Culture Broker

According to Angelelli (2004), interpreter’s adoption of these tasks is influential to the communication and the interpreter is thus visible. Clarifier is different from a culture broker who makes clarification by explaining cultural facts. The role of a culture broker will be discussed later in the next section.

The importance of a clarifier’s tasks is recognized by provider, patient and interpreter. In Pöchhacker’s (2000) study, 88% of the responding providers and 100%

of the responding interpreters surveyed said that “clarifying indeterminate statements by immediate follow-up questions to the client” (p.58) is part of the interpreter’s tasks.

In addition, 97% of the responding patients in Mesa’s (2000) survey expected

interpreters to facilitate them comprehending the situation. Hale (2007) who reviewed seven community interpreting codes of ethics also concluded that codes speak for interpreters to ask for clarification when it is necessary. In terms of alerting

misunderstanding, 92% of the responding providers in Mesa’s (2000) survey, 96% in Pöchhacker’s (2000) and 65% in Hale’s (2007) found that providers would like interpreters to tell them when interpreters think the patient does not understand or there is misunderstanding in the conversation. Pöchhacker’s (2000) survey also shows that 94% of the responding spoken-language interpreters consider this task as part of their responsibilities. Therefore, interpreter adopting role of clarifier conforms to users’ expectations and interpreter’s perception of his/her profession.

2.2.3 Culture Broker

Since the end of the 1970s, cultural sensitivity has been highlighted as an

important factor affecting cross-cultural communication (Roy, 1993/2002). In medical interpreting, “culture influences the meaning given to symptoms, the diagnosis of those symptoms, the expectations regarding the course of the related disease or illness, the desirability and efficacy of treatments or remedies, and the prognosis” (NCIHC,

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2004, p.9). In addition, to interpret accurately, knowledge of culture is critical to understand the hidden or unstated meaning as part of the total experience of speaker (Avery, 2001). Before healthcare providers are fully aware of cultural differences, they rely on interpreters to provide such assistance. In fact, it has been observed that many inter-cultural healthcare services in the US, Canada and Europe have allowed interpreter’s role of culture broker (Kaufert & Putsch, 1997). Assuming role of culture broker demonstrates that interpreters influence and are influenced by social factors;

interpreters are therefore visible (Angelelli, 2004).

The concept “culture” used here is referred to social science as “all that in human society which is socially rather than biological transmitted…Culture is thus a general term for the symbolic and learned aspects of human society” (Scott & Marshall, 2009, p.152). As a result, social class, sex, schooling (Avery, 2001), language, ways of verbal and non-verbal expression (Roy, 1993/2002) and so forth are all included under the umbrella term of culture. Cultural differences are considered obstructions of communication in medical encounters (Avery, 2001).

Primary parties and medical interpreters all recognize the importance of

supplementing cultural information in the encounter. Surveys on healthcare workers found that 78% of the respondents in Quebec (Mesa, 2000) think respecting for patient’s values and beliefs is very important while 62% of respondents in Vienna (Pöchhacker, 2000) expect that interpreters illustrate foreign culture for them. In terms of addressing difficult communication resulting mainly from class and education differences, Pöchhacker (2000) found that 87% of providers expect interpreters to explain professional jargon and make their inner meanings more explicit to the patients. Mesa (2000) also discovered that 98% of the patients expect the interpreter to speak in terms and expressions that they can easily comprehend. When asking interpreters, they attached a significant level of importance to simplification and

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explanation of technical expressions (75%) and illustration of foreign culture (81%) (Pöchhacker, 2000). These results support that medical interpreters are expected to adopt strategies of explicitation and domestication as a culture broker during interpreting service, which will be given more elaboration in Chapter Four.

Studies have indicated that taking the role of culture broker by medical

interpreter is beneficiary to both of the primary parties as well as medical institutions.

With the facilitation of cross cultural communication by interpreters, the explicit meanings of both primary parties can be shared and thus increase the possibility of faithful interpreting (Avery, 2001; Kelly, 2008). Primary parties’ mutual

understanding creates a good layer of foundation that enable providers to make a treatment plan that conforms to patient’s cultural background (Mesa, 2000); patient’s compliance to and the effectiveness of the plan are therefore enhanced (Kaufert &

Putsch, 1997). Furthermore, Kaufert and Putsch (1997) argued that clear illustrations of the healthcare system and patients’ rights in ways that conform to health service users’ cultural background would improve health education.

However, medical interpreters should constantly remind themselves to respect for individual differences and to be aware of possible consequence of stereotyping.

According to Kelly (2008), role of culture broker should only be adopted when it is indispensable. When in situations that interpreters have to temporarily stop the flow of communication and alert both parties the cultural facts, they should bear in mind that even they seem to share the same language and culture with one of the parties, their differences may still exist because of other social factors. Therefore, interpreters should avoid inference that their perceptive cultural knowledge is applicable to all people of a certain cultural community, such as people in the same race, gender or citizenship. Cautious checkups of an individual’s culture norms are necessary (NCIHC, 2004).

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