{"id":1271,"date":"2013-06-18T12:58:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2013-06-18T12:58:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:58:55","slug":"uia-mediation-forum-interpret-or-translate-cross-cultural-mediations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/uia-mediation-forum-interpret-or-translate-cross-cultural-mediations\/","title":{"rendered":"UIA Mediation Forum: Interpret or Translate Cross-Cultural Mediations?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 18th<\/sup> gathering of the World Forum of Mediation Centers was held under the auspices of the Union International des Avocats in Prague, Czech Republic, on June 7-8, 2013. \u00a0Mediators and Centers came from the U.S., Canada, Algeria, Iraq, Bahrain, Ireland, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Lebanon, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Nigeria, U.K., Australia and Hong Kong.\u00a0 About 70 people were present.<\/p>\n

Co-President Colin Wall of Hong Kong arranged this conference; Co-President Thierry Garby of France will arrange the next one, March 21-22, 2014, in Houston Texas.<\/p>\n

The group was greeted by Antonin Mokr\u00fd, Vice President of the Czech Bar Association; Franti\u0161ek Korbel, Vice-Minister of Justice of the Czech Republic; and Roman Fiala, Vice-President of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic.\u00a0 The speakers noted the 2012 law regulating the training and supervision of mediators, and empowering Czech courts to refer cases to mediation.\u00a0 The legislature used other EU countries\u2019 laws as models for the Czech bill.\u00a0 A series of trainings for Czech mediators was recently held by Thierry Garby of France and Patrick van Leynseele of Belgium.<\/p>\n

The first program was a lively and informative presentation on the use of translators in mediation, offered by Xiaohui YUAN, lecturer at the University of Nottingham in the UK.\u00a0 She noted at the outset the misuse of terms in the title; \u201ctranslation\u201d is something you do to a written piece and \u201cinterpretation\u201d is something you do when someone is speaking.\u00a0 The challenges in mediating through an interpreter are several.\u00a0 One must decide whether the interpretation will be simultaneous or consecutive.<\/p>\n

There is also a cross-cultural sensitivity called for.\u00a0 Literal word-for-word translation fails to convey the meaning of culturally specific phrases (crossed fingers for luck, fatness indicating business success, \u201cI understand you are a rat\u201d [meaning \u201cI understand you were born in the Year of the Rat\u201d]).\u00a0 But more liberty for the interpreter may invite \u201cspin\u201d and inaccuracy (e.g., \u201cYou are wrong\u201d interpreted as \u201cI will need to reconsider your statement\u201d).\u00a0 Yuan used appropriate and entertaining videos to demonstrate the pitfalls she addressed.\u00a0 Clearly, interpreters are asked to do more than just translate between languages.\u00a0 They may be called upon to defuse tension or save face.<\/p>\n

Mediators using interpreters should therefore be sure to instruct the interpreter as to how to handle emotional outbursts, overlapping statements, and similar anticipated issues.\u00a0 Verbatim translation may be acceptable in arbitration but not in mediation, and the interpreter should understand the mediation process and what is going on in the caucus as compared to the joint session.\u00a0 It is critical that the interpreter not have a connection with a party (though this happens surprisingly often: \u201cMy sister can interpret for me.\u201d).\u00a0 The interpreter should understand the constraints of confidentiality, and speakers should accept the interpreter\u2019s signals when to stop speaking and allow her to interpret.<\/p>\n

A final film clip showed the nuanced risks of cross-cultural misunderstandings.\u00a0 A scene was played of an employee being fired over lunch.\u00a0 British viewers of the scene reported that the boss\u2019s body language demonstrated evasion, discomfort, embarrassment and disengagement.\u00a0 Chinese viewers reported that the boss showed sincerity, regret, pain, patience and attention.\u00a0 So interpreting the words is only part of the challenge.<\/p>\n

Further reports on this always-stimulating conference will be forthcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report on the first session of the recent UIA World Mediation Forum features the challenges of translating — or is it interpreting? — in mediation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,14],"tags":[25,12,15,33],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-resolution","category-international","category-mediation","tag-adr-institutions","tag-culture","tag-mediation","tag-public-policy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}