Redefining Tour-guiding Interpreting:A Functionalist Perspective

Sichuan University,Sichuan,China Email:mingyue@scu.edu.cn

[Abstract]Interpreters in cross-cultural tourist activities are not studied as much as interpreters in other settings,partly because some studies excluded them from the profession of interpreters due to their dual identities,the ownership of interpreted texts,and the preparation they have done ahead of time.This research redefines interpreters in tourist activities,probes into their professional identities,and analyzes their proactive roles as a pacesetter and perspective guide in cross-cultural communication,an elucidator and interlocutor in representation of culture,a mediator and trouble shooter in people-to-people interaction.

[Keywords]tour-guiding interpreting;professional identity;interpreter’s role

Introduction

along with the innovation and development of transportation and the public’s awareness of culture diversity,tourism has enjoyed a substantial development.The rapid growth of the tourist industry propels the advancement of related industries,among which the professionalization of the language service industry speaks for itself.Translation and interpreting service,a significant component of the language service,is an inseparable supporting facility in cross-cultural tourist activities.Due to the distinctive features of tourist activities,interpreting in tourist activities has its own hurdles in implementation:the occasional absence of speakers and original texts,inconvenience in note taking,interpreters’multi-professional identities,multi-tasking requirement by tourists and other participants in tourist activities,culture-loaded discourse,etc.Given the complexity of interpreting in tourist activities,the definition of tour-guiding interpreting and the role of tour guiding interpreters need to be probed into in-depth.

Professional Identity of interpreters in Tourist Activities

In tourist activities,tour guides are commonplace,the definition of which is crystal clear,whether they are humans hired by individual tourists,work for a tour agency in the traditional sense,or technologies in forms of wearable electronic tour guide devices,holographic projection,artificial intelligence,etc.The definition of interpreters in tourist activities,however,is somehow debatable.When there are tour guides and interpreters working together in tourist groups,their roles are much easier to be differentiated,but more than often,the cross-cultural tourist activities are led or facilitated by bilingual or multi-lingual people who are tour guides and interpreters in one.Some scholar questions whether we can call the bilingual or multi-lingual tour guides“translators”or“interpreters”.In translation studies,translation can be divided into intralingual translation,interlingual translation and intersemiotic translation.This is to say,there should be an original text or discourse involved.The bilingual using his linguistic advantages to facilitate tourist activities may not necessarily engage in transference of spoken or written texts,because the original text may not exist or may not be in a fixed form,and the bilingual only introduces the tourist spots from his memory or understanding.some other scholars doubt about the translation process of interpreters in tourism because they believe that the target spoken texts produced by such interpreters are prepared ahead of time and the target texts may even not be translated by interpreters themselves,but are translated by others,and the interpreters are just broadcasters or announcers of others’translation.In practice,interpreters in tourist activities may cite from well-established translation works when it comes to culture-loaded texts,especially texts in classical literature,such as poems,couplets,idioms,etc.Therefore,interpreters in tourist activities are excluded from the definition of interpreters,and their discourse in tourist activities is nothing but reciting or narrating.(Liu&Wu,2009,p.107)

The exclusion of tour guiding interpreting from the profession of interpreting is mainly due to the two reasons above:the lack of original texts and the debatable ownership for target texts.Those reasons only stand on the premise that a person can only assume one profession and own one professional identity,which is usually true,because most of people only have one professional job,but we see a lot more cases say otherwise.For example,a doctor working in a hospital affiliated to a medical university can also be a university professor.He is identified as a doctor when in hospital with patients,and as a professor when in classroom with students,and the time of his dual professional identities don’t often overlap.But when this doctor/professor leads a group of students to do a routine check-up on the patients in the wards,the dual professional identities overlap.The work mode of such dual-professional identities is similar with the tour guide/interpreter.It is similar when there’s only one person serving as a tour guide and an interpreter at the same time.When there’s no original written or spoken texts,and this person uses the target language to introduce,he is a tour guide;when he interprets for the speaker or does sight interpreting when the original text is written,he is an interpreter.It may not be accurate to call them“tour guide interpreters”,because this term only emphasizes on one professional identity that they assume with“tour guide”being a modifier.A more precise way to say is that they are guides and interpreters(or guide/interpreter)in tourist activities.The interpreting service they provide serves the purpose of tour guiding,so what they do is tour guiding interpreting.Nevertheless,instead of dwelling on the argument of what they are called,the research worthier of attention is how they switch between their dual-professional identities,and how they perform the professional roles accordingly.

Professional Roles of Tour Guiding Interpreting

For a long time,interpreters are compared to“conduit”,“echo machine”,“microphone”,“voice box”,“language modem”,“language converter”(Ren,2010,p.69),and all of the comparisons show the expectation of invisibility from interpreters,and their roles to handle linguistic barriers.In recent interpreting studies,an increasing number of scholars have raised reasons to object to the claim of interpreters being invisible and the mere linguistic function that they perform(Angelelli,2004;Baker;2009;Pym,2012;Wang&Feng,2018;Yin,2018).

