No abstract

The embodied, emotional experiences of the participant-researcher during fieldwork can yield useful information on the social setting influencing interpreting practices when analyzed as part of ethnographic research designs. This paper presents examples of methods for collecting and analyzing somatic and affective field experiences, occurring during the simultaneous interpreting of church services, as well as the insights gained from the analysis of such experiences. The discussion is based on my autoethnographic PhD research on simultaneous interpreting in church.

Tarkastelemme artikkelissamme asioimistulkkien työoloja ja analysoimme, kuinka eri etnis-kielellistä taustaa edustavat tulkit kokevat ammattinsa hyvät ja huonot puolet. Vertailemme äidinkieleltään suomen- tai ruotsinkielisiä ja muunkielisiä tulkkeja. Aineistona ovat 125 tulkin kyselyvastaukset, ja metodina olemme käyttäneet ristiintaulukointia. Vaikka tulkit yleisesti ottaen ilmoittavat olevansa tyytyväisiä työoloihinsa, he kertovat kuitenkin kokeneensa kielteistä suhtautumista ja syrjintää. Lisäksi tulkit kertovat joistakin tulkkaukseen liittyvistä erityisistä ongelmista. Kaiken kaikkiaan tulkkien ammatillinen asema on alhainen, ja suurin osa tulkeista työskentelee osa-aikaisesti. Tulkkien asema riippuu osittain heidän kielellisestä taustastaan. Asioimistulkit työskentelevät etnisten vähemmistöjen kanssa, ja moni tulkki edustaa itse jotakin etnis-kielellistä vähemmistöä. Ammatin etnospesifi luonne vaikuttaa heikentävästi tulkkien työoloihin, aiheuttaa ammattitaitoisten tulkkien siirtymistä muihin töihin ja vaikeuttaa maahanmuuttajien tasa-arvoista kohtelua.

Affect, understood here as embodied meaning-making, offers one useful point of departure in studying translation as an activity that involves both cognitive and social processes, because it functions as a hinge between subjective understandings and social environments. We approach affects related to translating with the theoretical framework of the translator's experiencing self, defined here as the perception that translators have of themselves, based on lived and embodied experience. In other words, we suggest that the study of affect in relation to translating should pay attention to translators' own processes of meaningmaking. Since the processes of human meaning-making, including self-construction, have been argued to rest upon narrative practice, we furthermore argue for a narrative approach to studying affects. We illustrate the methodological opportunities provided by a narrative approach to affect with three cases deriving from three different research projects.

This paper proposes an affective approach to examining the interpreter’s role. More specifically, it suggests that, by considering the interpreters’ subjective feelings of involvement and detachment related to an interpreted event, we can examine the ways in which their role is constructed, within and through a combination of personal, social, and material factors related to the setting and the interpreter’s working conditions. As an example, I take the case of simultaneous interpreting in two religious settings, which I have studied with autoethnography. Thus, I analyze my experiences of interpreting in two religious settings and contrast these experiences to an “ideal” model of the interpreter’s role in such settings: that of the fully involved participant. The analysis indicates that, while an internalized ideal model of role may provide a point of reference for reflection, the actual experience of role emerges in a complicated interaction between personal, social, and material aspects.