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 BENJAMINS
■
T R A N S L AT I O N

Non-professional
Interpreting
and Translation
edited by
Rachele Antonini
Letizia Cirillo
Linda Rossato
Ira Torresi

■
LIBR ARY
Non-professional Interpreting and Translation
Benjamins Translation Library (BTL)
issn 0929-7316
The Benjamins Translation Library (BTL) aims to stimulate research and training in
Translation & Interpreting Studies – taken very broadly to encompass the many different
forms and manifestations of translational phenomena, among them cultural translation,
localization, adaptation, literary translation, specialized translation, audiovisual
translation, audio-description, transcreation, transediting, conference interpreting,
and interpreting in community settings in the spoken and signed modalities.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
www.benjamins.com/catalog/btl

General Editor Associate Editor Honorary Editor

Yves Gambier Franz Pöchhacker Gideon Toury†
University of Turku & University of Vienna Tel Aviv University
Immanuel Kant Baltic
Federal University (IKBFU),
Kaliningrad, Russia

Advisory Board
Rosemary Arrojo Zuzana Jettmarová Sherry Simon
Binghamton University Charles University of Prague Concordia University
Michael Cronin Alet Kruger Şehnaz Tahir Gürçaglar
Dublin City University UNISA, South Africa Bogaziçi University
Dirk Delabastita John Milton Maria Tymoczko
FUNDP (University of Namur) University of São Paulo University of Massachusetts
Daniel Gile Anthony Pym Amherst
Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne University of Melbourne and Lawrence Venuti
Nouvelle Universitat Rovira i Virgili Temple University
Amparo Hurtado Albir Rosa Rabadán Michaela Wolf
Universitat Autònoma de University of León University of Graz
Barcelona

Volume 129
Non-professional Interpreting and Translation
State of the art and future of an emerging field of research
Edited by Rachele Antonini, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato and Ira Torresi
Non-professional Interpreting
and Translation
State of the art and future
of an emerging field of research

Edited by

Rachele Antonini
University of Bologna

Letizia Cirillo
University of Siena

Linda Rossato
University of Bologna

Ira Torresi
University of Bologna

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Amsterdam / Philadelphia
 TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8

the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence

of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

doi 10.1075/btl.129
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2017004878 (print) / 2017026441 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 5875 5 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6608 8 (e-book)

© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
 Table of contents

Chapter 1
Introducing NPIT studies 1
Rachele Antonini, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato and Ira Torresi

Part 1. State of the art of research on NPIT and general issues

Chapter 2
Unprofessional translation: A blog-based overview 29
Brian Harris

Chapter 3
We are all translators: Investigating the human ability to translate
from a developmental perspective 45
Bogusława Whyatt

Chapter 4
Dialoguing across differences: The past and future of language
brokering research 65
Marjorie Faulstich Orellana

Part 2. NPIT in healthcare, community and public services

Chapter 5
Intercultural mediation and “(non)professional” interpreting
in Italian healthcare institutions 83
Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli

Chapter 6
More than mere translators: The identities of lay interpreters
in medical consultations 107
Anna Claudia Ticca
vi Non-professional Interpreting and Translation in Institutional Settings

Chapter 7
Issues of terminology in public service interpreting: From affordability
through psychotherapy to waiting lists 131
Sonja Pöllabauer

Chapter 8
From confinement to community service: Migrant inmates mediating
between languages and cultures 157
Linda Rossato

Chapter 9
The role and self-regulation of non-professional interpreters
in religious settings: The VIRS project 177
Adelina Hild

Chapter 10
Simultaneous interpreting and religious experience: Volunteer
interpreting in a Finnish Pentecostal church 195
Sari Hokkanen

Chapter 11
Beyond the professional scope? Sign language translation
as a new challenge in the field 213
Nadja Grbić

Chapter 12
Language-related disaster relief in Haiti: Volunteer translator
networks and language technologies in disaster aid 231
Regina Rogl

Part 3. NPIT performed by children

Chapter 13
Bilingual youngsters’ perceptions of their role as family interpreters:
Why should their views be measured? Why should they count? 259
Claudia V. Angelelli
 Table of contents vii

Chapter 14
Child language brokers’ representations of parent–child relationships 281
Tony Cline, Sarah Crafter, Guida de Abreu and Lindsay O’Dell

Chapter 15
Child language brokering in private and public settings:
Perspectives from young brokers and their teachers 295
Letizia Cirillo

Chapter 16
Through the children’s voice: An analysis of language brokering
experiences 315
Rachele Antonini

Chapter 17
Seeing brokering in bright colours: Participatory artwork elicitation
in CLB research 337
Ira Torresi

Chapter 18
Language brokering: Mediated manipulations, and the agency
of the interpreter/translator 359
Elaine Bauer

Chapter 19
Not just child’s play: Exploring bilingualism and language brokering
as a precursor to the development of expertise as a professional
sign language interpreter 381
Jemina Napier

Index 411
 Chapter 1

Introducing NPIT studies

Rachele Antonini,* Letizia Cirillo,** Linda Rossato*

and Ira Torresi*
* University of Bologna / ** University of Siena

1. Introduction

When in May 2012, as founding members of the research project In MedIO

PUER(I), 1 we organized the First International Conference on Non-professional
Interpreting and Translation (NPIT1), we were convinced that the times were ripe
to acknowledge the existence of a fruitful strand of research revolving around the
practices of Non-professional Interpreting and Translation (henceforth NPIT). We
were also persuaded that this segment of academic research, conducted by scholars
in and out of Translation and Interpreting Studies (henceforth TIS), was likely to
grow and deserved an appropriate and legitimate space within TIS.
In response to an unprecedented rise in the need for communication across
linguistic and cultural barriers, which has clearly come to the forefront in the last
three decades as globalization trends have been gaining unexpected proportions,
there has also been a steep increase in the number of academic studies that have
attempted to shed light on a variety of largely invisible, yet widespread, NPIT
practices.
As Pérez-González & Susam-Saraeva aptly pointed out:
Translation studies finds itself today at a stage where its traditional focus on trans-
lator and interpreter training and on the advancement of the status of translators
and interpreters as professionals is no longer sufficient to address the complexity
of real-life situations of translating and interpreting. As increasing numbers of
non-professionals translate and interpret in a wider range of contexts and in more
diversified forms, their work emerges not only as an alternative to established

1. In MedIO PUER(I) stands for Interpretazione e Mediazione Istituzionale ad Opera di Piccoli

Utenti in Emilia Romagna (e in Italia). The project was funded by the University of Bologna
to investigate child language brokering in Italy and, more specifically, in Emilia Romagna. For
further details about the project, see Antonini (this volume).

doi 10.1075/btl.129.01ant
© 2017 John Benjamins Publishing Company
2 Rachele Antonini et al.

professional practice, but also as a distinctive phenomenon, which the discipline

has yet to recognize as a noteworthy area of study.
 (Pérez-González & Susam-Saraeva 2012: 149)

During the first and second NPIT conferences, the wide-ranging incidence of
NPIT was largely confirmed. 2 The existence on a large scale of NPIT practices and
routines finally surfaced as a corollary of fast transforming social, technological
and communication landscapes, and as a result of changing migration fluxes and
patterns. During these two NPIT conferences, relatively new phenomena such
as fansubbing, fandubbing, translation recruitment through crowdsourcing and
long-standing phenomena like adult and child language brokering could be finally
addressed in the same academic arena, discussed from different perspectives and
approached from diverse theoretical frameworks. In line with our expectations and
with Pérez-González & Susam-Saraeva’s (2012: 152) mapping of NPIT, it emerged
that such practices date back to the origins of human communication itself, which
occur both on an ad hoc and regular basis and in formal and informal contexts
alike, are equally common in public institutions and in the private sector, and are
performed either by non-professional interpreters, language/cultural brokers and
translators, or by professionally trained interpreters and translators who work on
a volunteer basis. Against this backdrop, the two conferences have brought about
the awareness that NPIT can no longer be swept under the proverbial carpet.
Relatively recent disciplines themselves, TIS have long strived to achieve the
academic recognition and the independent standing that they enjoy today (Baker
1998: xiv; Pöchhacker 2004: 1). In their early stages, TIS focused on professional
practices and products, while the largely hidden world of non-professionalism
remained therefore under-researched or even avoided. Perhaps as a result of this,
NPIT research was long perceived as the “poor relative” of TIS, and only very re-
cently has it acquired official recognition within TIS when a chapter devoted to the
“Natural Translator and Interpreter” was included in the Handbook of Translation
Studies (Antonini 2011: 102–104), and when the entries “Non-professional inter-
preting” and “Child language brokering” were listed in the Routledge Encyclopedia
of Interpreting Studies (Antonini 2015a, 2015b).
Over the last few decades, a growing body of literature reporting on NPIT
practices has been published. The phenomena of fansubbing, fandubbing and par-
ticipatory engagement in the translation domain have been addressed by various
scholars from the fields of Media Studies and Audiovisual Translation (Díaz Cintas
& Muñoz Sanchez 2006; O’Hagan 2009; McDonough Dolmaya 2012; Dwyer 2012;

2. The conferences were held, respectively, on 17–19 May 2012 at the University of Bologna at
Forlì (Italy) and on 29–31 May 2014 at the University of Mainz at Germersheim (Germany).
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 3

Casarini 2014; Pérez-González 2014), while non-professional interpreting in the

management of emergencies, disasters and conflicts (Bulut & Kurultay 2001;
Rogl this volume; Baker 2010), as well as child language and cultural brokering
(Tse 1995; Orellana et al. 2003a; Hall 2004; Weisskirch 2005; Hall & Sham 2007;
Orellana 2009; Antonini 2010) have been tackled not only by TIS scholars, but also
by sociolinguists, education scholars, psychologists and sociologists.
Despite this growing interest in NPIT practices, research in this field has clear-
ly suffered from a somewhat lesser interest than its professional – and therefore less
controversial – counterpart. Possible reasons for this state of things are offered in
Section 3 of this chapter, together with our motivations for doing and promoting
research specifically on non-professional practices.
Suffice it to say here that discussing NPIT, we believe, is enriching for a number
of disciplines, some of which have, to this point, seldom found points of contact –
and TIS make no exception. As Pérez-González & Susam-Saraeva (2012) observe,
non-professional interpreters and translators are no longer to be seen as a less ex-
pensive alternative to their professional counterparts. Indeed, NPIT is conducted
by a progressively more varied range of participants, contributing to the emergence
of new forms of civic engagement in public life, the reshaping of the publishing
and media landscapes and the consolidation of linguistic and cultural mediation
practices in new forms of cross-cultural interaction (ibid.: 152).
Now that TIS are acknowledged as fully-fledged and free-standing disciplines
(Baker & Saldanha 2009), and that scholars have started investigating the sphere
of NPIT per se or in combination with its professional counterpart, legitimating
de facto its study, the time seems ripe for a volume that draws together the work
of scholars from diverse disciplines who have focused their research interests on
issues regarding NPIT in institutional settings. One of the main aims of the pres-
ent collection is to gather different standpoints and approaches on the matter,
in order to minimize the risk that such perspectives occupy a minority niche in
their respective domains of knowledge rather than fostering an interdisciplinary
discourse around a single clear focus. Most of the papers included in this volume
were originally presented either at NPIT1 held in 2012 or at NPIT2 held in 2014.
However, some further contributors were invited to participate in this project to
complete the picture and provide a broader, all-encompassing overview on the
phenomena of and around NPIT in institutional settings.
Before illustrating the contents of the volume in Section 4.1, we will explore
the terminology of NPIT (Section 2), some of the reasons why it is worth investi-
gating (Section 3), and the contexts where it occurs and is researched (Section 4).
4 Rachele Antonini et al.

2. How “non-professional” is non-professional interpreting

and translation?

No discussion of NPIT is possible without accounting for the use of this and
other related labels in the relevant literature and, above all, explaining which in-
terpreting and translating practices are being referred to as “non-professional.”
Sections 2.1 and 2.2 are devoted, respectively, to the former and the latter.

2.1 One thing with many names?

Although the term “non-professional” applied to interpreting and translation has

by now been ratified by the scientific community (see Section 1), such phrase is
by no means the only available expression used to describe the kind of interpret-
ing and translating addressed in the present volume. In fact, “non-professional
interpreting and translation” is only one of a plethora of terms used by various
scholars from different perspectives and vantage points. Before arguing why we
think “non-professional” is the best option and looking in more detail at what be-
ing a non-professional interpreter and translator means, let us briefly consider the
most common terminology and the most influential studies published in this field.
Researchers started to engage with NPIT as an object of investigation per se
nearly 40 years ago, i.e. when Brian Harris launched the expression “natural trans-
lation” to define “the translation done in everyday circumstances by bilinguals
who have no special training for it” (Harris 1976: 96). 3 The concept of natural
translation was established through subsequent work by Harris and Sherwood
(1978) and Harris (1980), who proposed a development model based on the in-
nate translation competence of pre-school bilingual children. A few years later,
Malakoff and Hakuta (1991) noted that translations by bilingual schoolchildren
display high communicative competence and metalinguistic awareness, despite
some syntactic and semantic flaws in the target language.
In the second half of the 1980s, Shannon (1987, 1990) introduced the label
“language brokering” to describe naturally occurring interpreting and translation
by children. The new term also seemed to mark a shift from a purely psycholin-
guistic/psychological perspective to a more sociolinguistic/sociological approach
(or, at least, a wider range of approaches), which characterized a significant portion
of subsequent research on child language brokering (henceforth CLB), including
Hall and Sham (2007), Orellana (2009), García Sánchez (2010) and Katz (2014), to

