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Community interpreting involves language interpreting for individuals or small groups in a local community, often for immigrants who do not fully understand the local language. It can also be called liaison or public service interpreting. The choice of interpreter depends on the situation and skills required. Trained interpreters benefit from knowledge of native dialect and cultural markers. Community interpreters rarely speak formally to a crowd, making their services relatively informal.
Community interpreting is a job or role that includes language interpreting for individuals or small groups in a local community. Those who use community interpreting services are often set immigrants in a community foreign to them. Community interpreters help these individuals function within a society that speaks a language that is not their own and which they may not fully understand.
In terms of the specific type of interpreting that experts identify as community interpreting, this role of interpreter can also be called liaison interpreting or public service interpreting. These labels speak to the idea that community interpreters provide an essential service to the groups of people they serve. Some may also call this type of interpreting a “triangle” or “two-sided”, as the interpreter plays a third party role between the client, or client, and linguistic sources such as local officials, doctors or others who provide services in a local language .
A question that often arises is whether community interpreting is best done by native speakers of the local or foreign language. In truth, this really depends on the specific skills and experience of the individual interpreter, as well as the situation for which the service is needed. In more technical scenarios, a native of the local language may have an advantage, since in order to accurately translate crucial or subtle information, he must first of all be able to understand it perfectly from the source; even if the translation is not totally idiomatic, the facts are more likely to be rendered accurately. On the other hand, a native of the foreign language might be better suited to translating more general information in front of a slightly larger group, where a more idiomatic translation would be more appreciated.
Similarly, some also point to a lack of training in a significant number of community interpreting roles. While interpreters who have been specifically trained for this job role may not understand all of their clients’ idiosyncrasies, they do benefit from knowledge of native dialect and cultural markers outside the wider community, which helps them provide greater orientation for immigrants or others need community interpreters. Conversely, untrained interpreters, who often act as volunteers, may be more familiar and comfortable with their clients, but may not have the same access and ability to produce successful interpreting.
A major benefit of working in this type of interpreter role is that community interpreters rarely speak formally to a crowd of people. This kind of formal interpretation of “lecture” presents some specific challenges. One is that the interpreter may be asked to recall long sentences or paragraphs at once. There’s also the inherent challenge of speaking clearly to a crowd of people. Community interpreters do not face these challenges and the style of their services is usually relatively informal.
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