Interview and translation strategies: coping with multilingual settings and data

Abstract

Abstract. Central Eastern Europe, the research area this paper is concerned with, is a region characterized by a high diversity of languages and cultures. It is, at the same time, an area where political, cultural and social conflicts have emerged over time, nowadays especially in border zones, where people of different ethnic, cultural or linguistic background live. In this context, it is important for us researchers to get balanced interview data, and consequently we very often have to conduct interviews in several different languages and within changing cultural contexts. In order to avoid "communication problems" or even conflictual (interview) situations, which might damage the outcome of the research, we are thus challenged to find appropriate communication strategies for any of these situations. This is especially difficult when we are confronted with language or culturespecific terminology or taboo expressions that carry political meaning(s).Once the interview data is collected and it comes to translating and analysing it, we face further challenges and new questions arise. First of all, we have to decide what a good translation strategy would be. Many words and phrases that exist in one language do not have an exact equivalent in another. Therefore we have to find a solution for translating these expressions and concepts in a way that their meanings do not get "lost by translation".In this paper I discuss and provide insights to these challenges by presenting and discussing numerous examples from the region in question. Specifically, I focus on the deconstruction of the meaning of geographical names and politically loaded expressions in order to show the sensitivities of language, the difficulties of research in multilingual settings and with multilingual data as well as the strategies or "ways out" of certain dilemmas.

A qualitative exploration of women’s experiences of antenatal and intrapartum care: The need for a woman-centred approach in the Peruvian Amazon

“…The interpreter was studying English at University and had little experience of translation, particularly in a research setting. This may have resulted in the misinterpretation of some concepts [32]. However, the interpreter remained consistent throughout all interviews and was trained by the researcher to interpret the interviews.…”

“…Neither the interviewer, nor interpreter, were involved in the care of the participants. The interpreter signed a statement of confidentiality and was trained to interpret the content of the participant’s words as precisely as possible, ensuring accuracy [32]. All interviews were audio-recorded.…”

“…The interpreter transcribed the two richest interviews in Spanish and translated these into English, to assess accuracy of translation during interviews [32]. Given that few inaccuracies were identified, only the English was transcribed for the remaining 18 audio-recordings.…”

Men’s perception of barriers to women’s use and access of skilled pregnancy care in rural Nigeria: a qualitative study

“…Translated quotations are noted in square braces. Literal translation (word-by-word) was used to preserve participants’ responses and provide readers with an understanding of the mentality of the participants [51]. To improve trustworthiness of the data, the data was transcribed by co-authors who are proficient in both Pidgin English and English language.…”

Exploration of Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceived Barriers towards Medication Error Reporting in a Tertiary Health Care Facility: A Qualitative Approach

“…We tried to overcome this issue, and in fact, the chosen translator was one who comprehended the culture and field of interviewees well. In this way we attempted to minimize the risk of misinterpretation or inaccurate translation, as the translator was familiar with the terms and ways of expression used by the interviewees [42].…”