I am starting revising the holy scriptures deeper than ever. You shall pass the meaning and that's the story. Don't meddle. That's the rules
Bollocks.
Take this one situation, a classic : we are at the end of a long and good vibrating presentation. There is nothing big to expect as for a next step, but the client, rightly so, asks the Japanese side what shall we do next. I translate. Then, for too long seconds, the other side is speechless and pondering. I look at them, I glimpse sideway at my client and snap in a short hushed voice (make a proposal!). Am I breaching something here, treading into the unethical, the forbidden step out of neutrality? Did this suggestion came out of the blue, spontaneously? No. I was doing what a business liaison interpreter should do, help the client move forward. Of course, there are risks to suggest and call the client into action. But that suggestion came out of experience, that moving no pawn forward and wait for something constructive in such situation would have probably lead to nothing. It's not so much a "Japanese situation" on the interaction stage, but it's a recurrent one. A small step forward was obtained by making a proposal for that next step. Taking the lead is both risky and compulsory at times. A machine like interpreter in this (recurrent) situation would have been disqualified.
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