Nurturing the Liaison side of Interpreting

The liaison side of interpreting as a business liaison interpreter clients may rely upon for more than the A to B and reverse process must be nurtured. I will try and probe into this over the coming months. There is no alternative to a good in-house experience at interpreting granted you develop while in there, or later on, a analytical view of the corporate ecosystem that informs in details about the situations, patterns of dynamics and recurrent scenario that take place in settings where interpretation - consecutive mode - is required. The Liaison side is nurtured with a deep neutral understanding of cultural patterns in play, including the patterns the interpreter projects on the settings and his view of his role and position at large. It is obvious to humbly mention that I would have been incompetent 10 years ago to delve into such subject, by sheer lack of awareness.

One among many tactical approaches I now feel keenly interesting and valuable is the reading of so called self-help books. On this side of the planet, self-help books are aplenty. But approaches to same issues yield different results that shout right from titles that you are no longer in Texas here. Take for example the pun in the series "For dummy" books. The closer equivalent I came across here is "even a monkey could understand" books. Self-help books about issues of how to behave in social settings, or even the Chinese characters you should know comes invariably with the "to avoid shame" ending. On one side, you read to grow. On the other side, you read to protect the self from social shame. There is a deep story I won't shovel into today. The point I want to make here is that there are two approaches to reading self-help books from that other culture, as a reader looking for self-help, or as a reader looking for insights on thought patterns of that other side.

Here is a business culture where redundant patterns of exchange and behaviors are highly formated and therefore easier to forecast. Risks of wrong assumption are never a zero sum, but the margin is small so that you can more confidently bet on what will happen. Protocol is strong, hardly challenged, so much that the how-to bow and exchange cards formula you read in books on proper attitudes in business settings are the very patterns you observe and participate to in-situ. For a "mere" interpreter, this is a key factor that allows to preempt and forecast with higher chances what will happen, how dialog will develop. The Western side is here a factor of patterns disturbance. For nurturing the Liaison side, it is of utmost importance to develop awareness but keep at bay overconfidence with how things can be expected to turn. In briefing stages, and even more in debriefing stages, worrying clients will ask questions to which the liaison interpreter must provide a well thought, well rounded set of reflexions and analysis tips he must assume and deliver in authoritative manner. Otherwise, you are back to your standard role of interpreter, which is fine as long as you are fine with it. I for one am not.

Self-help books are an open vista to what people here consider to be adequate and proper. In Japan, you have to be careful to choose books that are totally native, untainted by the US model. You will flip books to notice any strong references to how they do things in the West = US otherness and keep those at bay. These books won't inform you about what the base salaryman reads and nod to on the platform waiting for the train. In a society where way above 70% of people watching TV believe what they see on the screen - it should be understood time and again how social cynicism is low here - the low brow self-help books on how to behave, how to negotiate, how to bargain are a plain X-ray picture of how people on their majority think and behave.

The sheer number of books on "common sense" 常識 is a proof of concept that patterns of properness are categorized, classified in plain view, and so easily testable in-situ. This approach added with a dose of interaction, off-business, with business partners on the other side, allows for a nurturing self-propelled vortex of better analytical insights at human dynamics at play, without even watching TV. That is one way to nurture the Liaison side and turn a competent consultant.