3. In fact, la traduction naturelle is one of the topics of earlier work by Harris (1973) originally
published in French.
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 5

mention but a few. Related, though more discipline-specific and less widespread,
labels employed to define naturally occurring interpreting and translation done
especially by children include “para-phrasing” (especially used in educational
studies, e.g. Orellana et al. 2003a; 2003b) and “family interpreting” (particularly
used in bilingualism studies, e.g. Valdés 2003).
Clearly, non-professional interpreting and translation are not performed ex-
clusively by children and adolescents, although it goes without saying that the lat-
ter have been the focus of NPIT studies originated within research on bilingualism
and language acquisition, 4 as well as studies with a special interest in minority
children’s school performances, acculturation processes and family relationships. 5
Parallel to this strand of research, however, the growing interest of scholars from
interpreting studies in dialogic forms of interpreting, particularly in institutional
settings, 6 where “informal” (MacFarlane et al. 2009) interpreters often replace
professional ones, has produced a considerable body of literature on the so-called
“ad hoc” interpreting (Bührig & Meyer 2004). The term “ad hoc” refers to interpret-
ing done by whoever is immediately available, for instance bilingual hospital staff
(Pöchhacker & Kadric 1999; Elderkin-Thompson et al. 2001; Schouten et al. 2012)
or family members, be they adults or under age (e.g. Meyer et al. 2010b), but also,
to move to a completely different context, bilingual police officers (Berk-Seligson
2009) or prison inmates (Rossato this volume; Martínez-Gómez Gómez 2015).
Finally, the term “non-professional” was used for the first time in relation to
interpreting by Knapp-Potthoff and Knapp (1986; 1987), who see a non-profession-
al interpreter as one who “at the same time functions as a transmitter of the mes-
sage of SA and SB and as a mediator between conflicting viewpoints, assumptions,
and presuppositions” (Knapp-Potthoff & Knapp 1987: 183; emphasis in original).
As pointed out by Pöchhacker (2008: 18–19), while the distinction between the
transmitter and the mediator reflects a duality of roles that is typical of intercul-
tural communication, such duality is by no means confined to non-professionals. 7

4. But also of much literature on sign language interpreting, as illustrated by Napier (this
volume).
5. Reviewing the various trends and patterns in current research on CLB is beyond the scope
of the present Introduction. For a thorough review, see Orellana (this volume).
6. That is, the type of (professional) interpreting commonly known as “community interpreting”
(see among others Hale 2007; Valero-Garcès & Martin 2008) or “public service interpreting” (see
among others Cambridge 2004; Corsellis 2008). See also the proceedings of the various Critical
Link conferences.
7. Knapp-Potthoff and Knapp’s (1987) definition is also in line with the widely held view of the
professional interpreter as a mere conduit (on the role metaphors of interpreters see Roy 2002).
This view was long cherished by both interpreting practitioners and researchers and then strongly
6 Rachele Antonini et al.

What is it, then, that distinguishes non-professional interpreting and translation

from its professional counterpart? In Section 2.2, we shall attempt to outline the
main differences and find a working definition of “non-professional.”

2.2 Defining non-professional interpreting and translation

The brief overview provided in Section 2.1 makes it possible to identify some
characteristics of non-professional – as opposed to professional – interpreting
and translation, which we will now try to highlight and rearrange based on their
relevance and implications for the present collection.
First, it must be said that “non-professional” is probably the best umbrella term
for the purposes of this book, not just because it is a generic enough rubric to sub-
sume a wide range of practices, but also because it lacks the biases that other terms
seem to have. The labels that we have cursorily presented in Section 2.1 may in fact
be to some extent problematic, although for different reasons. “Natural” seems to
highlight the “innate” character of translating practices or, at least, their onset at a
very young age, which does not necessarily apply to all non-professionals, as may
be argued not only for specific translation types (e.g. fansubbing), but also for spe-
cific settings or situations (e.g. prisons and police interrogations). Similarly, CLB
displays an obvious age bias, and, in addition, it does not seem to pay justice to the
complex practice of mediating between persons who, besides speaking different
languages, often come from very different cultural backgrounds. “Informal,” while
referring to the unofficial nature of the role assigned to non-professionals, fails to
account for the rather formal character of many institutional or service encounters
involving non-professional interpreting, including doctor – patient consultations,
immigration interviews, clerk – client interactions, etc. Finally, the term “ad hoc”
places a special emphasis on the allegedly limited and unplanned occurrence of
non-professional interpreting and translation, with “ad hoc” language support
by family members or other readily available laypeople being resorted to should
professional services be difficult to implement for any political, financial or organ-
izational reason. However, as we will see in the contributions to this volume, much
NPIT is – if not planned – at least strongly expected to take place, by either primary
party (or even both parties) and/or the interpreter, in a number of circumstances
in which participants are aware that there is no professional option available.
Having said that, the adjective “non-professional” clearly defines something
by negating its opposite. The same may well be said of “unprofessional,” which

questioned by the interactional accounts of the past two decades – from the pioneering work of
Wadensjö (1998) to the recent collection edited by Baraldi and Gavioli (2012).
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 7

is also sometimes used to describe NPIT practices. This, however, seems to have
an unfavourable connotation, which “non-professional” lacks. Interestingly, if we
searched “unprofessional” and “non-professional” in both general and specialized
language corpora, and compared their concordance lines and most frequent col-
locates, we would observe different semantic prosodies. To be more precise, we
would find that “unprofessional” seems to have a negative overtone based on the
quality assessment of a given performance or behaviour, while “non-professional”
tends to refer non-judgementally to the fact that a given profession or activity is
carried out by laypeople, i.e. people who are not qualified in that profession – in
short, non-professionals. Arguably, the focus of the adjective “non-professional”
is thus on the who, rather than the how (which is instead the focus of “unprofes-
sional”). It is precisely on the who of NPIT that our working definition is centred.
Although non-professional interpreters and translators can be defined by var-
ious features, not all of these can be generalized and some probably weigh more
in the accounts brought together in the present volume. What is indisputable is
that non-professional interpreters and translators are unqualified, i.e. they have
received no specific education and/or training to translate and/or interpret; this,
of course, does not always mean they are incompetent. Furthermore, non-profes-
sional translators and especially interpreters are often described as “bilinguals”
(see Section 2.1). Without venturing into a discussion about the meanings of bi-
lingualism, we shall point out that the subjects referred to in the present volume
are essentially “circumstantial bilinguals” (Angelelli 2010), i.e. people who have
not chosen to become bilinguals but are somehow forced to do so due to life cir-
cumstances (e.g. children of migrants).
When we think of professionals, there are a number of things that we will most
probably associate with their being part of a profession. A professional is recruited
to do a specific job, for which s/he will be paid and which s/he will do complying
with a specific set of rules, i.e. with a code of ethics and standards of practice. Her/
his professional status will also normally involve social prestige. If we subtracted
from the above description the words in italics, we should have a close depiction of
a non-professional. In fact, such description would turn out to be not very accurate
and should be accompanied by a number of caveats. For instance, the basis of re-
cruitment for non-professional interpreters and translators may be voluntary, but
non-professionals may also be locally recruited, as is the case for bilingual clinical
staff, who, as noted by Meyer et al. (2010a), should also be offered training modules
to facilitate communication with migrant patients. The fact that non-professionals
are not paid is also not so obvious. The example of bilingual nursing staff is a case
in point, in that if such staff are required by their home institution to interpret
between patients and other clinicians, and are even provided some on-the-job
training to do so, then it will be hard to say that interpreting is not part of their
8 Rachele Antonini et al.

duties. Similarly, child brokers may be more or less pressured to perform the task
of language facilitators by their families and communities, and, although their
work would be unwaged, they may receive benefits for it and, by providing lan-
guage support, they will contribute to the material and social well-being of their
families and communities (Hall & Sham 2007).
If the issues of mode of recruiting and pay of non-professional interpreters and
translators are more complex than it may seem at first glance, not having specific
standards of practice and social prestige are not even discriminating features.
When interpreting and translating, non-professionals may in fact comply with the
codes of conduct of other professions (e.g. clinical professions) as well as general
ethical principles. In addition, as noted by Angelelli (2004: 20–21), the codes of
ethics of professional interpreters and translators associations favour prescribed
over actual roles and tend to place too much emphasis on monolithic concepts like
neutrality and invisibility, which cannot account for the complexity of interpreting
and translating practices – be they professional or non-professional. Along the
same lines, it may be observed that, if it is true that non-professionals will most
probably not derive any social prestige from ad hoc practices, significant differ-
ences in terms of status can also be found among professionals, as witnessed by
the die-hard divide between conference interpreters and community interpreters
(see among others Garzone & Viezzi 2002; Angelelli 2004).
What emerges from the previous discussion is clearly a much-diversified pic-
ture of the who of NPIT. In Section 4, while presenting the contents of the vol-
ume in more detail, we shall take a closer look at the what, where and when of
non-­professional interpreting and translation. Before that, however, in Section 3,
we will consider why we think NPIT should receive greater attention by both
academics and practitioners.

3. Why NPIT is worth studying

In the previous sections, we have seen how NPIT can be defined (Section 2) and
the place it currently occupies in and out of TIS (Sections 1 and 2). Now is perhaps
the time to take a step back and ask ourselves, is it really worthwhile to study
non-professional interpreting and translation? Or, as has emerged during some
Q&A sessions and informal talk among the presenters of NPIT1, can it be that by
choosing it as a research focus, one risks branding it as a practice that is acknowl-
edged and accepted by the academic community, therefore inherently “good,” or at
least harmless? The implications of bringing non-professional practices to the fore,
in terms of profession and market politics, are clearly powerful. Such implications
cannot go unnoticed, particularly by interpreting and translation scholars, who
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 9

are typically also members of, or at least have close contact with, the professional
interpreting and translation communities (and the editors of this volume make
no exception).
We discussed the issue in depth before organizing the NPIT1, especially be-
cause we came from the experience of investigating a particularly controversial
kind of non-professional practice, CLB. The conclusions we came to at that time
still hold after two further NPIT conferences have added some spark to the on-
going discussion. We will leave aside the most obvious argument for choosing
this research focus – the researcher’s freedom of research – because we believe
that the purely academic side of the issue is not as controversial as its professional
side. It is professionals, then, and the translation and interpreting scholar’s spirit
of communion with professional communities, that we primarily address here.
The first argument for shedding light on NPIT is that the phenomenon is
there, has existed for a long time and is unlikely to disappear soon. Since non-­
professional practices are largely unpaid, and usually more readily available than
professional services, they inevitably meet a part of the existing demand of trans-
lation and interpreting services. It is debatable whether such demand would oth-
erwise reorient towards remunerated professional services, putting up with the
cost, time and effort necessary to contact them, or remain unfulfilled for lack of
information or material resources. At any rate, leaving non-professional practices
out of the discussion on translation and interpreting will not erase them from the
real economy. Quite the opposite, if left to their own devices, they would probably
continue to proliferate hand in hand with the increase of migration flows, and
trade and cultural globalization. It is arguable, then, that professionals whose
clients may be attracted by ad hoc translation and interpreting would not benefit
much from remaining in the dark as to the dynamics and nature of the phenom-
enon. Blindly advocating for stricter policies against non-professional interpret-
ing and translation in general, without acknowledging their rich diversity, might
reap equally meagre practical results. At the same time, building walls against
those natural translators and interpreters who may not know that their work may
replace that of professionals, or ignore how to attach a market value to it, would
only result in excluding them from the professional communities who might give
them guidance in this respect. It is our opinion that in order to set up efficient
strategies to retain one’s market share, professionals should first and foremost seek
in-depth knowledge of the market they operate in, including its non-professional
side. It is also our opinion that seeing all non-professionals in a negative light,
as competitors who unfairly operate on the market, is an unnecessary prejudice
that may bias a full understanding of the market situation and therefore prevent
professionals from setting up effective strategies.
10 Rachele Antonini et al.

A second consideration stems from our first argument. It is our contention that
investigating NPIT is important particularly for the translation and interpreting
scholarly and professional communities. Those who take into account and under-
stand the market dynamics of professional interpreting and translation markets
can add such elements to the academic description and analysis of NPIT, provided
that the professional’s stance does not obscure, but rather integrates, the points
of view of the others involved in the phenomenon being studied – e.g. those of
providers and users of non-professional services. This is particularly important
since so far the professionals’ viewpoint has been little voiced in the specialized
literature, much of which has either focused on the product-oriented analysis of
NPIT from the perspectives of linguistics and communication science, or on the
social, psychological or educational aspects of such practices (especially in sensi-
tive areas such as the healthcare setting or CLB). Considerations about attaching
a (market) value to NPIT have hardly been the focus of discussion.
When the issue of attaching value to NPIT has emerged, it has usually been
in terms of acknowledging an intangible asset that is usually taken for granted
by non-professionals’ social surroundings and end users. In the narrower field
of CLB, for instance, research points out that child brokers’ services foster im-
migrant families’ social inclusion (see Section 2.2), and should therefore be fully
regarded as work – services that the children perform for both their families and
host societies (Orellana et al. 2003a; Hall & Sham 2007; Orellana 2009: 50–67).
Other studies mention the value that language brokering may acquire for the
children who perform it, by raising their awareness about their own role in their
families, communities and societies and ultimately increasing their academic self-­
efficacy and performance (Buriel et al. 1998; Dorner et al. 2007; Crafter et al. 2009).
Curiously, to the best of our knowledge the socializing and self-awareness-raising
power of NPIT practices have not been investigated in relation to adult ad hoc
brokers. Academic interest in such aspects seems to dwindle as research subjects
grow beyond schooling age, an implicit indication that the educational and cog-
nitive sides of personal development are thought to become less relevant in adult
life and psychology. This, however, appears to contrast sharply with the growing
importance that contemporary knowledge-based societies and educational mar-
kets attach to adult (re)training and lifelong or continuous learning.
Is there a way, then, to professionalize and give a pricetag to the largely intan-
gible – although sometimes burdensome and always unacknowledged – asset of
spontaneous interpreting and translation? Apparently there is, given that several
training courses and certifications for public service support figures such as lan-
guage and cultural brokers are targeted at categories of people who presumably
already perform informal brokering practices, mainly bilingual migrants (Avery
2003; Straker & Watts 2003; Zoffoli 2005; Rudvin 2005 and 2006; Zorzi 2007; Niska
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 11

2007: 302). Such proactive actions specifically aim at channelling non-professional

interpreters and translators into the mainstream market, and may be seen as fur-
ther proof that purposefully leaving ad hoc practices out of professional discourses
hardly has any effect as a market defence strategy.
From an interpreting and translation researcher’s point of view, then, choos-
ing to ignore non-professional practices as an “unworthy” subject matter in fear
of acknowledging their presence on the market would only result in missing out
on what is becoming an increasingly interesting and established field of study.
Colleagues from other disciplines are already very fruitfully interacting with
non-­professionals and the end users of their services, not only to best investigate
the phenomenon but also to attempt to guide its practical applications so as to
optimize its potential for personal development and social inclusion (University
College London & the Thomas Coram Research Unit 2014; Cline et al. 2014). As
interpreting and translation scholars, we feel that our research field may contribute
a specific perspective grounded in the specific nature of the interpreting and/or
translation work as a pas de trois, which actively includes the figures “in the mid-
dle” (Wadensjö 1998: 10). Such perspective, coupled with intensive field work, may
in time result in practical guidelines addressing non-professionals and the users of
their services, perhaps with the aim of channelling non-professional practices into
professional careers, or at least raising awareness about the value of such practices,
empowering both non-professionals and their beneficiaries for fairer and better
informed choices (including when to say “no” and resort to professional services).