These studies mentioned above have added bricks to the construction of a comprehensive portrait of interpreters in communicative events.But the role of an interpreter in tourist activities is a little different from the roles of conference interpreters,community interpreters,interpreters in wars,conflicts and legal settings,etc.,because tourist activities are highly contextual,culture-specific,interactive,and listener-centered.Tourist activities involve cross-cultural communication,representation of exotic culture,and people-to-people interaction,therefore interpreters in tourist activities are a pacesetter and perspective guide,an elucidator and interlocutor,a mediator and trouble shooter respectively.

Pacesetter and Perspective Guide

an interpreter in tourist activities is a pacesetter and perspective guide in cross-cultural communication.Except for tours for academic purposes,tourists are usually unfamiliar with the attractions and have language barriers with the local people.Due to the linguistic and cultural advantages,interpreters know more about the preference and taboos about the tourists,thus can make suggestions about tourist activities.To some extent,the interpreter sets the pace,and monitors the tourist activities accordingly.

One of such examples is in the context of the visit paid by American scholars researching indigenous cultures to Sichuan University museum.The interpreter led the tour group to the entrance to the museum and told the museum tour guide that there was only one hour for the visit before the formal luncheon and suggested the emphasis be laid on the exhibits of ethnic cultures in the southwest China on the second floor.When interpreting the museum tour guide’s introduction to the history of the museum and items not related to Chinese ethnic people,the interpreter only interpreted the gist and used the skill of summarizing quite often.When interpreting the museum tour guide’s introduction to items of ethnic cultures,the interpreter interpreted the details together with gestures for explanation and illustration of labor tools and daily necessities in ancient southwest China.Before this tour,the museum guide and tourists were double-blinded,which means that the tour guide didn’t know much about the tour group because the tour was on a short notice,and the tourists didn’t know the arrangement of the tour and what to expect in the museum except that this museum tour was arranged for a better knowledge of Chinese culture.The interpreter had a more holistic view of what the tour guide may offer,how much time is allowed and what possibly would interest the tourists,hence the suggestions for the tour guide and different translation techniques.

Interpreters in tourist activities are in control of when and how tourist activities are carried out for the best interests of tourists.Their capability in understanding tourists’interest and demand through communication before and during the tours determines the pace of tourist activities and tourists’perspectives to view the local culture.For different tourists,even when the visit is paid to the same tourist spots,the tourists’experiences could be quite different because of the pace and perspective that the tour guiding interpreter sets.Imagine a group of scholars researching on museum history or exhibit display paying a visit to the same museum as in the example above.The interpreter would have made another tailor-made suggestion to the museum tour guide and interpreted the introduction to the museum history and how items are displayed in details while simplifying other culture-specific introduction such as the introduction to ethnic cultures in southwest China.

Pound and Chinese Culture

an interpreter in tourist activities is an elucidator and interlocutor in representation of culture.Since cross-cultural tourist activities are loaded with cultural elements exotic to the tourists,the interpreter’s job is to bridge the cultural gap and relieve the tourists’overload in comprehension in a most efficient manner.Functionalists in translation studies holds that a translation action is determined by its skopos(Reiss & Vermeer,1984).Skopos of a particular translation task may require a“free”or“faithful”translation,or anything between these two extremes,depending on the purpose for which the translation is needed.The receiver or rather the addressee,is the main factor determining the target-text skopos.(Nord,2001)In tourist activities,the purpose of translation or interpreting is for the target text receivers to better comprehend and fully appreciate the local culture in a light-hearted way.Therefore,faithfulness is no longer original text oriented,but determined by the multifaceted purposes of tourist activities with duly consideration given to achieve the target text receivers’coherence.The methods are,but not limited to,simplifying concepts and jargons,providing the context of the original texts,using analogies,raising interactive questions.The following transcript shows how interpreters in tourist activities elucidate culture-specific discourse on a tour to Wenshu Temple,a Buddhist temple in Sichuan province.I stands for Interpreter;G stands for Tour Guide.

G：(to the interpreter and tourists)在天王殿正对大门的是弥勒佛祖，这在佛庙里很常见了，对吧？大家再看看，在四周正襟危坐着的是各位天王。大家是外国朋友，可能不太清楚，中国一般天王殿中只有四位天王，分别是东方持国天王、南方增长天王、西方多闻天王、北方广目天王。这四位保我们风调雨顺。这里大家看到了，多了的这两位为哼天王和哈天王，也就是大家经常说到的哼哈二将。

I：Here in the Hall of heavenly Kings,in front of you is Buddha Maitreya.How many of you believe in Buddhism?

(Tourists shook their heads.)

