期刊名称:MediAzioni : Rivista Online di Studi Interdisciplinari su Lingue e Culture
电子版ISSN:1974-4382
出版年度:2010
期号:10
出版社:Università di Bologna sede di Forlì
摘要:Experts such as professional interpreters and linguists usually see the use of family interpreters as bad practice. Regardless of this fact, bilingual second generation migrants frequently act as interpreters for their families and friends. There seems to be a discrepancy between scientific criticism of the involvement of family members as interpreters on one hand, and the perspectives of the families and the institutional agents on the other. We argue that this mismatch originates in the fact that German medical institutions are usually not prepared to provide services to patients coming from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. More specifically, the lack of interpreting services forces non-proficient patients and medical professionals to (ab)use bilingual family members as interpreters. Beyond that, such family interpreters, as we may call them, may offer certain advantages compared to interpreters from outside the family. Our study is based on transcriptions of interpreter-mediated interactions in hospitals and socio-demographic data from the German socio-economic panel (SOEP).