4. The who, what, where, why and how of research on NPIT

This section will provide an overview of the rationale of the volume and of the
contributions herein included.
As stated at the beginning of this introduction, the main objective of NPIT1
was to provide an opportunity for scholars and researchers who are making a
contribution to the study of NPIT to present their work and research in an event
that could ensure the attention and visibility they deserve. Before 2012, whoever
decided to present their work at a conference was very likely to be relegated into
sessions and panels that have little to do with the topic of their studies. What
became immediately apparent at NPIT1 was that research is being carried out in
many countries on a great variety of NPIT-related topics and issues through the
lenses of many disciplines. A second aspect that also emerged is the separation
between NPIT practices performed by adults and children, a division that mirrors
the fact that since its inception, research on non-professional interpreting has
developed in two distinct, though at times overlapping, strands, depending on
12 Rachele Antonini et al.

whether it is performed by children, which has generated the bulk of academic

production, or by adults, which is lagging behind.
The strong immigration waves experienced by many countries and the pres-
ence of a growing number of diverse linguistic communities within the boundaries
of individual countries have caused an exponential increase in the demand for
linguistic services. The ways in which individual countries address and guaran-
tee the provision of language services vary enormously. In a comparative study
of interpreting service provision around the world, Ozolins showed that there is
a spectrum of response, ranging from those countries that deny the existence
of multilingual communication issues, to reliance on ad hoc services, to generic
language services, to fully comprehensive responses. (Ozolins 2000: 21)

While some countries (e.g. Australia, Sweden, the UK) have addressed the need to
facilitate access to a range of public services by implementing integration policies
(in the form of community interpreting) aimed at a variety of languages (Roberts
1997), in most other countries, the belief has prevailed that the language barri-
ers created by increased immigration would be transitional in nature and that
problems related to increased linguistic diversity in the country would decrease
and disappear with the acquisition, eventually, of the host language (O’Rourke
& Castillo 2009; Meyer et al. 2010b). Hence, this demand is generally not met by
an adequate provision of linguistic services that would enable foreigners to fully
access a wide range of services.
NPIT touches upon so many aspects and domains of the life of so many adults
and children (from different walks of life, with different backgrounds and expe-
riences) that it would be unattainable to address it in a single volume. However,
given the demographic changes triggered by mass migration in the past century
and the contexts and settings in which foreigners and immigrants are more likely
to require the services of an interpreter, the everyday circumstances in which
NPIT occurs will inevitably include public settings. The purpose of this volume is
thus to provide a detailed representation of various forms of NPIT that occur in
institutional settings, which have so far been neglected or scarcely studied.

4.1 Overview of the volume

Most of the contributions included in this volume provide a description of the

who, what, when, where, why and how of NPIT from the perspective of different
disciplines and methodologies.
In terms of the who of NPIT, most chapters describe NPIT practices and ac-
tivities involving members of a variety of ethnic and linguistic minorities (includ-
ing two contributions devoted to language brokering activities centred on sign
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 13

language). However, as some of the accounts on recent research show, there seems
to be a tendency to move away from studies that focus exclusively on one specific
ethnic or linguistic group by extending the research to wider samples that include
an array of such groups and communities.
The what of NPIT covers both oral and written language brokering, although
the latter is the topic reported by only one contributor (a reminder of the fact that
not much research is being done in this area of NPIT studies).
The when and why of NPIT are, obviously, at the heart of NPIT research. The
when is connected to the reasons and contingencies that make it necessary for a
non-­professional to interpret or translate, i.e. all those situations in which – either
because of financial reasons or because of personal and cultural motivations – in
the absence of a professional linguistic and/or cultural mediator/interpreter, peo-
ple need or prefer to have a family member or a member of their ethnic or linguistic
community language brokering for them. The why is not only related to the above,
but also to the need to explain those interpreting/translation competences that
may be innate to or which are developed by bilinguals and provide a theoretical
background to NPIT.
The where of NPIT, in the case of this volume, is, as already stated, any situa-
tion in which people need to access the services provided by a public institution.
Research into this area of NPIT has tended to focus on healthcare settings and
provision, with a strong bias towards the medical setting. While being one of the
areas dealt with by some of the contributors to this volume, space is also given to
other (less studied) areas of public service-related settings such as churches, social
services, museums, prisons and schools.
The how of NPIT involves both the strategies used to language broker and the
attitudes that adult and child language brokers may share towards this practice.
However, the how of NPIT is also addressed from the researcher’s point of view,
with a reflection on agency issues, the use of specific data collection methodologies
and ethical concerns related to doing research with and on children.
Another relevant aspect of NPIT research that emerged from many of the
contributions included in this edited collection is related to public engagement
outcomes, and the impact that research on NPIT can have at a practical level by
generating synergies between researchers and society with the creation and im-
plementation of good practices that can be exported to other countries.
The contributions included in this collection are divided into three broad
sections:
1. state of the art of research on NPIT and general issues;
2. NPIT in healthcare, community and public services;
3. NPIT performed by children.
14 Rachele Antonini et al.

In Sections 4.1.1–4.1.3, we will provide a brief description of each paper, discussing

its relevance for the present volume and for research on NPIT at large.

4.1.1 The state of the art of research on NPIT and general issues
The plenary held by Brian Harris at NPIT1 has become the opening chapter of
this volume. Its inclusion and pre-eminence represent a homage to the initia-
tor of NPIT research and, as his contribution clearly shows, to a scholar who is
still at the cutting edge of past and current research on NPIT in all its aspects,
developments and applications. Harris focuses on his web blog, Unprofessional
Translation, which was started in 2009 with two main goals: first, to give visibility
to the study of NPIT and, second, as a reaction against conventional publication
processes through traditional academic channels. The declared primary topics of
the blog are Natural Translation, Native Translation and Language Brokering. A
wide array of issues and aspects related to these topics are described in detail in
individual items. One of the most notable threads is constituted by the natural
translator hypothesis and its expressions that allowed the author to further develop
it. The original definition postulated that the empirical study of translation should
be based on the ability that bilingual children have to perform translating activities
without having received any special training in translation (Harris 1980). It also
theorized that the ability to translate and interpret is a quasi-universal natural
aptitude and not the exclusive realm of professionals. This concept has been chal-
lenged by other scholars (see for instance Toury 1995; Valero-Garcés & Martin
2008; Grosjean 2010) who have argued that bilingualism is not a prerequisite for
the development of translation competence and that each individual differs in
terms of fluency, ethics, specific and specialized knowledge, strategies and tech-
niques used to translate. The new model that Harris puts forward represents a
progression from Natural to Expert Translator that strives to reconcile his original
theory with other hypotheses (e.g. Toury 1995).
Research on NPIT is generally situated within (and sometimes constrained
by) the theoretical paradigms of very specific disciplines (e.g. anthropology, edu-
cational studies, psychology, sociolinguistics). Starting from a cognitive develop-
mental perspective and following Harris’ theoretical model, Bogusława Whyatt’s
paper describes the progression from natural predisposition towards translating
and interpreting to untrained ability, trained skill, competence and finally ex-
pertise. While not denying the fact that the progression from ability to skill and
professionalism necessarily requires training, the author argues that the predis-
position to translate is innate in all human beings in varying degrees. All humans
are able to translate intersemiotically and understand intersemiotic translations;
furthermore, natural translation – in Harris’s terms – occurs among bilinguals
and language learners. Additionally, an extensive literature review and statistical
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 15

data support the argument that the experience of translation is more important
than formal education in providing the kind of training that fosters the transition
towards professionalism.
The interpreting and translation practices and activities performed by chil-
dren and youths represent a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that
became the object and focus of research only in relatively recent times. Marjorie
F. Orellana, one of the most established and productive researchers in the field
of educational and ethnographic studies, draws a comprehensive overview of the
state of the art of research on CLB. She describes which aspects of CLB and which
methodological approaches have been used over the last three decades to study this
phenomenon. By identifying the theoretical framings and paradigms on the basis
of CLB research, Orellana analyses gaps in past and current research and poses
some topical and provocative questions: has the study of CLB come to age? Can we
really study CLB with an interdisciplinary approach? Will interdisciplinarity really
help research in this field move forward? Can all the different loci of investigation
of CLB be connected to one another and thus contribute to a deeper understanding
of the practice and its effects? Furthermore, Orellana outlines which direction
future research on CLB may take and reflect on the methodological challenges
still facing the field.

4.1.2 The who and where of NPIT in healthcare, community and public
service
The contributions included in this second part of the volume deal with diverse
public service settings ranging from healthcare, social service and welfare insti-
tutions to disaster relief, prisons and religious contexts. Moreover, they provide
analyses of data collected by using a variety of methodological tools and through
the lenses of different disciplines.
The first paper included in the second section of this volume is by Claudio
Baraldi and Laura Gavioli, two prominent scholars in the field of conversation
analysis and interpreting studies. Their work contributes to highlight the auton-
omy and ability in handling cultural difference that mediators may display in
encounters between Italian doctors and African women patients. The analysis of
their data shows that mediators tend to adopt two different approaches when ad-
dressing cultural differences. The first, intercultural adaptation, envisages cultural
differences as a plurality of options and seems to empower the patient and allow
her to make informed choices. The second, cultural essentialism, represents the
opposite stance, that is the tendency to stereotype the patient and the difference
between her culture and the doctor’s medical culture in terms of dos and don’ts
that avoid the interlocutors’ active participation. On the basis of their analysis, the
authors argue that in order to deal with and overcome cultural differences and to
16 Rachele Antonini et al.

facilitate the mediated patient – doctor encounter, all stakeholders should be aware
of the pros and cons involved in taking either approach.
Anna Claudia Ticca’s study examines the activities in which lay interpreters
engage when they are involved in medical consultations. By means of the analy-
sis of a large corpus of conversations video-recorded in a rural clinic in Yucatan
(Mexico), where both Spanish and Yucatec Maya are spoken, Ticca is able to show
how these mediators go beyond the mere translation of talk. Indeed, the analysis
of the recorded conversations illustrates how the participants who took part in her
study engage in activities that contribute to the emergence of identity categories
and thus of specific social identities, e.g. “social peer” or “expert,” with which their
co-participants may align or misalign. The relevance of this contribution to the
study of NPIT lies in the fact that not only does it validate what many scholars and
researchers have been arguing for the past 20 years, that is that NPIT activities are
extremely multifaceted and complex (e.g. Shannon 1990; Hall & Guéry 2010), but
it also sheds light on the strategies that lay interpreters use when they mediate in
a medical consultation and on how they accommodate to their co-participants’
needs and expectations as to the role they are expected to play in a given situation
during the medical encounter.
The contribution by Sonja Pöllabauer represents a detailed and specific take on
the strategies adopted by interpreters with little or no training to render special-
ized terminology. This study is based on the recordings of interpreter-mediated
institutional encounters between service providers and non-German speaking
clients recorded in the Austrian province of Styria as part of an interdisciplinary
project called “Community Interpreting and Communication Quality in Social
Service and Healthcare Institutions.” The analysis of these data helps the author
identify the three strategies (omission, simplification and paraphrases) that the
non-professional interpreters in her study tend to use when dealing with the spe-
cialized terminology used by institutional representatives. This specific aspect of
the interpreter-mediated institutional encounters presented by Pöllabauer points
towards the need, within public service interpreting, to develop and implement
communication strategies and adequate in-house training for interpreters. This
is particularly significant in the cases where the level of difficulty or sensitiveness
is particularly high and the outcomes of an unsuccessful linguistically mediated
event are potentially harmful for the recipients of public service provision.
Linda Rossato’s chapter presents a study that was developed as a spin-off of the
research project In MedIO PUER(I) (see Section 1). Apart from very few exceptions
(see, e.g., Martínez-Gómez Gómez 2014), the study of language and cultural bro-
kering that takes place among migrant inmates is still an under-researched aspect
and setting of NPIT. Yet, in many countries, such as Italy, where immigration
is still a recent phenomenon, only scarce resources are allotted for professional
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 17

language services in public services, and they are virtually non-existent in seclud-
ed environments such as prisons. Hence, in order to overcome language barriers
and to make communication between foreign inmates and jail personnel possible,
convicted migrants who are fluent in Italian may act as language brokers. In or-
der to shed some light on this form of language and cultural brokering, Rossato
analyses and discusses data gathered by means of a survey questionnaire with the
aim of mapping the phenomenon and of ascertaining whether this practice has
an impact on inmates’ self-perception and rehabilitation process.
The two chapters that follow represent an important contribution to the field
of church interpreting. Despite the presence of numerous religions, churches and
denominations in which interpreting is practised on a regular basis, religious set-
tings have been given little attention. The two studies described in Hild’s and
Hokkanen’s contributions are based on similar (ethno)methodological approaches
and address the topic of church interpreting from, respectively, a more general and
a more introspective and personal viewpoint.
Adelina Hild’s paper reports on the results of an ethnographic study of
non-professional church interpreters, exploring how they adjust their behaviour
to their perceived role in religious settings. The VIRS project illustrated by the
author combines observational data (field notes, audio and video recordings) with
in-depth interviews in order to address questions concerning the motivational
structure of native interpreters, the specific strategies they apply in rendering the
performative and linguistic aspects of evangelical preaching, the role of social
recognition and the process of effecting emotional homeostasis. On the basis of
these findings, the paper compares the self-regulation processes of professional
and of volunteer interpreters and discusses how church interpreters perceive their
role as visible co-constructors of meaning in theological discourse.
By applying an autoethnographical methodology to her personal experience
as embodied knowledge, Hokkanen discusses the volunteer simultaneous church
interpreting that she, a professionally trained interpreter, provides at Pentecostal
Christian services. The main aim of her study is to illustrate how her professional
identity and her identity as a Pentecostal Christian coexist in a non-professional
interpreting context. After describing the way in which simultaneous interpreting
is organized in a Finnish Pentecostal church, as well as some of the ideological
underpinnings motivating this practice, the author examines one instance of si-
multaneous interpreting voluntarily performed by members of the religious com-
munity. Hokkanen argues that for these interpreters, the practice of simultaneous
interpreting in the church is intimately intertwined with the religious nature of
the setting, and that while interpreting the prayers, songs, sermon and other parts
of the service, they engage in the service spiritually.
18 Rachele Antonini et al.