I：In Sanskrit,this Buddha’s name is Buddha Maitreya.His statue is often seen in the first hall of Buddhist temples.Take a look at him.He has a smiling face,doesn’t he?So Chinese people usually call him“Happy Buddha”or“Smiling Buddha”.Look at him,and you feel your worries will go away.He is also mentioned in daily conversation too.In China,if you want to describe somebody as a person who can’t help laughing.You can say‘Why are you laughing like Happy Buddha’.

(Tourists laughed and took photographs.)

I:You may want to take a look around.The heavenly Kings are sitting around in all seriousness.In the Buddhist temples,the first hall normally hosts only 4 kings.They are King of the North,King of the South,King of the West and King of the East.The four heavenly kings control Natural elements and protect Chinese people in farming with good weather all year round.But one thing special is that here at Wenshu Temple,there’re two more kings included.Can you guess who are the two added up?

(tourists looked around in discussion)

I：I will drop you a hint.These two look a bit different from the other four in appearance.

(Tourists started to guess and answered)

I：Yes! We already got the right answer! It is these two(Pointing at two statues).They are not really kings,but guarding generals,General Heng and General Ha.Their function is to fend off the evil.

From the transcript,it is obvious that the interpreter didn’t go for literal translation on hearing the tour guide’s introduction of Buddha Maitreya and the the uniqueness of six guards in the first hall,instead she checked if the tourists were familiar with Buddhism and switch to methods that ease the tourists’cognition burden.The italic part in the transcript manifests that she replaced the term Buddha Maitreya with“Happy Buddha”and“smiling Buddha”,and explained the symbolic meaning of happy Buddha in Chinese culture and language.In interpreting the six-guard related spoken text,the interpreter chose not to translate directly,but to interact with the tourists as an interlocutor,asking them to guess who the two add-ups are,and to simplify the translation of the formal names into Kings of four directions.The interpreter’s decision not to translate literally is based on the purpose of this tour:it is for fun and getting to know Chinese temple culture,not for the purpose of conducting academic research,which may require a more word-for-word original text centered translation.

Interpreting in tourist activities is normally listener-centered,so that the standard of faithfulness is tilted to the purpose of the tour and whether the target text receivers are able to comprehend in a timely manner.Interpreters usually elucidate the culture-loaded texts through interaction with tourists as an interlocutor,which means they don’t only“repeat”the text in the target language but also create text through conversation with tourists.

Mediator and Trouble Shooter

Tourist activities are not only about sight seeing,and the interaction between tourists and local people is also a key component.A tour guiding interpreter is a mediator and trouble shooter in people-to-people intercultural interaction.One of the typical scenarios is when the interpreter in tourist activities helps tourists to bargain with the local business owners in purchasing souvenirs.Instead of only translating the tourists’words,interpreters usually voluntarily ask the business owners to offer a discount.Words from the tour guide/interpreter like“the price was much cheaper last time that I led a tourist group here”,“if a discount is offered,more of us will get it”,“if with a discount on the price today,I will introduce your business to tourists next time I’m around”are often heard at tourists’attractions.Unlike domestic tours,on which the tour guides normally do not directly participate in the bargain of prices in order to avoid the suspicion of aligning with business owners for selling goods which is against Chinese tourism regulations.With foreign tourists,in order to show hospitality,tour guiding interpreters use professional identities as a bargain chip,such as the promise of more tourists in the examples above and use the appellation of“we”to get a discount for the foreign tourists.When some unexpected incidents happen,similar alliance between interpreters and tourists is also seen,and the trouble shooting strategies are chosen for the best interests of the tourists.

The universal principle of neutrality(Setton and Prunč,2016)in interpreters’code of conduct requires interpreters not to take sides with parties in interpretation,but this principle often does not take effect on tour guiding interpreters due to tour guiding interpreters’dual professional identities.In most cases,interpreters in tourist activities are hired either by tourists or an organization that initiates the tour,including a travel agency,an institute that invites tourists into the country,etc.This is to say interpreters are employees with employers’expectation and requirement of loyalty at work,therefore they side with tourists to mediate the cross-cultural interaction and solve troubles in the process.

Conclusion

The doubt about tour guiding interpreters is cleared out if we realize they may have dual professional identities.There are times that tour guiding and interpreting are taken by different people,and more often the jobs of tour guiding and interpreting are taken by the same person.When there’s only one person assuming two professional identities of a tour guide and an interpreter,his spoken texts produced for the tourists are comprised of two parts:his own introduction and opinions expressed in the target language as a tour guide and his translation from speakers or written texts as an interpreter.Apart from purposes of communication,education and promotion of mutual understanding,which are shared by interpreting in various settings and fields,interpreting in tourist activities has an additional but distinctive purpose—entertaining tourists and maintaining a leisure atmosphere,so the role of tour guiding interpreters is generally of three folds:a pacesetter and perspective guide in cross-cultural communication,an elucidator and interlocutor in representation of culture,a mediator and trouble shooter in people-to-people interaction.