TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING AS MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN A MOBILE AND MULTILINGUAL WORLD

Both multilingualism and translation are core components of a pluralistic society. They have, by definition, necessary and complementary roles in the promotion of intercultural communication and in people’s multilingual... [ view full abstract ]

Both multilingualism and translation are core components of a pluralistic society. They have, by definition, necessary and complementary roles in the promotion of intercultural communication and in people’s multilingual democratic involvement in society. It follows that translation and interpreting (T&I), as one way of bridging over the various cultural and linguistic divides that multilingualism is not able or available to fill, is of considerable significance to any country with an ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse population—and hence should be considered an important measure of each country’s ‘democratic maturity’. This is especially true in New Zealand, above all in Auckland, a city with an ever-increasing superdiverse population with a uniquely high proportion of indigenous people. In this presentation, T&I is articulated as one of the many mediation choices that coexist in plurilingual social formations resulting from increased migration and global flows, and it is argued that its practice will ideally become a literacy aim for society, while literacy will become a social aim for translation. This presentation will be of special interest to the global education sector, to business leaders, and to future language policy makers in this country and beyond.