quality assessment. The Interpretation

MAY 1996 35 M igration A ction

stream included papers on legal interpreting, medical inter­ tacts with overseas professionals gave us a sense of legiti­ preting, conference interpreting and subtitling. Australian macy and credibility previously in short supply. By presenters dominated this stream, once again demonstrat­ assessing the local profession against that of other nations, ing a lead in the area of Community Interpreting. The the Australian I&T industry could feel justifiably assured issues raised in the sixth stream, Languages of Limited of its international status. It has also provided us with the Diffusion, were relatively new for Europeans, who have opportunity to identify areas of weakness and strength. In been accustomed to dealing with major languages, the context of host nation for the 2000 Olympics, Australia whereas in Australia all languages other than English are can begin by addressing the unresolved issues in I&T, classified as Minority Languages. This stream included whether the mundane sphere of industrial rights, working papers on I&T in the Northern Territory, training for lan­ conditions, regulation, or in the academic spheres of train­ guages of limited diffusion, Pacific Island Translation in ing, accreditation, professionalism, and research. The next New Zealand, and minority cultures in the United States. four years provide the framework for real transformation and advancement. Let us hope they are not wasted. The congress provided Australian practitioners and aca­ demics with the unique opportunity to more intimately Sandra Hale is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the acquaint themselves with I&T developments overseas, to University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. meet and exchange ideas and concerns with international I&T professionals, and most importantly, to realise that Australia has many valid contributions to offer the world in the field of I&T.

It was unfortunate that proportionately, few Australian practitioners attended the congress. Although 220 Austral­ ian delegates were registered, the great majority were full time employees of either government departments or uni­ versities. The bulk of the I&T workforce, who work on a freelance basis, simply could not afford to spend over 1,000 dollars to attend the congress. With little work, poor pay and little incentive, forfeiting a week's pay to attend the international congress, was not a priority for the majority of practitioners.

The feedback was generally good. Most delegates appreci­ ated the opportunity to meet colleagues from overseas and exchange experiences. The quality of the papers ranged from excellent to very poor, something which was disap­ pointing to many delegates. It also became evident that the presumed European superiority in I&T is no more than a myth.

Contributions by Australian speakers, for example, papers on the language of the court, on interpreting Aboriginal languages in court, and on subtitling, were particularly appreciated, and it was noted that while the realities differ, Europe has much to learn from Australia in the area of multiculturalism and sensitising clients to possible obstacles to inter cul- tural communication.9

The FIT congress has provided some major insights for the Australian I&T industry. The exchange of ideas and con­

2. McGilvray, Barbara. AUSIT secretary and member of the FIT organis­ ing committee.

36 MAY 1996 f igration A ction Translation — the 21st century horizon

Geoffrey Kingscott on the scene. What an age ago that seems; it was in fact 15 years ago. Change is coming and one day the traditional world of translation as we know it will be gone for ever. In 19831 started my present company, and decided to make it a thoroughly modern company, producing, a somewhat Speculate, of course, is all I can do. ‘The future is not ours revolutionary idea, all our translations on word processors to see’ as Doris Day used to sing. There could well be eco­ we bought three IBM Displaywriters, at £3,000 each. Each nomic or social upheavals to come which alter the whole Display writer, and they were really bulky machines, had world pattern. By the middle of the 21st century Simplified 256 kb of memory. Today we buy 525 Mb machines for Chinese might have been imposed by the new superpower £1,400 each, so for less than a quarter of the price we now as a universal lingua franca, or our wrist watch might be have 200 times as much memory. capable of translating our speech into any language in the world, including ancient Sanskrit or any of the 50 aborigi­ It is this sheer computing power which is now going to rev­ nal tongues of Australia. olutionise translation practice.