Sign language translation is one of the least explored territories in the study of
NPIT. In her chapter, Nadja Grbic contributes to this area of research by describing
the production of recorded signed texts based on written sources. After describing
the development of sign language translation, and presenting some typological
questions related to sign language translation with a focus on some of the problems
that arise when we talk about activities that cross the supposed boundary between
translation and interpreting, Grbic illustrates a project involving the translation
of the Austrian Jewish Museum’s website into Austrian Sign Language. The case
study presented in this chapter is based on the translation produced by a team
comprising two hearing sign language interpreters, a deaf linguist and a deaf
technician. The author used empirical observation, interviews and text analysis
to analyse the textual and social challenges faced by untrained and inexperienced
sign language translators.
In the last contribution included in this section, Regina Rogl offers an example
of the role played by both professional and non-professional volunteer interpreting
and translation in disaster relief operations. Her contribution focuses on various
forms of language-related activities and practices that were made available fol-
lowing the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Rogl shows how, in this highly specific and
complicated setting, all the forms of linguistic mediation that were performed by
either amateurs or trained professionals and ranged from voluntary to paid work
could only be effective as they were part of a technology-mediated cooperative pro-
cess. Her study is based on an online ethnographic approach consisting of 1,300
entries from social media and profession-oriented networks, as well as numerous
blogs and wikis. These entries offer an insight into the role played by Internet
communities in the various stages of disaster relief, from needs assessment and
mobilization to project planning and implementation. Empirical research in this
field can help define best practices in language-related relief work and deepen our
understanding of the interplay between technology and social interaction.

4.1.3 NPIT performed by children

The third section of the volume is composed of contributions that focus exclusively
on a variety of topics related to CLB and that represent an innovative outlook on
the implementation of methodological and interpretative tools for this field study.
Claudia V. Angelelli’s contribution centres on her research design aimed at
measuring bilingual youngsters’ perceptions of the crucial role they play in bro-
kering communication for monolingual adults. The method she applies was tested
and validated in her research on professional interpreters, which relied on data
collected by means of a survey questionnaire, the Interpreter Interpersonal Role
Inventory (IPRI, Angelelli 2004). Angelelli’s chapter describes how she adapted
and developed this tool to obtain a new one, called the IPRI Junior, with the
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 19

aim of surveying language brokers’ perceptions and attitudes towards CLB. By

drawing on her previous work on CLB, which was informed by the perspective of
bilingualism and sociolinguistic studies, Angelelli argues that the data collected
by means of the IPRI Junior will reveal important information on bilinguals who
have had experiences in language brokering. She observes that by obtaining this
information in an empirical way, it will be possible to learn about the choices that
bilinguals make when brokering communication and will teach us a great deal
about their perceptions of their agency and talent. Most notably, it will contribute
to honing and nurturing these children’s gift, thus giving them more opportunities
in terms of access, education and future career.
From the standpoint of psychological studies, Tony Cline, Sarah Crafter,
Guida de Abreu and Lindsay O’Dell report on a case study of bilingual students,
which is part of a broader study of young people’s representations of conflicting
roles in child development. They used vignette methodology to explore the issue
of family relationships with a group of bilingual students who spoke a variety of
first languages and had had personal experience of CLB. Through the analysis
of individual CLB case studies, Cline et al. examine the dynamics that influence
individual participants in terms of the level of independence and interdependence
as well as the balancing of the demands of autonomy and connectedness in their
analysis of relationships between young people and their parents. Their findings
confirm that there are subtle and complex family dynamics that influence how
young brokers perceive their CLB activities, and suggest that the way in which
an individual adolescent evaluates a parent’s reliance on their child as a language
broker is dependent on the complex interplay of many dimensions.
Letizia Cirillo’s contribution presents the results obtained by means of a
questionnaire survey conducted in junior high schools of the Emilia Romagna
region (Northern Italy) as part of the research project In MedIO PUER(I). Two
questionnaires were designed to explore and assess the presence and diffusion
of CLB in Italy and to ascertain, respectively, students’ and teachers’ perceptions
of CLB-related issues. The responses thus gathered enable Cirillo to identify the
who, where, when and what of CLB, generally confirming the results obtained
by previous studies at both national and international levels. However, different-
ly from most previous studies, this study, and the research project it is part of,
does not focus on a single ethnic or linguistic group, but takes into consideration
CLB practices performed by children of all ethnic and linguistic groups present
in Emilia Romagna. By comparing the two sets of responses, Cirillo shows how
brokers’ and teachers’ attitudes towards CLB may diverge.
The chapter by Rachele Antonini provides a far-­reaching overview of NPIT as
performed by children of immigrant families in Italy. Antonini starts by discuss-
ing the ethical considerations of doing research with children, as well as the pros
20 Rachele Antonini et al.

and cons of the application of narrative methodology to CLB. She then analyses
the narratives produced by immigrant children attending primary and middle
school in the Forlì province of the Emilia-Romagna region. The narratives were
submitted for a school contest specifically organized with the purpose of raising
awareness about and giving visibility to CLB practices, which are largely given
for granted by all stakeholders. By giving children themselves the opportunity to
have their voices heard, Antonini’s study offers a detailed description of the lan-
guage brokering activities in which they are involved and illustrates their feelings
towards CLB, thus providing an insight into the impact it has on their lives, both
as providers and receivers of brokering practices.
Ira Torresi analyses the visual narratives submitted by the children who took
part in the same school contest. By using a social semiotic approach, Torresi in-
vestigates how children depict CLB by identifying the meanings embedded in the
visual narratives. Even without the use of words, many of the drawings analysed
by the author narrate real-life-mediated encounters between speakers of different
languages, or represent the multilingual/multicultural background of these chil-
dren. By analysing the way in which the children draw, the colours they use and
the subject/situation they choose to depict, Torresi is able to present a poignant
description of their experience as immigrants and as language brokers, which
also represents a powerful reminder of the fact that they “are first and foremost,
and unproblematically, children.” The author also makes a point for participatory
artwork elicitation as a data collection method in CLB studies.
Elaine Bauer’s chapter uses data from a UK study to explore the retrospective
childhood experiences of adults who grew up interpreting and translating for their
parents. Following the paradigmatic shift in sociological studies that changed the
perspective on children and their role in family and society, Bauer examines the
ways in which children perform as agents during language brokering, and looks
more specifically at how, in order to achieve particular goals, they choose to con-
vert meanings in one language into meanings in another. Her analysis of narratives
collected from adults (former language brokers) delves into how her informants
exercised agency in childhood, and illustrates how CLB impacted on their feelings
and the construction of their adult identities.
The last chapter included in the volume represents an important contribution
to the study of CLB, in that it portraits one of the least studied forms of CLB,
language brokering activities performed by the children of deaf adults. Jemina
Napier contextualizes her study within the wider context of interpreting studies
and the discussions of bilingualism and professional interpreting. She provides an
overview of an international survey aimed at collecting information about CLB
experiences of people who have grown up bilingual in the deaf community using
a signed language and a spoken language (so-called CODAs). Her findings show
 Chapter 1. Introducing NPIT studies 21

that there is a parallelism with studies on spoken language CLB in terms of factors
such as age, settings and the feelings that CODAs may have towards their language
brokering experience. Similarly to Angelelli, Napier defines this form of CLB as an
asset that many brokers have exploited as adults when pursuing a career. For this
reason, she argues that even though not all young CODAs may necessarily want to
become professional interpreters (as is often the case), it is possible to safely assume
that their bilingualism and language brokering can become a precursor to the
development of expertise as a professional signed language interpreter. Moreover,
it is also important to acknowledge and value the expertise that CODAs develop
and the language brokering experience that they have gained as a form of active
citizenship and a productive contribution to society through the use of their bi-
lingual skills (Bauer 2010).

5. Conclusion

The main purpose of this volume is to give greater visibility to NPIT research. The
study of NPIT practices is still quite fragmented because research is carried out by
scholars who may not always be aware of what is going on outside the boundaries
of their own discipline. Hence, the need to bring them together so as to provide a
window into research that deals with NPIT practices within institutional settings,
as well as with emerging NPIT-related topics. We hope that, by contributing to
meeting such need, this volume will encourage the cross-fertilization of different,
sometimes distant, disciplines as well as research paradigms and methods. The
mix of chapters and authors in this volume indicates that researchers with diverse
academic backgrounds can not only coexist, but can also forge new understand-
ings of and insights into NPIT. In fact, our intended readership for this volume
is not confined to the community of researchers interested in NPIT. We believe
that the volume may also act as a catalyst for increased cooperation and dialogue
between researchers and public service providers.
NPIT is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon; therefore, it is important to
note that even within the well-defined objectives and scope of this volume, there
are areas of interest relevant to NPIT studies which this volume does not cover
and which deserve further investigation. Possible shortcomings notwithstanding,
we hope that this volume will not only enhance our understanding of NPIT, but
will also represent a compass reading in all those countries where NPIT is still an
unnoticed and unacknowledged practice.
22 Rachele Antonini et al.

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Part 1

State of the art of research on NPIT

and general issues
 Chapter 2

Unprofessional translation
A blog-based overview

Brian Harris

This paper will discuss the pros and cons of publication in blog format com-
pared with publication through conventional academic channels. The web blog
Unprofessional Translation was started in 2009 as a reaction against the way
“mainstream” translation studies and bilingualism studies had continually
ignored the important aspects of translation that it focuses on. The declared
primary topics of the blog are Natural Translation, Native Translation and
Language Brokering. As of 31 July 2012, the blog contained approximately
140,000 words in 234 posts accompanied by illustrations and by 268 comments
from readers, of whom 124 were formally registered “Members.” It addresses a
non-expert readership, with the explicit aim of convincing them that translat-
ing is a quasi-universal human capability and activity which is not confined to
trained or highly experienced experts. There are numerous posts for each of the
blog topics. However, the blog template displays the posts chronologically, and,
as a result, it requires considerable work with the Search function to follow any
of the threads coherently. Therefore, this paper brings together a selection of
the material thematically.

Keywords: natural translation, native translation, language brokering, blog,

war interpreting, religious translation, court interpreting, medical interpreting,
crowdsourcing, sports interpreting

1. Introduction: Blog publication

This paper is based on a blog. The blog is called Unprofessional Translation and its
URL is http://unprofessionaltranslation.blogspot.com. 1 It began sporadically in
February 2009, and has been published regularly at approximately weekly intervals

1. The title Unprofessional Translation was invented before the term non-professional translation
became widely known, though the latter can be traced back at least as far as 2005 in a paper by

doi 10.1075/btl.129.02har
© 2017 John Benjamins Publishing Company
30 Brian Harris

since July of that year. At the time of this writing, it contains 282 posts. At a con-
servative estimate, the posts average 700 words in length, which would make a total
of nearly 200,000 words or 750 printed pages or 35 typical journal articles. Much
of this, it is true, is made up of quotations from other documents; nevertheless, the
blog constitutes a substantial source of information. All the original material has
been written by a sole author, who is also the author of this paper. References for
the quoted material are given at the end of each post, and direct hyperlinks have
been provided since 2011 from most of the references to the full original sources.
Most of the posts are accompanied by an appropriate image.
The blog is hosted on Google’s Blogger platform (www.blogger.com), which has
proven to be a sufficiently robust and user-friendly application for the purpose.
Blogger is physically located in the Google “cloud,” which makes it possible to
compose, manage and archive the blog, despite its size, from a small, inexpensive
netbook computer.
The declared topics are Natural Translation, Native Translation and Language
Brokering. These terms, along with the complementary terms Expert Translation
and Professional Translation, are defined within the blog itself, as will be de-
scribed below. While most of the posts remain focused on the declared topics,
there are many, perhaps a quarter, which are not, though they have some connec-
tion with translating. Examples of the latter are the posts on fictional translators
(e.g. Mr Melas in Conan Doyle’s The Greek Interpreter); the annual “Christmas
Diversions,” which trace the migration of familiar fairy stories from their first
translations into English to their popular cultural adaptations on the British stage
(Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker); obituaries, for example, of the
bilingualism psychologist Wallace Lambert; and, last but not least, biographies
of Professional Expert Translators, notably the influential Egyptian of the Arab
Awakening, Tahtawi.
In this case, the blog format was decided for both personal and professional
reasons. There is a literature now about the pros and cons of blog publication
from a professional viewpoint. 2 Some of the criticism of conventional publication
can be found on what is itself a blog, The Future of Scientific Publication (http://
futureofscipub.wordpress.com/). The main disadvantages of conventional publi-
cation are:

Lörscher (2005). Unprofessional Translation was intended to catch the eye and not for use as a
technical term.
2. A sample of it is given in the post UT #1# 7-28-2013.
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 31

1. The paucity of specialised reviewers who are competent in the designated area
of research. Of the many experts on translation theory, for example, few know
anything about translation by children;
2. The time taken by the review and publication process, typically one to two
years from submission of a paper or presentation at a conference to its appear-
ance in print. A blogger, on the contrary, publishes a post as soon as it is ready
for reading: wake up with a bright idea in the morning, make it known to the
world for evaluation and suggestions by evening.

