The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022 - 27

Rural Realities
The rural U.S.-a world that
places a high premium on
both good neighborliness
and self-sufficiency-
presents a series of cultural
challenges for community
interpreting. As David Grant,
a writer and playwright in
Minnesota, describes in his
essay " People Like Us " :
" When people come here in
need of a safe place to make
a fresh start, the culture [...]
is glad to welcome them
and help them make the
transition to their new life
[...] But the unspoken rules
that the newcomers are
supposed to intuit include
[this]: 'Assimilate, and do it
quickly.' " 3
Such expectations
can make it difficult to
provide sustainable language
services in rural areas, where
interpreting is understood
as short-term support for
newcomers rather than a
long-term investment in
community life.
As a result, community
interpreting is frequently
carried out by untrained
volunteers. In some ways,
this willingness to help one's
neighbors for free represents
the best of small-town
culture; however, volunteers
often have full-time work
and family duties that make
them unavailable to interpret.
Moreover, because they offer
their services " out of the
goodness of their hearts, " it's
difficult to hold volunteers
accountable to professional
standards and protocols.
Even when undertaken
with the best of intentions,
volunteer community
interpreting in small towns
entails particular hazards.
Interpreting for our friends,
neighbors, and co-workers
can impede the flow of
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information between service
providers and clients. After
all, it's only natural that
people who know us socially
will feel uneasy discussing
personal matters regarding
health, finances, and family
in front of us.
The same holds true for
bilingual employees, who
often double as interpreters
in rural areas, sometimes
without proper training in
protocol and ethics. This
blurring of professional
boundaries can prove
dangerous, as untrained
individuals are called upon to
negotiate potential conflicts
of interest between their
ad hoc interpreting duties and
their official job descriptions.4
Thus, confidentiality,
impartiality, and role
boundaries are critical
ethical standards that can
make or break effective
communication in a rural
setting. As much as we value
the spirit of neighborly
generosity in which
volunteer interpreting takes
place, the close-knit nature
of small-town life makes
meaningful training and a
culture of professionalism
vital for effective community
interpreting in rural areas.
The Workshop Series
Following a community
needs and assets assessment
by the Center for Small
Towns at the University
of Minnesota Morris,
our workshop series was
developed as a " towngown "
partnership designed
both to train interpreters
for our community and
to shift the local culture
surrounding sustainable
language services.5
In
addition to interpreting
skills, the workshops seek to
The rural U.S.-a world that
places a high premium on
both good neighborliness and
self-sufficiency-presents a
series of cultural challenges for
community interpreting.
build relationships among
the different stakeholders
in our area: the university,
public-school system, and
local Hispanic/Latino and
non-Hispanic communities.
Before the pandemic, the
series was held at the town
library. Free childcare was
available on site and the
Center for Small Towns
provided a light meal as part
of each session.
The series covers basic
concepts and skills for
community interpreting and
translation, including:
y Community interpreting
code of ethics and
standards of practice
y Preparation and
anticipation
y The interpreter
introduction
y Liability issues
y Practice with message
transfer, intervention, and
cultural mediation
While these elements seem
like standard fare, others
address our local situation.
For example, the first session
features a panel of relevant
community members,
including the cultural
liaison and other bilingual
personnel in the school
district, faculty partners who
research Hispanics/Latinos
in the rural Midwest, and
the director of the Center
for Small Towns. The final
session includes a meetand-greet
with the teachers
with whom interpreters will
be working.
Similarly, in the interest
of advancing equity in our
community, we developed
a bilingual booklet for the
workshop. We also created
tip sheets tailored to each of
the three parties engaged in
an interpreting encounter:
one for interpreters;
one for teachers and
administrators; and a third,
in Spanish, for families.
About 60 people have
completed the workshop
series since it was first
offered in 2015. A majority
of them have been
undergraduate students who
finish their studies and leave
town. To date, the program
has yielded relatively few
community interpreters
who stay in the area and can
contribute to local needs.
Lessons Learned
Although it was our initial
intention to offer the 40hour
training, which is now
recognized globally as a
minimum credential to work
as a community interpreter,
we quickly realized that
community members were
unable to commit to so
many hours. So, we scaled
American Translators Association 27
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