Anything is possible, and science fiction has a tendency of If you think about it, the personal computer has not coming true. But I intend to avoid science fiction, and sim­ changed translation practice all that much. What the per­ ply look at the evidence of existing trends, to see if I can sonal computer has offered has been versatility. Revision is identify what might happen to translation over the next 20, easier, terminology consultation can be done on line, work 30 or 40 years. can be formatted or transmitted in a wide variety of ways. But these changes have not radically altered the way trans­ Forty years is as far ahead as one can speculate, and it is as lation is carried out. In fact most translators who use per­ far ahead as any translation student of today is likely to be sonal computers only use them as superior editing practising. machines, without making use of the all the facilities which they offer. We tend to concentrate on the translation We think our translation world has changed, but in fact the task, only paddling in the shallows of the large sea of com­ changes have been marginal. When I first got into transla­ puter potential. tion some 30 years ago, there were still some well-known freelance translators who submitted their work in hand­ In the next ten or 20 years the sheer power of these small written form. Of course those of us who were modernists, machines will be harnessed in order to effect more radical with our Adler or Olivetti portable typewriters, scoffed at changes. such old-fashioned practices. Then came dictating machines, and then, a new breakthrough, the golf-ball There have also been changes in the communication of typewriter. Golf-ball typewriters were such a novelty then translations. When I first came into the business, practi­ that my company actually boasted about having them in its cally all communication of translations was done by post. advertising literature. Then came the telex, and some translation firms in the 1970s grew to be the largest in their own countries — I can Then came word-processing. I was one of the first transla­ give the examples of Interlingua in the United Kingdom tors in the United Kingdom to enter this exotic new field. and Logos in Italy — simply because they offered a fast So new was it that it required a four-day course at a special response service by telex. I have not seen a telex machine training centre in London. The word processor did only in years, because of course telex has been completely word processing. The first ones I used were produced by a superseded by facsimile. And modem communication is company called COT, long-since disappeared from the just starting to have an impact. scene. The all-purpose personal computer, on which you can run a wide variety of programmes, and play computer The start of the revolution in information and communica­ games when the boss is not watching, had not then arrived tion, with telex and then facsimile, did in fact start the

MAY 1996 37 M igration A ction

translation business on the way from a genteel profession We must find ways of doing translation more quickly, more practised by dilettantes into what it is now becoming, a cheaply, and more efficiently. More efficiently means translation industry. using computer aids to the maximum, and extensive re-use of existing translation. I venture to suggest that a combination of two technical factors, vastly increased computer power, and develop­ One major result of the industrialisation of the translation ments in telecommunications, are going to change radi­ process is already happening, but we have not yet woken cally the way translation is carried out in the next 20 years. up to its consequence. This is, the integration of translation into a wider range of activities. What you might term the industrialisation of the transla­ tion process is going to speed up. Computing power and We have become accustomed to having our little transla­ telecommunications are in place to allow this to happen, tion garden all to ourselves. In the future all sorts of outsid­ and market forces will drive the revolution forward. ers will be trampling over our flower beds and wanting to re-arrange our vegetable patch. because market forces are also becoming stronger. In case you had not noticed, from Dublin across to Moscow, from The driving force here again is the market, and what many New York to Beijing, we are today living in a market-ori­ people are calling globalisation. Multinational companies ented world. If the translation profession, and the transla­ are, one after the other, adopting a globalisation policy. tion training institutes, do not give the customers what they One of the effects of this is the realisation that the organi­ want, the customers will go elsewhere. sation of documentation workflow has a huge impact not only on costs but also on time-to-market and the capability If we stand rock-like by our present practices, on the for global market penetration. The lesson they are learning grounds of principle, or tradition, the world may think it is that documentation workflow must be organised on an admirable, or the world may think it foolish, but the end industrial basis. result will be the same; the sea will wash over, and move on to new shores. If we do not want to be submerged, and Multinationals are now paying close attention to what used we do not want to be washed helplessly along, we must to be shrugged off as an unavoidable necessity. Suddenly find ways of riding the waves. translation is, they feel, becoming too important to leave to the translators. Or this is what they will feel unless transla­ tors take charge of their own destiny. Translators have