Time taken is crucial for the present author, who has reached an advanced age
at which his survival for another two years is statistically uncertain. In addition,
he has long since passed the stage at which he needs to further his career by pub-
lications that will be credited by university or fund-granting committees. He is
therefore free to choose how to publish.
In any case, the “learned” publications are addressed to very elite, restricted
readerships, and indeed many of them, including doctoral dissertations, are little
read at all. They may be expensive to produce and therefore to acquire. On the
contrary, blogs are open, free and usually written in an easily understood style.
In short, insofar as they are science, they are popular science. This is important
for translatology, because the widespread complaint that the general public does
not appreciate translating and translators at their true worth is partly due to the
lack of suitable writings. 3
On the other hand, blog publication has serious drawbacks. The worst one is
that blogs are not taken seriously by the academic community, which is still stuck
in an earlier mould:
The essential drawbacks of the current system of scientific publishing are all
connected to the particular way that peer review is used to evaluate papers. In
particular, the current system suffers from a lack of quality and transparency
of the peer review process, a lack of availability of evaluative information about
papers to the public, and excessive costs incurred by a system, in which private
publishers are the administrators of peer review. These problems can all be ad-
dressed by open post-publication peer review (OPR). Together with open access
(OA), which is generally accepted as desirable, OPR will revolutionize scientific
publishing. (Kriegeskorte 2012)

Another is assessing the readership. Unprofessional Translation currently has 164

“Followers,” i.e. people who have registered as regular readers. Of course, this does
not mean that they all read every post. In contrast, many of the Comments, and of

3. An exception that breaks the academic mould is the recent book Found in Translation written
by Kelly and Zetzsche (2012).
32 Brian Harris

the emails that are directly received by the blog’s author, come from people who
are not Followers. For some of the Followers, profiles are available; however, it is
not clear from the profiles whether they have a serious interest in the topics of the
blog. The posts that have received the most attention from commenters are not
those the blog’s author would have wished. The Comments also attract undesira-
bles, particularly the people who use them as a pretext for advertising their own
translation services.
Finally, there is the internal organisation of this particular blog and of blogs in
general. The order of the posts is strictly chronological. This makes it complicated
to locate and follow threads about a particular topic. Users cannot be expected to
trace them themselves through the 280 posts. Fortunately there are some aids built
into Blogger. Labels and tags can be added to posts that can be grouped by them.
There is also the Search box on the right-hand side of each page, which enables
more specific searching by keywords. Nonetheless, those search tools throw the
onus back on readers to assemble the posts meaningfully themselves, and for that
they need quite expert knowledge of the tags and keywords used.
In what follows, therefore, some examples will be given that assemble infor-
mation from the blog. The references to the blog are given by post date, and take
the format month-day-year preceded by UT. To find a post quickly, write the date
out in full in the Search box that appears on the right-hand column of every page;
for example, to access UT 9-12-2009, enter September 12 2009 in the Search box.

2. The Natural Translation Hypothesis (NTH) and its extensions

This is the most important of the topics, because it is the most fundamental. It
concerns the origin and natural development of the quasi-universal human ability
to translate.
The thread should begin with the statement of a precursor, the Bulgarian
semiotician Aleksandăr Lûdskanov (1969): “By intuition and habit, all bilingual
people can translate in some way or other.” 4
A definition of natural translator was given early on in the post UT 7-13-2009:
Natural Translators
These are people who do translation of a simple kind without having had any
training in translation, either formal or informal. They have been observed
among very young children, though natural translation (NT) is by no means

4. There is a post on “Alexander Ludskanov and Natural Translation” (UT 12-6-2009). There is
also a post (UT 12-9-2009) about a fairly recent Italian translation, edited by another semiotician,
Bruno Osimo, of the theoretical part of his magnum opus (Lûdskanov 2008).
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 33

limited to them. The very young onset age of NT strongly suggests an element of
innate capability, though we do not know what form that might take – specifically
linguistic or some more general power of conversion. Such translators may be
stimulated by real communication needs, as in the case of the immigrant chil-
dren, called language brokers, who translate for their families; or they may trans-
late spontaneously or even just for fun. They perform in everyday circumstances
in which they are not out of their depth in what is being said. They have some
awareness of what is a “good” or “correct” translation, but it’s unsophisticated.

Substance was already given to the probability of an innate component by the

data in a much earlier paper, “Translation as an Innate Skill” (Harris & Sherwood
1978). 5 However, it leaves open the question of whether it might be “specifically
linguistic or some more general power of conversion,” of which translating is mere-
ly an application. The “power of conversion” is adumbrated in UT 7-25-2009. It is
likened to converting currencies or the mental representations of the controls of
different models of cars. In addition, it is hinted that besides the conversion ability
itself, “The mind can also compare the product of a conversion with the original,
and judge its equivalence.” Much of the modern writing about translation centres
on the meaning of equivalence (Kenny 1998).
Concerning natural translation itself, it is emphasised that although research
has concentrated on children, 6 NT is far from restricted to the young. The post UT
10-27-2010 bears the title “Natural Translation Has No Age Limit” and recounts
the contribution to understanding made at a dinner party by a Spanish/English
bilingual lady:
She was born and brought up in Spain and left school at age 14. She had no higher
education. At 16 she went to England as an au pair girl… There she married a
unilingual Englishman and stayed in England for some 50 years. So her English
became fluent, though she still has a heavy accent which leaves you in no doubt
that she isn’t a native speaker. She returned to live in Spain 12 years ago. She had
no training in translation, not even an English language course. She therefore
conformed to the two basic elements in the definition of a Natural Translator:
1. No training in translation
2. Translating in everyday circumstances.

5. This data has been criticised as “anecdotal.” Nevertheless, it consists largely of observations
by trained linguists.
6. The First International Conference on Non-professional Interpreting and Translation
(NPIT1) was held practically on the eve of the 100th anniversary of publication of the first
account by a trained linguist describing development of the ability to translate in a very young
child. This was Ronjat (1913). See also UT 6-1-2013.
34 Brian Harris

In the direction of development from the initial natural capability, the blog offers
a full model of development stages with definitions. These are best set out in the
diagram (Figure 1) that illustrates UT 11-12-2010.

The Progression
from Natural to Expert Translator

Natural Translator
Typically children

Native Translator
Beginner

Language Broker

... Advanced

Professional Translator

Expert Translator
By formal traning / By mentorship

Figure 1. From natural to expert translator

Native Translators are

bilinguals who have been exposed to and influenced by examples: examples of
other people translating and examples of translations done by other people. Here
too I’ve realised that the categorisation is too crude. There’s a large gap between
what a school-age child absorbs and what, say, a literary translator has learnt by
years of reading that includes translations. Hence the need to distinguish between
Beginner Native Translator and Advanced Native Translator.

A noteworthy departure from the traditional terminology is the distinction be-

tween Professional Translator and Expert Translator:
Professional Translator means someone who does translating as a livelihood,
whether full time or part time. The reality is that many professional translators
are not well trained or qualified, even though you have a right to expect them to be
if you’re paying them well (but not if you’re underpaying them). And on the other
hand, there are many people who can translate as well as the Experts but who
don’t do it as a profession. They’re common among academics; colleagues have
occasionally taken time from their own work to translate an article for me. When
Samuel Moore, a lawyer by profession, translated the Communist Manifesto into
English for Marx and Engels – surely a challenge with them looking over his
shoulder – he did so out of friendship and conviction.
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 35

3. Language brokering 7

NPIT1 drew many contributions to this phenomenon, including the keynote

speech by Marjorie Orellana (Orellana this volume). Indeed, there was a whole
section on it. Because of its prevalence in the United States, it is perhaps the most
researched application of Natural and Beginner Native Translation.
However, most of the literature about language brokering concerns the ser-
vice rendered by the bilingual children of immigrant families to their elders for
dealings with the surrounding community, especially the Hispanic community
in the United States. Perhaps one of the blog’s most important innovations has
been to extend the concept to the interpreting done by organised groups of bilin-
guals within their schools, first reported in a Canadian paper of 1995 (Bullock &
Harris 1997). The best example of the latter is the series of posts that describe the
Young Interpreter movement in today’s amazingly multilingual United Kingdom
(UT 3-19-2013, 3-24-2013, 4-21-2013, 5-4-2013), and also beyond as far as Jordan
(UT 7-23-2013).

4. Church interpreting

This topic has drawn the most comments from practising interpreters, most of
whom could be classed as Native Interpreters. A study of church interpreting in
South-Western Nigeria reports:
Interpreters in spiritual gatherings in the Yoruba speaking lands of Nigeria are
not trained interpreters. They know nothing about the rules guiding the pro-
fession. They are simply bilingual with a deep knowledge of the subject matter.
(UT 9-15-2010)

Certainly, only a few church interpreters, sign language interpreters in the United
States, appear to be professionals at it. On the contrary, most of them regard it as
an offering to their church, an attitude that is given prominence in Hokkanen’s
paper to NPIT1 (Hokkanen this volume).
It is a branch of interpreting that deserves to be much better known, both for
its long history since antiquity (UT 7-29-2009) and for its present-day prevalence
throughout the world. A post (UT 8-9-2009) recounts the present author’s first
encounter with it, which took place at an open-air service on a university cam-
pus in West Africa and involved a single interpreter. It was on that occasion that
he first observed the “mimicry” style of consecutive interpreting used by many

7. For the blog’s many examples of it, enter language brokering in the Search box.
36 Brian Harris

church interpreters (UT 8-11-2009). Later, he learnt that church interpreting is not
confined to consecutive interpreting but may be simultaneous (UT 8-27-2009); in
addition, far from being carried out by a lone interpreter, it sometimes involves
one of the largest interpreting organisations in the world (UT 4-10-2010). This is
the interpreters for the annual general conferences of the Mormon church (The
Church of the Latter-day Saints), known for short as Conference. Most of the
work is done in simultaneous at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City,
but some is done at remote sites through a tie line telephone network and some
even more remotely.
Conference is interpreted live in up to 92 languages – 52 in the conference
center, 28 via the remote Tieline system and another dozen on-site in countries
across the world… In all it takes 800 people, including hundreds of interpreters
and dozens of support staff.

5. Religious (written) translation

Religious written translation is far better documented than religious interpreting

and has publications of its own. Yet it has not been given the importance that it
deserves in “mainstream” translation studies. Where are the courses on it in the
dozens of translation MAs and PhDs? There are many courses on literary transla-
tion, yet it can be argued that religious translation has had and still has a greater
impact on the transfer of cultures and languages. In general, it is not for Natural
Translators, because it usually requires advanced knowledge of the religions them-
selves and their theologies. Nevertheless, it has engaged many Native Translators
who have worked at it without thought of remuneration. One may wonder how
Joseph Smith translated The Book of Mormon into English (Skousen 1998), but
there is no doubt that the principal translator of its first Spanish edition, Melitón
G. Trejo (1886), was an altruistic Native Translator who finished his life cultivating
fruit trees (UT 9-29-2012).
The blog had the good luck to coincide with the celebrations for the 400th an-
niversary of publication of the King James Bible in 1611. The translators and revis-
ers were, almost without exception, non-professional Expert or Advanced Native
Translators (UT 1-13-2011). But another post regretfully called it “The Academic
non-event of the year” (UT 10-20-2011).
Surprisingly, one of the early religious translations cited by the blog is by a
child, and a child who is far from anonymous. This is the long religious poem
translated from French to English by the Lady Elizabeth, later to be Queen
Elizabeth I of England, for her stepmother (Prescott 1985). She was 11 years old
at the time (UT 12-31-2011).
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 37

6. Wartime interpreting

Military interpreting is a better-known branch of interpreting, due to its essen-

tial role in several modern wars. Although it too has a documented history since
antiquity, it has taken the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to make the general
public aware of it. On the blog, it begins with first-hand accounts of the Korean
War and especially of the negotiations at Panmunjom that ended it for the time
being in 1953 (UT 5-24-2010).
The developmental range of military interpreters is wide, from Natural
Interpreters recruited in the USA for service in the Middle East and paid profes-
sional salaries, to fully trained professionals. Robert Ekvall (1960), for example,
whose book Faithful Echo is one of the best accounts of Panmunjom, was a sea-
soned military interpreter from World War II. In contrast, the blog was fortunate
enough to attract a contribution from one of the surviving Panmunjom inter-
preters, Richard Underwood, thanks to the good offices of researcher Mariela
Fernández (UT 5-24-2010). Underwood says of himself (UT 6-3-2010),
I have never been a professional translator. Rather I was a bilingual interpreter
in the US army and was assigned to interpret… I always felt inadequate for this
task in view of my total lack of training in the Korean language. I had just learned
it naturally growing up and playing with Korean children and surrounded by
Korean adults who were educated and sophisticated in their language.

There were equally inexperienced members of the Chinese delegation, like

Chaozhu Ji, one of its leading interpreters:
The experience had transformed me from a clumsy, Chinese-challenged universi-
ty student on the science-doctorate track into a member of China’s foreign policy
apparatus, a low level cadre in the Foreign Ministry. I had studied hard and could
now actually read The People’s Daily. (UT 5-23-2010)

The Panmunjom interpreting was “small beer,” however, compared with the re-
sources needed for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It was there that the colloquial
term terp came into use for a military interpreter. The need was so great that
generous “bounty money” was being offered to recruiters (UT 12-3-2011). A post
entitled “The Go-Betweens” (UT 7-11-2011) goes into their functions in some detail
and describes the changes in their preparedness over time:
Military or intelligence terps are divided into two distinct sub-groups: “hyphen-
ated” Afghans with residence in the United States – unprofessional but fluent
in the local languages and in English; and “native” Afghans, hired locally and
sometimes illiterate, but who are gifted with the ability to ingest and mimic the
tongues of foreigners. (Michael Griffin, quoted in UT 7-11-2011)
38 Brian Harris

The illiterate ones are probably close to being Natural Translators, the others
Native Translators.
Meanwhile, wartime interpreting does not end with strictly military inter-
preting. Recent conflicts have also been remarkable for another newly expanded
phenomenon, namely media coverage. The armies, especially the American ones,
have been accompanied by battalions of print and media journalists. Operating in
countries whose languages they cannot speak or understand, they too have been
dependent on interpreters and written translators. Operating usually outside the
immediate battle zone, their role has been closer to that of liaison interpreters;
moreover, like liaison interpreters elsewhere, their function often goes beyond
translating. They become intermediaries between reporters and the local people
they want to interview or obtain permits from, and the eyes and ears of their em-
ployers. Thus has arisen the profession of fixer. There are two blog posts dedicated
to them (UT 11-19-2009, 3-21-2010), and the second of these summarises a chapter
in Åsne Seierstad’s (1993) book The Bookseller of Kabul about a fixer named Tajmir.
Tajmir is liaison interpreter for an American journalist called Bob. Since both he
and Bob are employed by “a large American magazine,” he must be considered
a Professional. Indeed his motivation is strictly Money. When the journalists
streamed into Kabul [in the wake of the Taliban retreat] the American magazine
picked him up. They offered to pay in one day what he was normally paid in two
weeks. He thought about his poor family…
Tajmir is a Native Translator. He speaks exceptionally good English thanks
to the education forced on him by his ambitious mother.

