A Practice Report On Roles Of Liaison Interpreters In Cultural Exchange Activities

In recent years, the development of globalization has witnessed the increase ofvarious kinds of cultural exchange activities, both on the state level and the civil level.During these activities, except for some formal meetings which require the services ofconsecutive interpreting or simultaneous interpreting, more and more excellent liaisoninterpreters are needed to help two parties who speak different languages communicatesuccessfully. To achieve that, the liaison interpreters have to be clear minded about theirroles during the conversations.This report, based on the liaison interpreting practice conducted by the author forBahcesehir University Summer School Program, aims at exploring what kind of rolesliaison interpreters should play in cultural exchange activities. This program lasted for3weeks and this report picks out the interpretations for the visit to a bone carvingcompany and Lingnan Impression Garden as its research materials. By describing theinterpreting task and the process and analyzing the examples, the author finds out thatthe liaison interpreters should play four kinds of roles: message deliverer, conversationparticipant, activity coordinator and culture connecter. Among the four roles, the liaisoninterpreter should pay special attention to undertaking his or her role as a cultureconnecter in cultural exchange activities, which is often overlooked unconsciously.Hopefully, this report can, on the one hand, provide reference for the studies onliaison interpreter’s roles in similar settings, and on the other hand, offer guidance tofuture interpreters to help them better fulfill their interpreting task and make the activitya success.