Role of Culture in Interpreting

Most people know that Interpreting is not just literal word for word translation of one language
to the other.Done that way,the proper meaning may not be conveyed and even might confuse the person listening.
Thats why a good understanding of both the cultures are required.Getting to know other cultures is fascinating !Somebody mentioned that learning a foreign language and the culture of that language speakers is one of the most remarkable things one can achieve !
I will add a couple of very interesting stories here.
I left my native country Bangladesh at the age of 18.I went to Australia .I was one of the 30 boys who qualified for the scholarship given by the Austarlian government to bangladesh.
It was exciting time ! We were young; Bangladesh was young ; Just recovering from the independence war,expenses of reconstruction ,oil crisis of the seventies,flood damage,famine and political upheaval.
All of us were academically bright. We already could speak English.But there was something.
We learnt it at school the old fashioned way; with proper grammar,tense etc.But we discovered that Australians dont speak that way.There was a big difference between written and spoken English.
On top of that there was the added matter of accent and slangs.
We had to pick up those things in a natural way. That is by listening and observing.And that was the fun thing ! I think those things can not be taught in a classroom environment.Or if taught, there would be no fun in it and there would be no element of pride in the learner's mind.(because s/he did not work it out for themselves.)
In Bengali culture, we never call anybody older than us by their name.Its taken as impolite and rude.So, at work one would address their older colleagues as elder brother/sister or uncle/aunt (according to the age of the person). Where as in western (and Australian) culture, one would call their colleagues (or anybody for that matter) by their first name to show warmth and closeness.So if someone's name is David Martz, I would call him 'Dave' if I am close to him.
If not , then as a show of respect and as a formal way of address, I would have to call him as Mr.Martz.
In Bangladesh on the other hand there is no fixed rule. If someone's name is Mogni Choudhury;
he can be called either Mogni Vai, or Choudhury Shaheb or even Mogni Shab. And all of those would be alright.
Also I think in Bangladesh a lot of people have messed up their surnames.And no rule is followed.So in the same family, one brother can be named as say 'Faisal Ahmed' and the other brother can be 'Habibur Rahman'. So what's the surname here?Can get very confusing can't it?
Tomorrow I will add an amusing story about this mixed up surnames.


Copy Right of this article is owned by the writer Mohammad Mogni Choudhury and no part of this article should be used by any other person without written permission from the author.
If anyone wants to use it or part of it, contact the author at mognichoudhury@yahoo.com