Translation and Interpretation Work in Multilingual Business Communities: Roles, Perspectives, Agency

英语作为一种全球语言的快速增长掩盖了现代商业环境越来越多地使用多种语言的程度上的同样快速的增长。这种情况在跨国公司(MNC)中由来已久，但过去十年的大规模移民意味着许多国内企业雇佣了大量母语不是英语的工人。由于“每个人都会说英语”的假设，许多公司没有求助于使用专业笔译员/口译员，而是通过碰巧会说两种语言(或多种语言)或拥有语言技能的现有员工来满足他们的翻译需求。这些非专业笔译员和口译员(NPTI)发现自己被要求进行笔译或口译，通常是由他们的雇主，但也有他们的同事。非营利组织的特殊贡献直到最近才得到学术界和实践界的承认。这是因为他们是“正常”的雇员、工人或服务提供者，他们在社区建设中的核心作用没有被注意到。它们作为调停者和文化桥梁的建造者的作用使它们成为不同企业和知识界之间知识转移的中心，所涉及的远不止是机械地将一种语言中的单词替换为另一种语言中的单词。在充当不同语言、文化和历史政治生活世界之间的纽带的人时，他们的作用是复杂和冲突的，因为他们努力协调他们所要联系的社区有时不同的期望、价值观和观点。在多语言商业环境中，他们的作用被强调为对知识转移的重要，但对于他们如何以及为什么以特定的方式发挥作用，或者是什么使他们能够在不同的群体(例如，通常不会说英语的季节性工人与他们的雇佣组织之间，在跨国公司总部及其子公司与他们所代表或服务的当地群体之间，或经常不会说英语的关键供应链群体之间)之间‘搭建桥梁’并创造相互的可理解性，人们并不了解。研究网络利用不同群体的观点，包括非英语季节性劳动力、笔译/口译服务供应商、他们的企业家和商业用户，以及非专业笔译员和口译员本身的声音，探讨了多语种商业和企业家社区的国家技术创新机构的工作。拟议的网络将建立在四个活动的基础上，其中最后一个活动将是与一个社区剧院合作开发并向有关社区展示的收集的故事、声音和观点的戏剧化表演。该网络汇集了目前独立的两个学科领域：翻译研究和国际商业/管理研究领域的成熟和早期职业学者。近年来，这两个学科的学者都把NPTIs作为语言、文化和政治的代理人来研究；然而，这些领域和他们的方法之间并没有交流。该网络是联合这些学科的第一项倡议：将把艺术、人文和社会科学的方法应用于与该网络有关的活动。演讲者和贡献者不仅包括学者，而且还包括国家技术合作机构本身，它们是语言/翻译服务的服务提供者，并参与社区剧院(New Vic Borderline)的积极和持续的贡献，该剧院在学术、教学和艺术方法方面积累了专门知识，以期制定协作明确的研究议程，其中多个利益攸关方提出与他们所代表和服务的社区和支持者有关的问题。该网络的主要目的是阐明这一议程，重点放在国家创新机构的工作上。

The rapid growth of English as a global language masks an equally rapid growth in the extent to which modern business settings have become increasingly multilingual. This has long been the case in multinational companies (MNCs), but large scale migration over the last decade means that many domestic businesses employ a significant number of workers whose first language is not English. Because of the assumption that 'everyone speaks English' many firms do not resort to using professional translators/interpreters, addressing their translation needs through existing staff who happen to be bilingual (or multilingual) or possess language skills. These non-professional translators and interpreters (NPTIs) find themselves called upon to translate or interpret, often by their employers, but also by their colleagues. The particular contribution of NPTIs has only recently been acknowledged by academic and practitioner communities. This is because they are 'normal' employees, workers or service providers, whose central community-building role goes unnoticed. Their roles as mediating agents and cultural bridge builders makes them central to knowledge transfer between different business and knowledge communities and entails much more than the mechanical replacement of words from one language with those of another. In acting as link persons 'betwixt and between' different linguistic, cultural and historical-political life worlds, their roles are complex and conflicted as they endeavour to align the sometimes different expectations, values and perspectives of the communities they aim to link. Within multilingual business contexts their role has been highlighted as important to knowledge transfer, yet there is no understanding of how and why they enact their roles in particular ways or what enables them to 'build bridges' and create mutual intelligibility between different constituencies (e.g. between seasonal workers who often do not speak English and their employing organisations; between MNC Headquarters and their subsidiaries and the local constituencies they represent or serve; or key supply chain constituencies, who frequently do not speak English at advanced levels). The Research Network explores the work of NPTIs in multilingual business and entrepreneurial communities, drawing on the perspectives of different groups including non-English speaking seasonal workforces, the suppliers of translation/interpretation services, their entrepreneur and business users, as well as the voices of the non-professional translators and interpreters themselves. The proposed Network will be built upon four events, of which the last will be a dramatised performance of the collected stories, voices and perspectives, developed in collaboration with a community theatre and presented to the communities involved. The Network brings together established and early career academics from two currently separate disciplinary fields: Translation Studies and International Business/Management Studies. Scholars in both disciplines have taken a recent interest in NPTIs as linguistic, cultural and political agents; yet there is no exchange between these fields and their approaches. The Network is the first initiative to unite these disciplines: methods from arts and humanities and social sciences will be brought to bear on the events associated with the Network. Speakers and contributors include not only academics, but also NPTIs themselves, service providers of language/translation services and involving the active and on-going contribution of a community theatre (New Vic Borderlines), which has developed expertise in academic, pedagogic and artistic approaches with a view to developing collaboratively articulated research agendas, where multiple stakeholders ask questions relevant to the communities and constituencies they represent and serve. The main aim of the Network is to articulate such an agenda, focusing on the work of NPTIs.