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Article published In:
Interpreting
Vol. 23:1 (2021) ► pp.127–150

Feelings about language brokering

The contribution of formal interpreter education

| John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Young language brokers have a complex emotional relationship with the translation and interpreting tasks that they engage in for their families and communities. Whereas they often report feeling happy, useful and proud of themselves for being able to contribute to their families’ well-being, they also struggle with frustration, pressure from their loved ones, and cognitive and emotional burdens. This study aims to map the evolution of feelings regarding language brokering among young adults and to reveal the effects that formal interpreting education might have in this process. For these purposes, it examines the narratives of 75 self-identified former and/or current language brokers who are registered in an undergraduate interpreting program in the United States. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of these narratives (collected at three different points during their course of study) indicate that the participants feel more positively than negatively about their brokering tasks and that positive emotions increase overall throughout their interpreter education (with a noticeable peak halfway through the program). These analyses also reveal how triggers for positive and negative emotion shift through time: whereas their enhanced skills contribute to positive feelings, poor working conditions and brokering settings beyond their immediate families become new stressors.

Keywords: language brokering, emotions, affect, education, narratives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Emotions and child language brokering
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Word-frequency analysis: Adjectives of emotion
    • 4.2Analysis of emotional trajectories
      • 4.2.1Overview of patterns
      • 4.2.2Participants’ descriptions
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00055.mar
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