A Community of Practice for Interpreting: the missing link

This week, on the 11th and 12th September, I attended a very good interpreting conference in Newcastle University:   talking to the world . Two days of inspiring presentations and discussions, networking and socialising with interpreting on centre stage. I always feel it is a privilege to take part in such forums. One presentation in particular grabbed my attention; t he role of the educational interpreter: A dynamic model by  Herculene Kotzé,  North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa . Herculene explains how at a superficial level the role of the interpreter seems to be well defined in most codes of conduct, despite some controversies. In South Africa, there are 11 official languages . As such, universities face the true challenge to decide on their language strategy and choose official languages to use in the classroom and still remain inclusive. North West University, Potchefstroom decided to use English and Afrikaans. As such, educational interpreters ...

Whilst researching Communities of Practice (CoP) as a model for interpreting studies, I increasingly realised, even though I was already aware of it, that interpreters have often been considered to be rare souls and as such quite unique . Rare  and unique  are not the first two features that come to mind when considering Community of Practice (CoP) as a possible framework for interpreting studies or indeed the interpreting profession. Rare and unique But let's take a leap back in time and explore who interpreters were in Antiquity. Interpreters were found where there was a need to solve or avoid conflicts, negotiate business or public relations or indeed, in courts where 'foreigners' were tried. As such their status varied. The Greeks considered interpreters as semi gods; they used the words ' translator'  or  'interpreter'  indifferently which meant ' a human being who performs one of this god's numerous activities (including lin...