Welcome to the Blog
Interpreting: often misunderstood, occasionally glamorised, and almost never as simple as it looks. This blog dives headfirst into the beautifully tangled world of real-time language work—where meaning is rebuilt on the fly, rules are bent for good reason, and calm exteriors hide frantic brilliance.
Whether you’re a seasoned interpreter or just interpreter-curious, these posts explore what really goes on beneath the polished delivery. Spoiler: it’s less about words, more about judgement, timing, and the occasional leap of linguistic faith.
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Not Just Language
The post explores how Deaf cultural norms influence decision-making in interpreting. It highlights the challenges interpreters face in balancing direct communication typical in Deaf culture with the indirectness often found in hearing contexts. Emphasizing cultural mediation over mere translation, it advocates for cultural fluency and responsiveness in interpreting practice. Read more
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Meaning Under Pressure
Interpreting is a complex, live process that distinguishes itself from translation by involving real-time comprehension, decision-making, and expression. It requires deft management of nuances, ethics, and language rules, often adapting creatively to ensure clarity and connection. Ultimately, interpreting is about accessibility and understanding, not just words. Read more
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When Neutrality Isn’t Enough: A Legal Interpreter’s Quiet Quandary
What happens when interpretation itself becomes part of the legal evidence? A courtroom reflection on ethics, language access, and stepping away when neutrality reaches its limit. Read more
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Staying Sharp, Not Just Registered
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about CPD — not the hours we log, but the learning that actually stays with us. Anthony Mitchell CPD that feeds the work, not just the paperwork. Because development should change how we interpret – not just prove we attended something. I once went to a CPD session about… Read more
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Between Languages: What Interpreting Really Involves
Ethics Ethics is where everything becomes personal. In the first reflection, I unsettled the myth of one-to-one translation. In the second, I explored the cultural and tacit knowledge that replaces that illusion. This third reflection turns to what sits underneath both: ethics. Because once you accept that interpreting is not mechanical transfer but culturally situated… Read more
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Between Languages: What Interpreting Really Involves
The Role of Culture and Context In the first reflection, we politely but firmly escorted out the idea that languages map neatly onto one another like identical semis on a suburban estate. They don’t. There is no tidy “this equals that” in interpreting. Once that comforting illusion is dismantled, something rather more interesting appears. Interpreting… Read more
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