It should be emphasised that the work of the wartime interpreter – translators

does not end at the cease fire. After it comes the transition period of negotiations
between the belligerents and the problems of the inhabitants of the conquered
or occupied territories. Several posts recount the flight of Slovenes through the
Alps from their country to Southern Austria at the end of World War II, and
one in particular is about how a young medical student, Jerzé Jancar, teamed up
with a young Englishman, John Corsellis (who is still alive), to act as the latter’s
interpreter in running a refugee camp hygienically (UT 2-12-2011). He did so at
the bidding of an older colleague, Valentin Meršol, who had learnt good English
during his medical training and was called in to interpret between the Slovenian
National Council and the British victors in the area (UT 2-2-2011).
There was one paper on military interpreting at NPIT1, an interesting histor-
ical account about a war that has been largely forgotten outside Finland, where
it took place (Kujamäki 2012). However, more could have been expected from an
area that generates so much non-professional activity.
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 39

7. Medical interpreting

This is a very sensitive area because of the potential consequences of even a minor
mistranslation, and especially so when the interpreters pressed into service are
children. Thus, the post UT 4-13-2013 begins:
Let me make it clear from the start that I share the concerns of Professional Expert
medical interpreters and many other people about letting immigrant children
translate between family members and health care staff.

and lists the reasons why. Nevertheless, it goes on, “the reality is that a great deal
of ad hoc medical interpreting for immigrants is still done by their children.” It is
also done by untrained adults. Among the reasons are the following:

–– Lack of trained interpreters at the time and place and in the languages re-
quired, a factor especially apparent in emergencies;
–– Lack of money to pay Professional Interpreters;
–– Familiarity and confidence between patients and interpreters they know.

Emergency situations are illustrated by the heroism of a boy:

A bilingual 4th grader [11 years old] hurt in an Arizona bus accident that killed
six people and injured more than a dozen others translated from an ambulance
stretcher for busy rescue workers as they hurried to set up a triage center.
(UT 10-3-2010) 8

The thread has been further enriched by two first-hand personal testimonials: one
from an adult and the other from childhood memories.
The first is from the present writer, who was called in to interpret for a fellow
Englishman who was stricken with dementia in a Spanish coastal town. Although
an experienced conference interpreter, I had no training or experience as a med-
ical interpreter and so could not be considered more than a Native Translator in
this specialised area. Indeed, it is a super-specialised area, since interpreting for a
patient with a cognitive and language impairment like dementia imposes extra dif-
ficulties of understanding and making understood. Consequently, I made mistakes
in the beginning. The experience is recounted at some length in UT 16-10-2010,
17-10-2010, 20-10-2010, 27-10-2010, 1-1-2011, 8-11-2011.
The second testimonial is from somebody in California, now adult, who recalls
how she used to interpret for her mother from fourth grade on:

8. This item was supplied by Marjorie Faulstich Orellana.

40 Brian Harris

If I had not been there my mom would not have had anyone to translate for her.
Professional interpreters are expensive and a lot of times, my mother was ex-
pected to be able to provide her own translator when it came to understanding
documents or speaking with someone about medical business…
When it came to just naming body parts and symptoms, I was usually good at
that, but there were a lot of terms that I did not understand in either Vietnamese
or English.
I learned a lot of things during those visits. I learned as a fourth grader that
women have eggs inside of them. I learned that many conditions have the same
symptoms, so that regardless of the illness, a patient, like my mother, would often
repeat words such as hurt, nausea, and dizziness.
That was when the doctor would have to explain his side of the conversation.
He would tell me what the issue was in English, and I would try my best to regur-
gitate the explanation in Vietnamese…
This job wasn’t always easy, but it was an important part of family life in my
immigrant family. (UT 13-4-2013)

8. Court interpreting

From time to time, somebody asks me when I think non-Professional translators

(by which they mean non-Expert in my terminology) should not be used… I
usually start by answering:
When the translation may have legal implications or consequences, it’s not just
a question of quality. A translation by an Advanced Native Translator may be
just as good per se. It’s also a matter of authority. If the translation is ever used as
evidence or called into question in legal proceedings, then it won’t be necessary to
go through some procedure to establish the translator’s ability if that has already
been tested and sanctioned by some recognised body. One obvious area where
the translating should carry such authority is court interpreting. But notice I say
“should carry.” The observable reality is that the precept can’t always be followed.
There are many reasons, but one of the most common is that adequately qualified
interpreters aren’t available at the right place at the right time, and this is often
due to the languages involved. Another reason which arises these days is that
the interpreters have been trained in the traditional mode for court interpreting,
which is consecutive interpreting, but the powers-that-be have decided to import
modern technology and switch to simultaneous interpreting.  (UT 1-18-2012)

Several posts on the blog commented on the linguistic and technical shortcomings
of the Shafia murder hearings in Canada, where the above problems arose (UT
2-15-2020, 2-18-2010, 2-28-2010, 3-7-2011, 6-2-2011, 11-6-2011).
 Chapter 2. Unprofessional translation 41

9. Sports interpreting

Starting, in modern times, with the revived Olympic Games, international sports
events have become ever more popular and frequent. Furthermore, today, there
are so many exchanges of players from different countries between teams that
language problems arise even within the teams. Yet this is another area neglected
by academia, even though an important part of it is actually served by Professional
Expert conference interpreters.
There are some posts that touch on the professional component, due to the
present author’s own experiences at the Montreal Olympics of 1976 (UT 21-2-2010,
27-7-2012). At the same time, however, care is taken:
to draw attention to the army of other interpreters at the Games, the Liaison
Interpreters. Unlike us conference interpreters huddled away in our booths, they
wear smart uniforms and are to be seen walking around everywhere at all such
international events. Some are temporarily professionals, some are volunteers.
But they aren’t engaged as interpreters and they aren’t recognized as such. They’re
called hostesses and hosts. Of course they have a lot of other duties besides inter-
preting, but they usually have to be bilingual, and it’s not sufficiently appreciated
that translating and interpreting are often ancillary parts of other jobs (bilingual
secretary, for example). (UT 21-2-2010)

There are also examples of sportspersons helping their fellow sportspersons in

the international game of baseball, where the interpreter was honoured for his
work (UT 16-12-2012,) and in the very local game of Valencian pilota handball
(UT 1-3-2010).

10. Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing, as applied to translating, means “outsourcing” a translation, usu-