38 MAY 1996 / M igration A ction

always been reactive rather than proactive, and this has got write clearly in their own mother tongue. However, even to change. This means a change in psychological attitude, today the greatest complaint from employers of translators, and so may be the most difficult change of all. particularly of those coming out of university translation courses is not, as one might expect, the lack of domain-spe­ The organisation of documentation workflow will have an cific technical knowledge, but the inability of the students increasing impact on translation practice. All the modern to write their own language well. management techniques of streamlining, re-use of data, and critical path management will be applied to documen­ In technical communication it is simply not good enough tation. Translation will become increasingly integrated to put words on a page. What counts is whether the mes­ into documentation generally, instead of being a discrete sage gets across. This requires not only the ability to write activity. clearly, but also an understanding of how people react to written information. There has been quite a lot of work on Translators will have to integrate more and more into this subject, particularly in the United States, by writers streamlined procedures. The software they work with, the such as Flesch and Gunning, and more recently by people formats, the terminology, will all be prescribed. Transla­ like William Horton (in the USA) or John Kirkman (in the tion memory systems will guide translators to a common US), or Louis Timbal in France. style. Translators may have to work to controlled language procedures. Translators, those supreme individualists, will Actually there is a general trend in what might be termed have to learn to work as part of a team. the applied language professions — translation and inter­ preting — towards a more multi-dimensional approach There will be a tendency for the profession of translator to anyway. In the comparatively new discipline of public converge with that of technical writer. This will be partic­ service interpreting (sometimes called community inter­ ularly true for translation out of English. As more and more preting), which is essentially interpreting for members of people acquire a good passive knowledge of English par­ ethnic minority communities, there are two predominating ticularly in their technical specialisation, more and more of areas of activity. One is medical interpreting, which is usu­ them will become involved in translation. ally carried out in hospitals. The other is in the courts and associated areas. In traditional translation teaching there tends to be great stress on the correct rendering of the source message. In In medical interpreting it is necessary to provide training technical communication there is much more emphasis on and testing, not just in language competence, but also in the target message, and the source message must, if neces­ medical ethics, techniques of diagnosis, and, above all, in sary, be reworked to suit the particular application. how to handle differences in medico-cultural concepts. “Reader-oriented writings they call it in technical commu­ There is an astonishing amount of difference in concepts of nication. Not all source-language technical texts are pro­ illness and treatment between Britain and France, as any­ duced by professional technical writers, and some fail to be one who has ever been treated in both countries will tell as reader-oriented as they should be. However, it is the you, and this difference is exacerbated when European and responsibility of the technical translator, who is a profes­ Asian medical cultures come into contact. sional, to write as a target-language technical writer would, taking into consideration the likely reading ability of the In legal interpreting it is important to provide training in user of the manual, the technical writing culture of the tar­ legal rights in police interrogation, in court procedures and get-language country, the emphasis to be given to different rules of evidence, and in techniques of cross-examination. aspects (warning notices, task sequences, etc.) and so. In the same way translation in the future must be multi­ If tackled properly, as early as the university training of dimensional, not purely linguistic. Translators must learn translators, this can become quite exciting. This is one of to marry the traditional cross-language skills (comprehen­ those areas where the translator becomes proactive rather sion of the source language and ability to render its mes­ than reactive, with greater freedom to shape and create text sage into the target language) with communication skills so as to get the intended message over in the clearest way (ability to produce a text appropriate to the application), possible. and then add domain-specific linguistic knowledge, and the ability to operate within the non-linguistic constraints The watchwords in technical writing are clarity and reada­ of the domain. It’s not translation any more, it’s multilin­ bility, and these priorities must be carried over into techni­ gual technical communication. cal translation. It is essential that students be taught how to

MAY 1996 39 m igration A ction Perhaps the term ‘translation’ will die out. During the last cal and semantic programming, such as SYSTRAN, ten years information technology industry has produced METAL and LOGOS, to ‘low-end’ systems for use by the term ‘localisation’ to make it clear they are not just individuals on personal computers, such as PC-Translator ‘translating’ the documents and screen messages, and we and Globalink. can expect this hybrid approach to spread. In media trans­ lation we are starting to hear the term ‘versioning’. The The history of machine translation is well documented, and German term Sprachvermi ttlung, usually translated as it is not the purpose of this paper to go over that ground, ‘language mediation’ is also gaining ground. In technical What one can say is that machine translation has never documentation we are starting to hear about ‘multilingual made the wide-ranging and dramatic impact which some authoring’. A paper submitted to this conference by the of its proponents have long been forecasting. Information Technology Research Institute in Brighton, UK has found that technical instruction manuals, when But machine translation has not gone away, nor has it written ab origine’ in French or German, are arranged dif­ ‘failed’, as some translators have been heard to maintain. It ferently from an English text. The idea is gaining ground is advancing. There are pockets of successful use of that we should get away from translation, and think more machine translation, and as time goes back there will be of re-writing a document for the target audience. more of these pockets, which will eventually join up.

Of course, it can be argued, that is what a good translator The problem is that machine translation is not for the igno­ has always done, but in all honesty I do not think many rant, and it is not for the impatient. But it is often the igno­ existing translators have the courage to reprocess the rant and the impatient who have bought machine source text entirely. We need a new breed of translator, the translation packages, and then found them useless for their proactive translator, who has the experience and training of purposes. These bad experiences must not be allowed to a technical writer. invalidate the real progress that is being made.

