This case study presents conference-style simultaneous interpretation in the European Parliament as a dynamic microcosm for communicating Europe. In the enlarged EP, the regime of controlled multilingualism has been challenged by an emergent pluralingualism in which Members use multiple and mixed languages in addition to the services of simultaneous interpreters. This marks a temporal and paradigmatic shift in the larger game of languages in the European public sphere.
This case study presents conference-style simultaneous interpretation in the European Parliament as a dynamic microcosm for communicating Europe. In the enlarged EP, the regime of controlled multilingualism has been challenged by an emergent pluralingualism in which Members use multiple and mixed languages in addition to the services of simultaneous interpreters. This marks a temporal and paradigmatic shift in the larger game of languages in the European public sphere.
grant proposal (historical)
submitted October 2007
fieldwork conducted Sept 2008-June 2009
STATEMENT OF PROPOSED STUDY OR RESEARCH
Stephanie Jo Kent, USA, Communication
Simultaneous Interpretation and Shared Identity in the European Parliament
Multilingualism is touted as a crucial component of the European Union’s (EU) merger of national/cultural identities into one political democracy, yet the skillful use of interpreters is underemphasized in … Read more...
Brussels
The miracle of the Fulbright grant fieldwork period comes to a close. I shared a last lunch & coffee with friends in the Parliament’s canteen, after spending the last two days securing support from Members for the next action research step. Then I dashed across town to the Flemish Parliament to meet Deaf member Helga Stevens and a couple … Read more...
Stockholm
Conference: Perspectives and Limits
of Dialogism in Mikhail Bakhtin
I had to invent the presentation proposal many months ago . . . I’ve highlighted the phrases in bold that speak most directly to the shaping of the actual presentation.
Novelizing Social Interaction:
Language and Simultaneous Interpretation
This presentation conjectures an extension of Bakhtin’s exposition of language via the novel … Read more...
Brussels and Strasbourg
Seventy-five Members of the European Parliament (or, in a few instances, their Assistants) expressed interest in talking with me, and I managed to arrange conversations with fifty-five of them. Nearly half of the MEPs spoke with me twice (23/55), and a handful spoke with me three times (5). If I had been able to get off … Read more...
webstreaming from Brussels
European Commission
The music track for the promovideo compiled from last year’s event makes me feel like I’m missing a real party!
“I tried to do it from Spanish, and
what I understood I said then in Italian.”
“I didn’t know the difference between interpretation and translation, and
I didn’t know that one is for writing and
…
Read more...
The mood this week is surprisingly calm compared with the frenzy of previous sessions building up to this final session of the Sixth Term of the European Parliament. There are many contentious issues and a huge amount of work – as always – but the hustle and buzz seems subdued.
I’ve been following a particular dossier for the past … Read more...
Strasbourg
A post I wrote in February was discovered by l’AIIC (Professional Conference Interpreters Worldwide) and linked to from their Language in the News section:
Observing communication dynamics at the EP
“The technical orchestration of twenty-three languages performed by Members of the European Parliament and the cadre of Simultaneous Interpreters assigned to generate spontaneous comprehension is nearly seamless.” Read the
…
Read more...
Brussels
“Simultaneous Interpretation and Shared Identity in the European Parliament:
A Look at Language and Organizational Creativity”
“How to make a shared identity in Europe?” Patterns of cultural interaction and, especially, the range of interpretations of these patterns, have profound effects on culture being maintained and co-created by Members of the European Parliament. For instance, are differences of language a
…
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In addition to the transmission of information, the larger and deepest purpose of simultaneous interpretation is to generate and maintain common culture among people from different cultures.
As hoped, the opportunity to present on my dissertation fieldwork in-progress forced my brain to synthesize the trends and patterns that I have … Read more...