ally in chunks, to a varying community of translators, usually Native Translators
and often unpaid volunteers. It has come to have a wide variety of applications,
several of which have been recognised in the blog: for example, subtitling of videos
(UT 12-19-2009). One particularly fecund source is Wikipedia, for which hundreds
of unsung translators have laboured. This community is being surveyed by Julie
McDonough Dolmaya of York University in Toronto (2011a; 2011b; UT 8-22-2011).
Given the advanced cognitive difficulty of Wikipedia texts, it rules out Natural
Translators; however, according to her figures, over two-thirds of Wikipedia trans-
lators are Advanced Native Translators.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
"Has this tomb ever been opened?" asked Harriet.
"Yes. In my father's time."
"And what did they find within?"
"A good deal of armour, and a few bones."
"Delightful! If I were you, Mr. Haveloc, I would make a point of
being buried in it myself," said Harriet, laughing. Those persons who
think little of preparing for death, are always the most cheerful and
ready in talking about it.
"I would not intrude upon him," said Mr. Haveloc. "I should be very
scrupulous of usurping the last home of any man."
"Oh! you are quite a saint, I hear, Mr. Haveloc," said Harriet, gaily.
"Very good hearing," said Mr. Haveloc; "but, saint, or not, I have no
idea of squeezing into this tomb along with the old Dane!"
Margaret, feeling more and more sick and faint, held by the altar rail
while they were talking. His neglect of herself; his easy intimacy with
the others, struck her to the heart. She had no reason to expect that
he would meet her with any emotion, but still this coldness, all the
keener from being perfectly unstudied, affected her more than she
could have anticipated.
Now, the fact was, he had not recognised her; being extremely near-
sighted, and not at all expecting to see her, he had imagined Lady
Raymond had said "Miss Campbell," when she named Margaret; a
young lady whom he had met at her house, but of whose person he
had not a more distinct idea than of that of the Empress of China.
The first thing that started her from her reverie, was a laugh from
Mr. Haveloc.
"Look at Mrs. Gage, with all those orange and green panes upon her
face," he exclaimed.
Lucy laughed heartily; Harriet started on one side: "Do go back
again, Harriet," she cried; "you have no idea how droll it looked."
"Thank you; take your turn, if you please," said Harriet.
"How vain she is!" cried Lucy; "do you stand there, Mr. Haveloc?"
He complied with her request; and both sisters were extremely
amused by the effect produced. Any trifle would serve to set them
laughing; they were always in high spirits.
"Oh! but we have not seen the altar-cloth," said Lucy, recovering
herself.
It was covered with brown Holland, and Mr. Haveloc went to the rail,
where Margaret was standing, to go up to the altar and take off the
cover.
"Permit me," he said politely to Margaret, as he passed her.
The tears rushed to her eyes, but she bravely forced them back, and
tried to still her agitation.
"Good gracious!" said Harriet, far more struck with this finery, than
the exquisite architecture of the church; "where did you get this
beautiful work?"
"At Bruges," he replied.
"Oh, Heavens! done by Roman Catholic fingers. How horribly wicked
you are—and yet it is so exquisite, that I really—"
"What day will you dine with us, Mr. Haveloc?" said Lucy, leaning
over the rail.
"Whenever you please to command me, Lady Raymond," he replied.
"Raymond would be so pleased if we brought you back with us; he
thinks you still in town," said Lady Raymond.
Poor Margaret! the idea of driving back with him in the same
carriage.
"I cannot make it out to-day, I have so many things to do," he said.
"You will like to come," said Harriet, "because Everard is staying with
us, and you knew all the Gages, did you not?"
"You are staying there, Mrs. Gage, is not that sufficient?"
"Oh, if I was but single," exclaimed Harriet, who never hesitated
saying what was uppermost in her mind, "how I would try to catch
you!"
"Why did you never do me that honour when you had it in your
power, Mrs. Gage?" said Mr. Haveloc, laughing.
"Because, Mr. Haveloc, I had not then seen your altar-cloth."
"Your sister uses me very ill," said he, turning to Lady Raymond;
"she would have me believe that all my merits lie in that altar-cloth."
"What did it cost, Mr. Haveloc?" said Harriet.
"Will you confess to the cost of your chestnut, if I tell you?"
"Agreed."
"Three hundred guineas."
"You don't say so!"
"And the chestnut?"
"The very sum."
"But my cloth will outlast your horse."
"Well, I allow that," said Harriet; "but it does not follow that you are
the less extravagant of the two."
"You are both horridly extravagant," said Lucy, "but say when you
will dine with us."
"Mr. Haveloc," said Harriet, beckoning him close to her, "another
attraction, Mrs. Fitzpatrick is with us."
His agitation quite satisfied Harriet; he started, coloured, tried to
speak very calmly, and turned to Lady Raymond.
"Will your ladyship allow me to say to-morrow?"
"By all means," she said, "if you cannot really come to-day."
"I wish I could," he replied.
Another confirmation for Margaret, if she had needed it. The whole
chancel seemed swimming round.
She asked Harriet in a low voice if she knew how late it was.
"No, ma mie, enlighten me," said Harriet.
Margaret showed her watch.
"The fact is, you are quite tired child," said Harriet, looking
attentively at her face.
"Quite—the heat—" faltered Margaret.
"Then we will go at once," said Mrs. Gage with her usual decision.
Mr. Haveloc was trying to persuade Lady Raymond to go on to
Tynebrook, to see some Vandykes, and taste some particular black
grapes.
Lucy was hesitating.
"No, no, no!" said Harriet, coming between them, "you will be late, I
tell you; and you know that half a hundred formal people are coming
to dinner. You will get into sad disgrace."
Lucy decided at once to go home, and Mr. Haveloc gave her his arm,
and walked with them through the church-yard to the carriage.
"Mr. Haveloc," said Harriet, "we are going to act a French vaudeville;
the parts are not all filled. Will you take one?"
"I regret that my genius does not lie that way;" he said, "what is the
play?"
"'La Demoiselle á marier.' Lucy is too idle to act—her forte is in
tableaux. I am going to be the mother; Lord James Deacon, the
friend; the father is to be forthcoming when we want him, and as
Lady James won't take the lover, which is a shame, for she has an
excellent figure for it; I don't very well see how you can be off—"
"I should put you out. I have no turn for the stage; and, besides, I
am not familiar with French," he said, "if it had been Italian now—"
"Oh! you speak it as well as we do, I dare say," said Lucy, "you had
better take it, I think."
"We will talk it over to-morrow," said Harriet as he put her into the
carriage.
"And who plays the 'Demoiselle á marier?'" he asked.
"We want to persuade Miss Campbell," said Lucy, "because she sings
well, and speaks French beautifully; better, I believe than any
Englishwoman ever did."
"Ah!" said Mr. Haveloc, turning with a smile to Margaret, "and are
you so very difficult then to persuade?"
He was handing her into the carriage as he spoke; as she seated
herself her face was directly before him, pale as a marble statue—
dim—reproachful.
"Spectre-smitten!" said Harriet as the carriage swept away, "what
was the matter, Margaret?"
"The—matter—" said Margaret, speaking with difficulty.
"I am sure we will not let him off acting, after that start," continued
Harriet. "Hamlet is nothing to him. I wonder which of us is so very
horribly ugly," she continued, laughing, "depend upon it, the man
has murdered somebody in his day."
"Harriet! what horrid ideas you have," said Lucy, leaning back very
comfortably, "the notion of poor Mr. Haveloc having murdered any
one. Don't you think, Miss Capel, it is a beautiful church?"
"Very," said Margaret.
"She has a head-ache; don't talk to her," said Harriet, decidedly.
Lady Raymond was shocked and concerned; and offered Margaret
her vinaigrette and her Eau de Cologne, and reproached herself for
undertaking so long a drive in the heat.
Margaret tried to smile and thank her, and by the use of the flaçon
to still the trembling of her nerves.
"Oh! I see, Margaret," said Harriet, suddenly, "he took you for Miss
Campbell, and when he was putting you into the carriage he found
his mistake; that made him look so èbahi; but I should not have
fancied him to be such a shy person."
"Never was anybody less shy," said Lucy.
"He did look thunderstruck, to be sure," said Harriet. "Margaret, why
did you not speak to him before?"
Margaret roused herself. "I believe I am shy Harriet," she said.
"Do you think him handsome, Harriet?" asked Lucy playing with the
fringe of her parasol.
"Of course not," said Harriet, "he is as dark as a Moor."
"I don't think that an objection," said Lucy. "I rather like that sort of
expressive face. I fancy a painter would never be tired of watching
him."
"We must get him for Alphonse;" said Harriet musing, "he looks
foreign; and he is graceful in his gestures. Then, if Margaret prefers
Everard, what a chance for Miss Campbell. Lucy! Ah! stop the
carriage! Thompson, a glass of water—there is a cottage—run—Miss
Capel has fainted!"
 CHAPTER XII.
Org. Time can never
On the white table of unguilty faith
Write counterfeit dishonour.
FORD.
"It was the heat, Harriet, indeed. Mrs. Fitzpatrick will tell you that I
cannot bear hot weather," said Margaret earnestly.
"Mrs. Fitzpatrick is not in the room, ma mie," said Harriet, taking a
chair just opposite to Margaret. "I certainly never knew such a
heroine as you are. Going down to dinner after an obstinate fainting
fit; divinely dressed, and looking like a very pale angel. Now I have
said a generous thing, because I see your white dress is more
prettily made than mine; but I make a great exertion and forgive
you."
Margaret smiled.
"Well now, Margaret, what was it? This is the second time of asking.
Beware of the third."
"I have told you, dear Harriet," said Margaret. "I was not well when
I came. I felt wretchedly all yesterday, and Mrs. Fitzpatrick thought
the journey had been too much for one day; she means to divide it
when we go back."
"When you go back! That will not be while I am here, I can tell you,"
said Harriet. "Oh! I do wish Margaret that you were married. I hate
single women!"
"I really cannot help that, Harriet," said Margaret.
"I told you all about my affair with George;" said Harriet with
emphasis.
"True, dear Harriet, but I was not a married woman!" said Margaret,
trying to rally her spirits.
"If you think I should repeat any-thing to George, you are quite
mistaken," said Harriet, "he may think himself very well off if I
confide to him my own affairs."
"But, indeed, dear Harriet, I have no affairs to confide;" persisted
poor Margaret.
"You cannot be in love with Mr. Haveloc;" said Harriet musing, and
trying to recall what happened at Chirke Weston, the only time she
saw them both together.
"In love with him—no!" said Margaret drawing herself up, and
speaking with energy.
"Brava! you handsome little creature;" cried Harriet catching her in
her arms, and covering her with kisses, "but come, it is a dull party
to-day, but we will make up for it to-morrow."
If it was a dull party, it was at least a very large one. The drawing-
room was full. Lady Raymond, with jewels in her dress and hair, was
standing by a vase of flowers, showing something choice to one of
the guests. Lord Raymond came in quietly, spoke to the company,
went up to his wife and looked at her dress, took hold of one of her
ornaments, with some curiosity, and then stood on the hearth-rug
until dinner was ready.
Margaret was assigned to Everard Gage, who never talked if he
could help it; and she felt the luxury of repose and silence during
this grand, tedious dinner.
When they were again in the drawing-room, the ladies divided into
little knots according to their tastes and degrees of intimacy. Mrs.
Fitzpatrick was seated in one of the windows; Margaret at a stand
near her, looking over some prints; Harriet was discussing, with Miss
Campbell and Lady James Deacon, the French vaudeville they meant
to act.
Lady Raymond, whose feelings, though not very deep, were kindly,
seated herself beside Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"We met a very old friend of yours to-day, quite unexpectedly," she
said in a low voice.
"Indeed!" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick with great interest. "Was it Mr.
Haveloc? Is he at Tynebrook?"
"He is just arrived," said Lucy, "and he dines with us to-morrow. I
thought you would like to know."
"Thank you; I shall be truly glad to see him;" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick
with a sigh.
"I know it all," said Lucy in a sympathising tone. "Raymond told me
he was engaged to my poor cousin." For Lady Raymond having
adopted Mrs. Fitzpatrick to that degree of relationship, extended the
kindred to her lost daughter.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick was truth itself; there was no occasion to enter into
detail; but she could not avoid correcting an erroneous statement of
facts.
"He is a very intimate and tried friend of mine," she said; "but he
was not engaged, nor even attached to my daughter in the common
sense of the word. He did not form our acquaintance until after
Aveline had too clearly shown a tendency to the complaint which
destroyed her. There could have been no thought of marriage
between them; but being in my neighbourhood, during the latter
part of her illness, he paid me such frequent visits, that, had there
been any gossip in that solitary place, I dare say it would have
ascribed such a reason for his conduct. I am sure he was like a son
to me, at a time when I was deeply in need of support. And it is
possible that under other circumstances, if his heart was
disengaged, of which I am entirely ignorant, the regard and respect
that he felt for my daughter might have ripened into a permanent
attachment."
"Of course it would; it is just the same thing. How melancholy!" said
Lucy, with the usual amount of pity in her voice. "And so after all,
my dear Mrs. Fitzpatrick, you are to be the future mistress of
Tynebrook."
"Do be reasonable, my dear Lady Raymond," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick,
laughing. "I have always heard it considered hazardous for ladies to
think of single men as their brothers: but I never heard that the
same danger existed when they looked upon them as sons."
The prints fell from Margaret's hands. She sat listening—breathless—
with parted lips, and eyes fixed, to every word that Mrs. Fitzpatrick
uttered.
At first she could not think; she seemed turned to stone. Her next
feeling was a sense of oppression, which made her find the crowded
room intolerable. She looked cautiously round, and seeing every one
engaged in their own pursuits, she made her escape through one of
the open windows into the shrubbery.
And all this she might have known easily before. She must often
have been within a hair's breadth of knowing, when any-thing
moved Mrs. Fitzpatrick to some distant allusion to her daughter.
And two years had passed, during which she had been guilty of such
injustice, such baseness; for had she loved nobly, would she have
believed appearances against him? She, who was so slow to believe
evil of the most casual acquaintance. All her sorrow, all her agony
had been nothing to this corroding sense of shame to which she was
now delivered.
When she had believed herself sinned against, she knew where to
seek for alleviation; but how shield her heart from the intolerable
sting of believing herself to be the one in fault? To have ruined her
happiness for life through a narrowness of soul that refused to trust
implicitly the heart and honour of the man she had chosen!
To her high generosity of feeling the anguish that these reflections
brought with them was intolerable.
Sinking on a seat, she remained motionless—tearless; endeavouring
to still by the pressure of her hands, the wild beating of her heart.
And few people, after committing some deadly crime, would have
felt more conscience-stricken, more self-debased, than Margaret,
when she reproached herself for the ungenerous want of a romantic
confidence.
How long she sat there she knew not; but she was roused by the
clear voice of Harriet, among the shrubs exclaiming:
"Run, Everard! Why don't you run? How can you expect to find any
one at this snail's pace?"
"I do run," was the faint reply.
Margaret, thinking it better to declare herself, called to Harriet, who
was presently at her side. Everard Gage creeping slowly after.
Harriet turned to look at him.
"Come, make haste, and give Miss Capel your arm—or, no; run as
fast as you can to the house, and bring out a shawl."
Everard turned, and disappeared slowly down the walk.
"Well, now, ma mie," said Harriet, sitting down beside her; "was the
room too hot?"
"Yes; but it was rather the sound of so many voices that disturbed
me," said Margaret.
"Well, then, little one, go to bed," said Harriet. "If you sleep soundly,
you will be well to-morrow. I can't think what is come to the child;
her hands are as cold as ice."
Margaret took Harriet's arm, and returned to the house. At the
portico, they met Everard Gage, who had just succeeded in finding a
shawl. Harriet rallied him upon the haste he had made, attempted to
push him out of her path with the points of her slender fingers, and
led Margaret up the great staircase.
She helped to undress her with great care and quickness, brought
her some coffee, saw her drink it, and then desired her to go to
sleep.
Strange to say, she had not long been out of the room, before
Margaret obeyed her directions, and fell into a profound slumber.
Yielding to the advice of Mrs. Fitzpatrick, it was late in the morning
before she went down stairs.
As the day was very hot, the ladies had all agreed not to go out. The
evening was the gay time at Wardenscourt; and it was good policy
not to look fagged, when there were so many people always to
dinner.
Margaret found the ladies assembled, all at their worsted work,
except Harriet, who was playing with Lady James Deacon's little boy,
and enticing him to do all sorts of mischief to the ladies' work-
baskets.
Lady James had no objection that her darling should be amused at
the expense of worsteds and floss silks, so long as he kept his hands
out of her particular basket; and Harriet raced him round the room
like a kitten, trailing after him half a dozen brilliant-coloured balls.
Miss Campbell, who was pretty, in spite of her red hair, and
possessed all the mysterious powers of attracting the other sex,
common to ladies of that hue, became an object of serious interest
to Margaret.
She remembered Mr. Haveloc's smile, when he thought he was
speaking to Miss Campbell; she recollected that he had not positively
declined the part of Alphonse, and Miss Campbell seemed only to be
uncertain about accepting Camille, until she knew definitely, who
was to enact the lover.
As she reclined in a low arm-chair, displaying the most slender ancle
conceivable, and a thin foot incomparably shod, with her delicate
blue muslin dress, her exquisite collar, and piquante cap of blue
gauze artfully commingled with lace, Margaret thought that no one
could deny her the meed of remarkable elegance. True, that extreme
slenderness of form was adverse to an evening toilet, the neck and
arms gained considerably by being left to the imagination; but she
was exceedingly clever—talked good nonsense, laughed prettily, and
sang with great archness and point. She was certain of a crowd of
gentlemen round the piano, whenever she went to it: and Margaret
who had scarcely ever seen Mr. Haveloc in society, did not know at
all the style of person he generally admired. Harriet called her a
knitting pin, a javelin-woman, and every other term she could coin
expressive of her distaste for that style of beauty; but Harriet was no
guide in the present instance; no test of what Mr. Haveloc might like.
And feeling sure that she was, by her own act, for ever divided from
Mr. Haveloc, she was conscious of a feverish desire to know on
whom his choice would fall.