One result of the integration of translation into the general The systems have to be carefully nursed if they are to pro­ documentation workflow, and the much more fuzzy defini­ duce useable material. Pre-edit and/or post-edit interven­ tion of the profession which will result, is that we can for­ tions are generally necessary, as is a rather long learning get the old idea of making translation a closed profession. curve, during the first stages of which doing it by the For decades now translators have had this dream, of mak­ machine will take longer, be more costly, and produce a ing translation a closed and controlled profession, with less satisfactory result than doing it by human means. But, ‘licences to practise’ issued only to certified practitioners, with patience, the curve will eventually rise above that as is the case with architecture, medicine or the law. plotted for human output.

This is an idle dream, a vain hope. Here again the problem However, even the somewhat crude translations produced is that of the fluidity of translation activity. In this world of by the low-end systems can be and are used by translators instant global communication, there are thousands of indi­ in different ways, as a crib, as a revisable draft, as a mem­ viduals, even in a country like Britain, who operate in more ory-jogger, as a check. than one language, and who might do something akin to translation in the course of their daily duties. And this will After 50 years of research into machine translation we may become more the case with the integration of documenta­ seem to be as far away as ever from the fully-automatic tion workflow. translation machine that can take practically any text and produce a human-quality translation. But machine transla­ As yet I have not spoken much about the impact of transla­ tion is already proving its worth in niche situations, or tion technology, particularly machine translation. This is when used in conjunction with controlled language, or because I did not want to over-emphasise this in compari­ when used in combination with other translation tools, son to other factors, but of course it cannot be ignored. It is such as termbanks, memory systems, or speech recogni­ bound to contribute to the industrialisation of the transla­ tion. tion process. The typical translator of the future will be a synthesiser, Work has been proceeding for nearly 50 years on trying to manipulating various tools, including machine translation, automate the process of translation. Commercial systems as appropriate to the job in hand. Even literary translators have been on the market for at least 25 years. These range will find it beneficial to use thesaurus or concordance sys­ from ‘high-end’ systems, incorporating complex syntacti­ tems to help them in their work.

40 MAY 1996 / M igration A ction

We have not yet felt the full impact of Globalisation, and sound and even moving image (the sociologists refer to it the way companies are adapting to this. Ordinary people as a shift in the icon/alphabet ratio). A different ‘mix’ may are still going about their business as if we were still living be appropriate in some cultures. The translator of the in a 19th century world of leisured communication and peo­ future will need to be acquainted with the techniques of ple and economies divided up into nation states. Commu­ communication — comprehensibility ratings, the language nication today is instant, and multinational companies are of pictograms, etc. — if he is to help to make the text work becoming more important than nation states. The people in the target culture. Technical writers in the UK call them­ who matter in the world today are the global entrepreneurs, selves ‘communicators’ and their professional association such as Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch, not Chancellor Kohl is the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators. or John Major. Translators are also communicators, but communicators with a difference, because they are able to work between Now my surmise is that machine translation has not pro­ languages. In the last resort communication is what it is all gressed very far to date because there was no pressing need about. for immediate multilingual communication. Globalisation is going to change all that. The pace in the future will not 20 years ago translation support facilities meant dictionar­ be research-driven or developer-driven, it will be needs- ies and other reference books. Dictionaries, that old stand­ driven, and that is going to make an enormous difference. by of the translator, were always three to five years out of date by the time they were published. More and more dic­ If a company wants 10,000 pages translated every week, tionaries are now available in electronic form, however and the human resources cannot cope, it will find other most of those which have so far appeared are merely elec­ ways of doing it. tronic versions of books. We are now starting to get cor- pora-based systems, which enable you to see terms in What most translation courses are turning out these days context. And at last we are beginning to get terminology are hand-craftsmen, trained to produce translations sen­ available on-line. The distinction between dictionaries and tence by sentence. Whereas what the world needs are lan­ corpora will eventually disappear, so that you will be able guage engineers capable of organising high volume to find terms through examples of their use, in German production of translation. Industrial Standards (DINs), EC directives and the like.

