A Report On Liaison Escort Interpreting Of Cultural Experience Activities For International Students

On June 1,2022,international students of Xichang University were invited to attend cultural experience activities held by the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange.The aim of cultural experience activities is to strengthen cultural exchanges and mutual understanding of Chinese and foreign cultures among Chinese and foreign students under the background of the Belt and Road initiative.This practice report is based on the author’s escort interpreting service at the Liangshan Yizu Slave Society Museum and the Torch Square for three international students from Yemen,Gabon,and Rwanda who have difficulties in communicating in Mandarin and understanding Yi culture.The interpreter aims to transfer basic information and cultural connotations of the exhibitions accurately and objectively and help the clients to understand Yi people’s social development and customs so as to promote the understanding of Chinese ethnic culture.Guided by the Interpretive Theory,the author analyzed problems encountered during the process of comprehension,deverbalization,and reformulation,and then proposed proper interpreting methods.In the stage of comprehension,the author adopted cognitive supplement strategy to solve the problem of ambiguity in source language.In deverbalization stage,the author chose to keep the original pronunciation of words with Yi characteristics and used transliteration plus explanation.In the stage of reformulation,the author adopted supplementation for culture-loaded words to convey the cultural and historic connotation in the source language.The author hopes this practice report can provide references and guidance for future liaison escort interpreting practice.Among which,museum interpreting is characterized by its wide range of information and huge cultural connotation and usually involves many technical terms and supplement towards historical background and humanistic connotation.Therefore,the author adopted many interpreting methods such as free translation,transliteration,explanation,and restructuring in the museum interpreting,aiming is to convey the source language more accurately and completely,so as to improve the understanding of Chinese culture and enhance exchanges among cultures.