The ladies dispersed to dress rather earlier than usual, there were
three or four officers coming, and women seem aware that fine
clothes are never wasted upon men in that profession.
Margaret whose dress was always simple, came down soon into the
deserted drawing-room, and finding Mrs. Fitzpatrick reading at a
table, she joined her, and read over her shoulder. It was the
"Records of Woman." They looked as if grouped for a picture, and
Harriet who was coming in at the door-way with Mr. Haveloc, who
had just arrived, stopped him and bade him admire the attitude.
Margaret's face was turned from them, but her extended arm, as
white and rounded as that of a statue, was passed over Mrs.
Fitzpatrick's shoulder, tracing the lines with her finger. Mr. Haveloc
stayed a moment, in obedience to Mrs. Gage, then came abruptly up
to Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"My dear Mrs. Fitzpatrick!"
"Mr. Haveloc—this is a pleasure!"
Margaret withdrew her hand softly, and passing behind them, went
to one of the sofas and sat down beside Harriet. Mrs. Fitzpatrick and
Mr. Haveloc continued in earnest conversation. Directly after he had
spoken to her, he looked round as if to address Margaret, but finding
her gone, and people scattered between them, for the room was
now filling, he turned back again.
Margaret tried to keep up a conversation with Harriet; she took up
her fan, and asked Mrs. Gage to show her some of the Spanish
movements with it. Harriet, full of fun, complied. She showed her
how to say, "How are you—come, and see me," and other little
sentences of the kind; but she warned her that this accomplishment
did not depend solely on the dexterous handling of the fan, but
required to be seconded by the expression of the lady's eye.
Lord James Deacon wished to share the lesson; but at the first trial,
he endangered the ivory sticks, and Harriet took the fan from his
hand. Lucy declined a trial, and Everard got to the farthest end of
the room, behind the piano, because Harriet had already called to
him for a footstool. Lord Raymond said gravely that he did not think
the Spanish women could be much better than they should be; and
that he thought these tricks with fans were as bad as sending about
tulips, and cinders, and rubbish, as the women did in Turkey.
Lady Raymond laughed at him, and so did all the others. Miss
Campbell was wild to learn, and Margaret surrendered her place to
her; but dinner was announced before the lesson could proceed.
Margaret, as usual, was assigned to Everard Gage, and as usual they
went on very peaceably.
Mr. Haveloc was between Miss Campbell, and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, but he
appeared to devote all his attention to the latter lady. Lord James
Deacon treated Margaret with his usual insolent neglect; staring
hard at her when it suited him, and at other times neither
addressing a word to her, nor helping her to what she wanted at
table.
In the evening, Lady Raymond came up to Mr. Haveloc who was
standing by Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and renewed her entreaties that he
would take the part of Alphonse.
He declined, laughing—she pressed the point; she bought Lord
Raymond to press the point—still he laughed it off.
Nothing he should like better than to play, if he could; but it was a
weakness of his, that he could not overcome. He was too diffident to
succeed on the boards.
Harriet accused him of being a Saint.
He bowed to the compliment, and said he saw neither reason nor
precedent for saints to put on the buskin when they had no turn for
wearing it.
Lady James Deacon who had secretly destined him for her friend
Miss Campbell, now called on that young lady to persuade him.
Miss Campbell was sitting on a sofa making pencil alterations in a
song. She looked up with her quaint expression.
"Oh, don't teaze him!" she said, "I would not. Put his name down,
and send him a part-book, if you cannot get a better Alphonse."
She gave her speeches all the point in tone and manner of a good
actress. Mr. Haveloc took a seat by her side.
"Is that your advice, Miss Campbell?" he said, "they should make
you stage-manager."
"Lord James is stage-manager," she replied, without raising her eyes
from the sheet of music she was marking.
"Are you going to sing, Miss Campbell?" he asked.
"Oh! if I'm properly begged and prayed;" she returned, still making
dots on the paper on her knee.
"How much begging and praying do you require?"
"Try," she said, suddenly raising her quaint eyes.
Every body laughed, Mr. Haveloc as much as the rest.
"Everard!" cried Harriet, making way for him, "see if you possess
sufficient oratory to persuade Miss Campbell."
"Do," said he, putting on his softest look. They all laughed again.
Miss Campbell rose, and walked idly to the piano.
"No eloquence like the laconic," said Mr. Haveloc to Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"So I perceive," she said smiling, "it was equal to the Spartan—If."
But Miss Campbell having tried over the embellishments with her
right hand, rose from the instrument.
The officers surrounded her with various exclamations, she paid no
sort of attention to them, and resumed her seat beside Mr. Haveloc.
"What have we all done," said he, "that you disappoint us in this
manner."
"Nothing at all," said she, putting the music in his hand, "but
Schubert has done something, he has written this accompaniment in
so many flats, that it is beyond me to read, and sing at once."
"Then let some one accompany you."
"La chose est faisible," said she, "go and canvass for me."
"What do you want," asked Lady Raymond.
"Only a player," he returned, "will you be so charitable?"
"Oh! not at sight, I wish I could. Harriet!"
No; Harriet would not volunteer, she had her own private reasons,
which she would not reveal. The fact was, that she had made up her
mind to forward Margaret's interest with Mr. Haveloc, and to cross
Miss Campbell in her endeavours.
Lady James would not undertake Schubert, nor would Mrs. Leslie,
nor any of the Miss Veseys.
"Margaret will, I am sure," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
Margaret who had been detained in conversation by one of the
officers, who had heard she had a good fortune, rose, and proffered
her services. The officer, knowing he must undergo a certain amount
of trouble if he hoped to get her money, led her to the piano, and
arranged the music. Margaret took her place with the pleasing
consciousness that Mr. Haveloc was about a yard behind her,
listening with eager delight to the singer. It was well worth listening
to, never was a clearer, or sweeter voice, and her German was
perfect. Even Everard said, "He never had—" which was rather a
long sentence for him, and all united in begging for something else.
Miss Campbell allowed herself to be persuaded, and selected one of
Vestris's ballads.
"You will not want me for that, I think," said Margaret, looking up to
Miss Campbell.
"No, thank you very much, how beautifully you play," said Miss
Campbell, making way for her.
Some one moved a chair out of her path, it was Mr. Haveloc. She
bowed, glided quietly across the room, and sank into a chair, heart-
sick. Mr. Haveloc, who had followed her, leaned against a table by
her side. She felt so humbled now that she knew the real motives of
his conduct, that she did not venture to lift up her eyes, but sat with
her hands clasped listlessly in her lap, trying to feel calm and
composed. He remained silent for a few moments, finding it as
difficult as she did, to be calm.
"I did not know you, yesterday, Miss Capel," he said at last, "at least,
not till I had put you in the carriage. I am very near-sighted."
To tell her so! This was, indeed, proclaiming that he had forgotten all
their former intimacy. She looked up, trying to speak. There was a
pause. He stood playing with his eye-glass; he seemed to have
something else to say, and Margaret only hoped he would make
haste, for she felt as if she could not bear up much longer. At last he
said in a very low tone:
"We can never be entire strangers to each other; we have one
memory between us—the memory of your uncle."
Margaret tried to reply in vain. She was trembling so much, that she
feared she should fall from her chair. Mrs. Fitzpatrick came up to her
at the moment.
"Come, my child," she said, "I must send you to bed early until you
are quite strong again. Good night."
Margaret rose, gave a bow in passing to Mr. Haveloc, without daring
to raise her eyes, and made her way through the officers who were
standing round Harriet. Mrs. Gage relating to them the history of the
altar-cloth, and the officers laughing almost into convulsions, and
declaring that Mrs. Gage and the altar-cloth would certainly be the
death of all of them.
 CHAPTER XIII.
Mary. Why thinks King Henry's son that Margaret's love
Hangs in the uncertain balance of proud time?
That death shall make a discord of our thoughts?
GREENE.
Faithe is the first, and principally to tell,
And verie love requirith soche credence,
That eche beleve othir true as the gospel,
In true menyng and trustie confidence.
THE X COMMANDMENTS OF LOVE.
Margaret had promised to breakfast with Harriet every day in the
Oratory. When she went in the next morning, the room was vacant;
the table spread, the urn steaming, the tea made, and newspapers
laid ready. She took up one and seated herself to wait. Presently she
heard voices in the passage which divided the Oratory from Harriet's
room. The speakers were Harriet and Everard Gage.
"Why do you interfere with me?" said Everard, in a tone that would
have been cross but for the exertion.
"Because you are a slug," was Harriet's flattering reply, "I gave you
every chance for two days, and now I will take her away from you.
You shall not have her."
"A man can't make an offer in two days," said Everard.
"No, but he can make himself agreeable in half a day, instead of that
you have behaved like a stupid wax doll; and so I have settled to
give Miss Capel to some one else. And you can't help yourself!" said
Harriet in a tone of exultation that it was very difficult to bear
temperately.
"I like that," said Everard, "I shall ask George if it is right for you to
make matches."
A peal of laughter from Harriet, that threatened to be interminable—
in the midst of which George Gage, coming through the passage on
his way to the Oratory, was stopped by the disputants—and then
ensued a great deal of laughing from himself and Harriet, mixed with
a low, complaining noise from Everard, which soon sank into silence.
Margaret not caring to be found there, escaped to her own room,
and when she was summoned by Mrs. Thompson, she found all
three seated peaceably at the table. Everard sat next her, and after
handing her all she wanted, took a moss rose-bud from his coat, and
presented it to her. Margaret thanked him, and laid it by her plate.
Harriet snatched it up and put it in her own dress. Mr. Gage tried to
look serious, and Everard did not seem to know how to take it. But
he made no more attempts at conciliating Margaret during breakfast.
It was hard work at the best, but when there was another person
counteracting all you did, it was too gigantic an adventure.
"I will tell you some news, ma mie," said Harriet, "Bessy and Uncle
Gage will be here next week. Mr. Haveloc stays for the pigeon
shooting, the day after to-morrow; and Everard says he will read the
part of Alphonse at our rehearsals. And the play is to come off on
Monday."
"Haveloc will stay for the play, I suppose," said Mr. Gage.
"Oh, true!" said Harriet, "Lucy settled that with him, the last thing.
But he will not act—so provoking; I shall have to teach Everard, at
last."
"I cannot learn all that by heart," said Everard.
"Oh, yes, you will to please me!" said Harriet, "you will be so much
admired. Think how well you will look, so like a dear wax-work!"
"Then you must do something for me in return," said Everard.
"Oh! that is Jewish; but I will do several things, if you are quite
perfect."
"You know what I mean," said Everard.
"Yes, I know all about it," said Harriet, "there, take my part-book, go
down into the library, and have all that scene perfect before I come."
"Well, but where are you going? I could sit here, and you read it out
to me, I should learn it faster that way."
"Take him away, George, do!" cried Harriet stamping her foot.
The brothers disappeared together, and Harriet remained leaning
against the window, making some mental calculations, which she
seemed counting on her fingers.
"Yes," she said to herself, at last, "I will amuse Everard with Miss
Campbell, and then Margaret—"
Margaret started in fear.
"Margaret!" said Harriet, "I have resolved that you shall be mistress
of Tynebrook."
Margaret burst into one of her rare passions of tears. Harriet was
frightened, and distressed, and still more puzzled.
"I do declare, little one, I cannot make you out," said she, as soon
as she had caressed Margaret into something like calm ness again;
"first you faint, and then you cry, and all for some mysterious reason
I cannot fathom. If I do find out your secret, I will have no mercy on
you."
"But listen Harriet," said Margaret, "I am so vexed when you plan
such things; and not being well, everything agitates me."
"Well I won't teaze the little beauty," said Harriet; "let us go down
and find something to amuse you. But Margaret," said she, hanging
on the threshold, "remember I have had the disorder, and am
familiar with the symptoms."
Lord James was in the library acting with Miss Campbell, Lucy
holding the book. The father was to ride over in the course of the
morning; he was the officer who had shown some disposition for
Margaret's money the evening before. Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Mr.
Haveloc were walking in the shrubberies. Margaret took out her
netting, and sat down in the shade, out of every one's way. Harriet
threw herself on the scene, made Lucy read the part of M. Dumenil,
until the officer should appear, and commanded the play to begin
again. Everard was forced forward, and laughed at by Harriet, who
called him a wax-work, and offered him a letter of introduction to
Mme. Tussaud, and then praised him into good humour again; and
recommended him to Miss Campbell for instruction, which that
young lady willingly undertook. The officer came in, and had no time
to molest Margaret, for he was seized upon by Harriet, and had his
part-book snatched from him, and marked full of stage directions,
and was turned on among the tables and chairs, to blunder through
his rôle, before he had time to look round, or discover who was in
the room.
Harriet's acting was inimitable, like every thing she undertook. The
officer was not very bad; Lord James pretty well, and Miss Campbell
full of an arch simplicity, that showed her as accomplished on, as
she was off the stage. In the midst of it all, Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Mr.
Haveloc entered with Lord Raymond.
His Lordship was delighted at the amusement provided for him so
unexpectedly. He signed his companions to chairs, and sat down and
clapped with great vigour. Then down came Lady James, who took a
chair next to Mr. Haveloc, and began to abuse him on his want of
gallantry in declining the part of Alphonse. She believed he was the
only man who would refuse an opportunity of playing with her friend
Miss Campbell.
Mr. Haveloc said that he was selfish enough to wish to enjoy Miss
Campbell's excellent acting thoroughly, which he could not have
done, had he played with her.
Lady James was appeased by this answer, which, did not, however,
sound quite sincere to Margaret's ear, proceeded to give him a
catalogue of all her young friend's merits, which lasted, so numerous
were they, until the play had been read through. Then the actors
dispersed, the officer to the back of Margaret's chair, Everard to the
nearest sofa, Lord James to Lady Raymond, and Harriet to Mr.
Haveloc. Yes, just as Lady James had called Miss Campbell to her,
and assigned the seat next that gentleman, Harriet beckoned him to
the window, and swept him out upon the lawn.
"I say, do you know the name of this red thing," said she, pointing
to a flower in one of the beds.
"No, I don't. I have it, but I have forgotten the name," he said.
"How long have you been at Tynebrook?"
"About two months."
"What! have you done all that to the church in two months?"
"Every bit of it. I was in Norway three months ago."
"Ah! You are a great traveller, I believe."
"I have done little else for the last two years."
"Well, that is a very pleasant way of passing time."
"I don't know that it is quite right," said Mr. Haveloc. "One leaves all
one's duties behind in travelling; that is one of its great attractions."
Then feeling that his companion was not very likely to sympathize
with him, he changed the subject.
"I saw your chestnut this morning, Mrs. Gage. He is superb. I hardly
know such a beautiful head."
"Has he not? And so tame. Did George go with you?"
"He did, and the chestnut held a very rational conversation with
him?"
"You admire him, as much as I did your altar-cloth."
"I do, indeed."
"I think you must have got it on purpose for your wedding, Mr.
Havleoc," said Harriet.
"I am afraid it will not serve that turn," he replied; "for there is no
lady in my parish above the condition of a small farmer's daughter.
Tynebrook is a wilderness."
"Ah, true! the lady must be married in her own parish," said Harriet,
narrowly regarding his countenance.
"That is the etiquette, I believe," he said, gravely; and as she did not
speak again directly, he turned quietly and courteously away, and
walked to the library.
As soon as Harriet made the move, most of the party strolled away
under the trees. The officer, who was unusually disagreeable in
Margaret's eyes, asked her if she would not follow their example,
and offered his arm, as if to decide her choice.
Margaret thanked him, but said she preferred sitting quiet, as the
day was hot; and she was in a hurry to finish her netting.
The officer said she was very prudent, and taking a chair, offered to
read to her.
Margaret's vexation knew no bounds, but she was not aware that
the man wanted her money, and she thought he really meant it as a
civility, so she composed herself to listen. But after a few sentences,
horribly read, her impatience could not be controlled. She rose,
muttered something about wanting more silk, and went to her room
to be quiet.
Mr. Haveloc came in the moment after, found Everard asleep on a
sofa, and the officer, still seated with the book in his hand,
wondering how any girl could go away while he was sitting by her.
Margaret did not leave her room till dinner time. Harriet paid her a
visit when she thought it proper. She should have some luncheon,
with sandwiches, and a plate of delicious ice.
Margaret was thankful for the ice, and gratified by Harriet's
kindness. Her friend told her that Miss Campbell was gone into the
paddock to see Lord James shoot pigeons, to practice for the match;
and that Mr. Haveloc, when it came to the point, declared he could
not shoot, and was sitting with Lucy, nursing Flora. But though she
told this as carelessly as any other piece of news, she saw by the
warm colour that rushed into Margaret's face, that she had set her
mind at rest for the present.
"Well, Miss Capel," said Mason, as she put the finishing touch to her
hair, "you do look splendid to-day, ma'am;" and Mason pushed down
the cheval-glass, that her young lady might take a survey of herself.
"Yes, I am a little flushed by the heat," said Margaret, looking
carelessly over her shoulder into the glass; "put a white rose in my
hair."
Mason obeyed. Margaret lingered about the room until she thought
dinner was on the point of being announced, and then went quietly
into the drawing-room, and sat down out of the way, as she hoped.
But Harriet's quick eye detected her in a moment. Leaving her fan in
Mr. Haveloc's hands, she crossed over to her directly.
"Child! what have you done to make yourself so beautiful," she
asked. "You are all steeped in lilies and roses."
"I have recovered my journey by this time," said Margaret, smiling;
"that is all."
"I am playing a game against Lady James," said Harriet. "It has
been my amusement all day long to cross her. She is trying to get
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