Translation will become a many-sided, multi-disciplinary Translation memory systems (IBM Translation Manager, and even multi-media form of activity. Teaching the theory Trados, Star Transit and Eurolang are the ones currently on of equivalences or collocative meanings is all very well, the market) will become commonplace. Freelance transla­ and we must retain this sense of the inner core of cognitive tors will have to have them because their customers, activity involved in the translation activity; but translators whether direct clients or translation companies, will be of the future must also know about the principles of tech­ insisting on them. nical terminology, terminology interchange formats, the history of machine translation, the principles of controlled Finally, the information superhighway. Much is talked of language, the techniques of technical writing, reader com­ this, but in fact we are only at the beginning of the revolu­ prehension values, the ‘language’ of graphics and picto- tion. Soon every educated citizen in every developed coun­ grams, the icon/alphabet ratio, and the basics of speech try will have access to a mass of multimedia information processing. (text, speech and graphics) greater by thousands of times than any encyclopaedia yet produced, as well as access Translators of the future will be processors of text and electronically (including graphic communication) to every image. They will not be expected to translate again any­ other educated citizen in the world. thing they have translated before whether it be term, sen­ tence, paragraph or page; the machine will do that for These developments will become increasingly interactive. them. The machine will do any necessary ‘new-term’ dic­ tionary search, and will do it on-line, checking against text There will be two important effects on the practice of trans­ corpora where necessary. lation. The first is the vast amount of reference material, including glossaries and corpora, that will now become Traditionally translators come from a text-bound culture, available. and this is certainly true of those teaching translation, because of the generation factor. In future more and more But the other effect will be on customer expectations. If texts will be ‘multi-media’, using illustrations, pictures, you think present translation deadlines are unreasonable,

MAY 1996 41 M igration A ction

just wait until customers become accustomed to having If we fail to meet the challenges of the information revolu­ what they want, from online shopping to pictures of tion, then we cannot expect the world to simply stand still. antique combine harvesters, at the touch of a button. They Other solutions will be found. A debased form of the Eng­ will expect translation at the click of a mouse. Translation lish language, a sort of international creole, could become companies which are linked to customers by modem are the universal language. This will impoverish communica­ already experiencing this attitude. tion, and have an invasive effect on all other languages, what linguists have started to call ‘hybridisation’, or low- As I have mentioned, there are a number of large transla­ quality machine translation could be used more and more tion companies today which became large because 30 or 40 widely, with once again all the debasement of language years ago they offered a rapid response service on the then that that implies. new medium of telex. Make no mistake, rapid response is what customers want, and the information highway is If we can on the one hand preserve something of the move­ going to intensify this expectation. Translation is going to ment towards higher quality in translation that has taken become an online service. place during the last 20 years — because when I came into translation standards generally were much lower than they Probably the most important long-term effect of the infor­ are today — and yet embrace all the challenges which a mation revolution will be changes in what specialist writ­ rapidly moving information revolution is throwing our way ers call the icon/alphabet ratio. This is difficult to explain, — then we can ride the waves. Information workers are the particularly to an audience of people who, like me, are, by key people in the new age, and those of us who can operate upbringing and instinct, part of a text-bound culture. multilingually can have a vital role to play. Future generations will see this as ridiculously limiting. You just have to compare a video product, as I have, pro­ This paper was presented by Geoffrey Kingscott, General duced by people of my generation, which moves from text Editor “Language International: a magazine for the lan­ sequence to next logical text sequence, to one produced by guage professions”, at the XIV International Conference the new generation, where graphics explode all over the on Interpreting and Translating in Melbourne, February screen, and the message is punched home pictorially. Oper­ 1996. ating manuals, hitherto the great standby of the technical translator, will move to video or CD-Rom, and will get the message over in a multi-media way. Multi-media, my friends, is the future, and translation will never be the same again.

The translator of the future, and the fairly near future at that, will sit at a work station which will be rather like one of those synthesisers which enable one musician to play all the instruments of the orchestra from one keyboard. When appropriate he will bring in fully automatic machine trans­ lation, and at other times a translation memory facility. He or she will always use terminology management systems, and the unlimited reference information available on the information superhighway. The translator will have global communication with customers and colleagues throughout the world, and because customers will have access through tele-translation networks to translation resources on a glo­ bal scale, specialisation will more and more determine which translators get the jobs. Indeed, the customer will not be looking any more at a simple translation; they want someone with who will produce a document in the target language which is a localised equivalent of the source lan­ guage document. Traditionally, as I keep saying, transla­ tion has been a reactive activity; in future it has got to become more and more proactive. That will require a dif­ ferent breed of translator, and a different type of training.

