Interpretations – An Ethnographic Drama

Adrian Blackledge, Angela Creese

• Editorial: Multilingual Matters
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781800410114
• Categoría: Languages & Linguistics
• Categoría: Linguistics

This highly original book brings compelling narratives of migration and social diversity vividly to life. At once a play script and an outcome of ethnographic research, it is a rich resource for the interpretation and representation of life in the multilingual city. The book takes an inside view of a hidden space in the city: an advice and advocacy service in a Chinese community centre. Here, advisors translate and translanguage, making sense of the bureaucratic world for clients who need help to access rights and resources related to housing, employment, education, welfare benefits, insurance, taxation, health and much more.

Scene 1

Four women, Lifan, Qi, Xia and Meili, each sit at a desk. Each of them looks at a computer screen. In a corner of the room a chair is empty. Lifan looks at her watch. Enter Jin, shaking out an umbrella and placing it, still open, under the window.

Jin	Hello, hello, sorry. Terrible traffic this morning. Terrible weather, terrible traffic. Some kind of incident on the way into the city, all the buses at a standstill, nothing moving.
Lifan	That’s all right. The first client cancelled anyway. She was probably in the same traffic as you, so you haven’t missed anything. Have you got the recorder? We can get set up if you like.
Jin	Oh yes, let’s get you wired up. Here is the news at ten, BBC! You’ll be on, everything recorded. [laughs]
Lifan	I don’t think so! [laughs]
Jin	[Goes to Lifan and fastens a tie-clip microphone to her clothing, placing a digital voice recorder on the desk] Like last time, you just need to keep an eye on the red light. If it’s on, everything’s fine. It should be all right, but keep an eye on it, check it every now and then if you remember. I will mic up everyone else once we get started, okay?
Lifan	And I do the same as normal, nothing different? Like you said, do my job the same as usual?
Jin	That’s right, that’s right, just do your job as usual, thank you, yes. And here are the consent forms. Remember, they all have to sign before you start. Explain the research project briefly. If anyone doesn’t want to be recorded, don’t switch on the recorder, and if they don’t want to be involved, I won’t take notes.
Lifan	No problem, no problem, that’s all right. I don’t think anyone will object. I’ll ask them to sign the form.
Jin	[Sits in the chair in a corner of the room, downstage. She takes a laptop computer from her bag. She speaks to Lifan] If we have a few minutes before your first appointment, I wonder whether I can ask you a couple of questions. Is that all right, just while we have a couple of minutes?
Lifan	Of course, anything you like.
Jin	Could you say a bit about how you came to work here? How long you have worked here, and what attracted you to this work.
Lifan	Here? It was a while ago now. It must be twelve years. The job centre sent me to interview for the office job. I didn’t know anything about the organisation. I mean, I had heard of them.
Meili	I remember interviewing you. It can’t be twelve years!
Lifan	The work wasn’t difficult: keeping records, typing letters, filing papers, taking notes. It was part-time, and there was always a free hot lunch in the dining room. Then after four months I moved to the day centre, working with the old people. It was harder work, but more rewarding. I quite liked it down there. The old people made me laugh.
Meili	They loved you.
Lifan	But as soon as I settled to that I made another move, to Advice and Advocacy, as a community advisor. I wasn’t sure about the move at the time. I liked the old people. In A and A you never know what kind of problems are coming through the door: it’s unpredictable. People have all kinds of needs; they want all kinds of help and support.
Jin	You agreed to the move though?
Lifan	I was told I had a talent with people, an ability to help them. A natural, they said. So I joined the community advice team. And ten years later here I still am, listening to people’s problems, doing what I can to help.
Jin	They flattered you into it?
Lifan	Ha ha ha! I didn’t really mean that, but you could say so, yes. I suppose they did.
Jin	From what I have seen already, you do more than listen to people’s problems. You have a fantastic knowledge of the welfare benefits system, immigration rules, taxation, how insurance works, all kinds of bureaucratic processes. I can see that you really help people to find their way through the system.
Lifan	You have to keep up to date. The rules are constantly changing. I go on courses when I can.
Jin	Do you see yourself as a community advisor or a translator? I think most people who come for help need some support with speaking and understanding English – is that right?
Lifan	Both, I suppose, it has to be both, but it isn’t only a question of translating English: it’s translating all those complex bureaucratic systems. People get lost with them. It isn’t only a question of English. The regulations are difficult for anyone, but it’s more, it’s more than that: it’s about listening to people’s stories, working out what they need. Some of them have a lot of problems.
Jin	What kind of problems?
Lifan	It can be challenging. You are dealing with technical language a lot of the time, and of course there are areas I can’t help with: I don’t give medical advice and I am not allowed to give legal advice. I am not trained as a legal advisor. You have to be careful not to go beyond your remit, but yes, I would say it’s both, at the same time an advisor and a translator. You might say an interpreter.
Jin	Interpreter?
Lifan	Yes, it could be that. I don’t want to dress it up too much. We do what we can to help people.
Jin	You seem to be able to move easily between languages, going back and forth. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for you.
Lifan	I don’t know whether it’s even that, whether it’s even about languages. It’s about communication, about findings ways for people to communicate their needs and working out how to meet those needs.

Scene 2

A small, smartly dressed man, Chang, needs help with a claim that has been turned down by his insurance company. He sits in front of Lifan’s desk. Lifan telephones the insurance company and speaks to a rep...