Discuss Your Views on the Essential Role Played by Interpreters in Making Communication Possible in a Multi Lingual and Multi Cultural World.

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Language is ‘a tool of communication’, which is used to attempt to ‘guide another mind to create within itself a mental representation that approximates the one we have’. However, with over 6,700 languages spoken in the world, and as many as over eight hundred spoken in one country alone, understanding one another can become difficult. Creoles and Pidgins were formed due to the inability to communicate and thus, over periods of time, a number of languages would merge. However the increase in technology and the ability to travel to relatively any angle of the globe within twenty-four hours has meant not enough time elapses between journeys and within contact between two populations for there to be an exchange of language. Furthermore, due to immigration and the increase in worldwide exchanges, both for business and pleasure has meant that communication between persons of different language and culture has become increasingly more common. This is where the role of the interpreter becomes paramount. An interpreter is defined as ‘someone whose job is to translate what a speaker is saying in one language into another language so that someone else can understand it.’ (MacMillian Dictionary) However, I believe the role of an interpreter is much more substantial. Interpreting is not solely about words and the meaning of a sentence, nor is it just about allowing a person to understand something in a language he does not have the appropriate control of. An interpreter must be able to relate to the culture of the language he interprets. He must have full control of the spoken and written language, as well as control of the everyday use of terminology and phrases within the culture that belongs to a particular language. An interpreter becomes extremely important because he is able to put the person he interprets for at ease. He is able to transmit a sense of

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