42 MAY 1996 / M igration A ction Book Review

Lauren Williams than any other writing I’ve seen, poetry or prose. By tran­ scribing direct speech phonetically, n.O. virtually forces 24 Hours by HO., Melbourne, Collective Effort Press, the reader to pronounce some words aloud in order to make 1995, $45.00, pb. sense of them. The reader literally hears the accents of the speakers, and occasionally even ‘speaks’ Greek! On a pro­ THIS IS NOT ANOTHER ‘slim volume’ of poetry. Ten found level, H O. has made Melbourne’s migrant voices years in the writing, weighing in at 740 pages, it is a brick real for non-migrant readers, and given those voices a per­ of a book — well-bound paperback, heavy covers, manent place in literature and history. Those of us lucky designed to last. The poet had full say over not only the enough to have heard II.O. read his work have a memory content, but the design, typesetting and production, result­ of his delivery. This helps us reconstruct the voices, but is ing in a book unlike any produced under the nervous eco­ not a precondition for enjoyment of the book. II.O. phonet­ nomic dictates of mainstream publishers. Six turned this ics are startlingly accurate. I read a selection of the Greek manuscript down. Unsurprised, II.O. published it himself. language passages from 24 Hours to Greek-speaking friends, and they were quickly able to understand what I 24 Hours opens on a bridge in an anonymous city. Very was saying, even though I had no idea! A specific group of soon we know we’re in Melbourne, and by the third page readers who will get a kick out of this book are the (adult) we’re definitely in Fitzroy. Thus begins a journey through children of Greek migrants. Although fluent in their par­ a long moment of the city’s history, a detailed social and ents’ language, many can’t ‘read’ Greek. Until this book. linguistic timecapsule situated in the 1980s, in the Greek cafes of a vanishing Fitzroy. Customers play cards and I say ‘adult’ most advisedly here, as the poet doesn’t flinch drink coffee, around the clock, betting, winning, losing. from depicting the sordid. The world of 24 Hours is a Against a background racket of pinball machines and juke male world. Violence, drugs and pom appear in the book box we hear the voices of Balcha, Charmaine, Darko, 10% as they are in life— common, real, not very pretty. The few and a parade of mainly migrant characters—gamblers, women who appear are never free of their sex-object status. family men, strippers, drug addicts, crazies, kids from the An important dimension of the text is Il.O.’s use of con­ housing commission flats. We hear the voices: crete poetry throughout — visual effect created by type­ script, word placement and illustration, used to underscore Balcha (shuffling a deck meaning or add levels of interpretation, or to stand as a of cards around) launches into a story, poem on its own II.O. handling of the genre is playful, Eye woz Sai’ Vinsens, witty and effective. for this...... hee-a (sum- thing) neva mayn, en ‘Come on, Darling’, she sez tha Ketholik-Pris hee pus evri-dai. and he unzips his fly ++++++! But hee n-o STOP (bikoz ey’m n-o Ke‘tholik). 24 Hours claims a place on the Australian ‘poetry novel’ Wun dai eye get wum ‘Bombon’y shelf alongside Dorothy Porter’ s work and Alan Wearne’ erri’, but... s, but might sit more comfortably next to Joyce’s Ulysses, eye kun ‘it’ (bikoz sharing with Ulysses a linguistic experimentalism. How­ iz awl ‘drips’, en....thingz). ever, II.O.’s well-established reputation as a poet continues Eye kol him: ‘Faatha!’ ‘Faatha!’ to grow, and the book is already a collectors’ item. It is cer­ Eye get wun ‘Bomb-on-y-erri’, but tainly a milestone in Australian and international literature kun ‘it’, and deserves to be recognised as such, if not instantly, then en...hee ‘Bless’ mi! soon. Enffrom DET taym.. .eye NEVA bek a Winna!, he sez. Lauren Williams is a poet, and student of language at La Hee ‘KHURS’ mi! Trobe University

This book is a tour de force of aural writing, bridging the Available from The CHOMI Bookshop. See order form. gap between the written and spoken word more effectively

MAY 1996 43 IV1 igration A ction We are Going Oodgeroo of the tribe Noouccal Custodian of the land Minjerribah (formerly Kath Walker)

For Grannie Coolwell

They came in to the little town A semi-naked band subdued and silent, All that remained of their tribe. They came here to the place of their old bora ground Where now the many white men hurry about like ants. Notice of estate agent reads: ‘Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’. Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring. They sit and are confused, they cannot say their thoughts: ‘We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers. We belong here, we are of the old ways. We are the corroboree and the bora ground, We are the old sacred ceremonies, the laws of the elders. We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told. We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires. We are the lightning-bolt over Gapherbah Hill Quick and terrible, And the Thunder after him, that loud fellow. We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon. We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low. We are nature and the past, all the old ways Gone now and scattered. The scrubs are gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place. The bora ring is gone. The corroboree is gone. And we are going.’

Reprinted with permission, Jacaranda Wiley.

44 MAY 1996 Order form

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