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Live interpreting of Arabic dialects in police and court settings
January 28, 20254:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Ambassadors’ Hall (at Calle Alcalá, 62, First Floor).
4:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
Mustapha Taibi, professor of translation and interpreting at the University of Western Sydney (Australia), will be giving the seventh session in the Aula Árabe Universitaria event series. It will be held on Tuesday, January 28 in Madrid.
Intelligibility and adjustment of records are issues in police and court interpreting in all languages, but the diglossic nature of languages such as Arabic makes interpreting into such languages a special case, entailing greater challenges.
In real life, Arab citizens speak their dialects when they go to police or court premises in their home countries. In immigration countries, where live translation is required in public services, some interpreters believe that this task has to be done in standard Arabic, which hinders rather than facilitates communication. Also, for various reasons, some public service interpreting programs use Standard Arabic as the language of practice, which does not reflect the reality of the language’s speakers.
At this conference, Mustapha Taibi, a Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Western Sydney, will present the results of a study conducted in Australia, showing that most Arabic interpreters translate into dialects. However, while the use of colloquial Arabic in many cases facilitates understanding for the user, in other instances several problems may arise which the interpreter (and the public services) must take into account.
With the cooperation of the Master’s degree program in Intercultural Communication, Translation and Interpreting in Public Services at the University of Alcalá de Henares (TISP). The event will be presented by Mohana Sultan, coordinator of Arabic for this Master’s degree, program as well as a professor of Translation, Interpreting and Multilingual Communication at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. The debate will be moderated by Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.
Mustapha Taibi
Mustapha Taibi is a Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Western Sydney. He is also the leader of the International Research Group on Translation in Public Services and editor of the international journal Translation & Interpreting. His most notable books include: Community Translation (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), New Insights into Arabic Translation and Interpreting (ed.) (Multilingual Matters, 2016), Translating for the Community (ed.) (Multilingual Maters, 2018), Multicultural Health Translation, Interpreting and Communication (ed. with Meng Ji and Ineke Crezee) (Routledge, 2019), Translating Cultures: An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators (with David Katan) (Routledge, 2021) and Translation and Community (Routledge, 2024).
In real life, Arab citizens speak their dialects when they go to police or court premises in their home countries. In immigration countries, where live translation is required in public services, some interpreters believe that this task has to be done in standard Arabic, which hinders rather than facilitates communication. Also, for various reasons, some public service interpreting programs use Standard Arabic as the language of practice, which does not reflect the reality of the language’s speakers.
At this conference, Mustapha Taibi, a Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Western Sydney, will present the results of a study conducted in Australia, showing that most Arabic interpreters translate into dialects. However, while the use of colloquial Arabic in many cases facilitates understanding for the user, in other instances several problems may arise which the interpreter (and the public services) must take into account.
With the cooperation of the Master’s degree program in Intercultural Communication, Translation and Interpreting in Public Services at the University of Alcalá de Henares (TISP). The event will be presented by Mohana Sultan, coordinator of Arabic for this Master’s degree, program as well as a professor of Translation, Interpreting and Multilingual Communication at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. The debate will be moderated by Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.
Mustapha Taibi
Mustapha Taibi is a Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Western Sydney. He is also the leader of the International Research Group on Translation in Public Services and editor of the international journal Translation & Interpreting. His most notable books include: Community Translation (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), New Insights into Arabic Translation and Interpreting (ed.) (Multilingual Matters, 2016), Translating for the Community (ed.) (Multilingual Maters, 2018), Multicultural Health Translation, Interpreting and Communication (ed. with Meng Ji and Ineke Crezee) (Routledge, 2019), Translating Cultures: An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators (with David Katan) (Routledge, 2021) and Translation and Community (Routledge, 2024).
