A nail in the neutrality coffin

An absolute must read, Interpreters' identities : An exploratory Study of Vietnamese Interpreters in Vietnam. It puts the liaison interpreter as a full flesh, bones and emotional actor in the center stage of the communication dynamics, where it had been set in earlier time as a sexless, invisible man with self-restrained emotionality. These words at the conclusion are jewels for things to come. Funny but in my own non-academic tiny and solitary hole, I was fuzzily thinking about things like that lately :

"The purpose of this paper has been to submit that the progressive disappearance
of the interpreters’ invisibility myth must be accompanied by an increased
attention paid to the “person” of interpreters. It is recognised that most
interpreters may not suffer from big pangs of conscience about their cultural
belongings and conception of the overall value of their work; nonetheless, a
better awareness of these issues would enable a better control of the situation,
and thus would certainly help improve the quality of interpreter-mediated
events and result in enhanced intercultural relations. Indeed, if experienced high-
level interpreters qualify situations in which they may find themselves from time
to time as “very delicate”, it is reasonable to think that the issue is even more
sensitive for interpreters at early stages in their careers. "