中華民國軍事口譯員角色與工作現況

Abstract

某地的社會實踐深受當地文化約束，會影響口譯員的道德準則、他們對自身的角色的認知、招聘和口譯員品質、以及口譯員的口譯策略（Rudvin, 2007），因此，探討口譯員外在的工作環境，有助於了解譯員角色定位與其口譯策略的選擇。為了解我國軍事口譯員角色與所處的環境現況，本研究針對譯員環境現況、譯員角色定位與對應之口譯策略、以及譯員應有認知與能力等三方面進行討論。筆者採半結構式訪談法，與國內10位具豐富經驗的軍事口譯員進行個別訪談。研究結果顯示，軍事口譯員正面臨譯員身分認同缺乏、口譯訓練與部隊歷練不足、譯員短缺、行政庶務繁瑣與肩負溝通緩衝功能等窘境。但即便如此，口譯員們在執行口譯任務時，仍透過「增譯」、「減譯」、「摘譯」、「釐清」、「參與」、「人稱轉換」與「忠實翻譯」等口譯策略的靈活使用，扮演「訊息傳遞者」、「文化調節者」、「溝通促進者」與「立場傾斜者」等角色。而軍事口譯員自身能力上不斷精進的自我期許、對譯語語域的適切度認知、以及自身工作與口譯任務的平衡，則是確保譯員能稱職扮演上述四種角色，幫助溝通雙方有效溝通的前提。“A culture-bound social practice affects interpreters’ codes of ethics, their understanding of their own role, recruitment and quality factors, and consequently their interpreting strategies.”(Rudvin, 2007) Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the working environment of interpreters helps identify their roles and working strategies. To explore the roles of military interpreters (MI) and their working environment in Republic of China, this paper focuses on the three issues of “MI’s working environment”, “MI’s roles and interpretation strategies”, and “Necessary ability and conception for MI”. Via a semi-structured interview method, this paper interviewed 10 seasoned MIs, trying to address the three research issues mentioned above. The research results suggest that lack of identity recognition, short of interpretation training and military working experience, MI manpower insufficiency, extra administrative chores, and serving as communication buffer are the dilemmas in MI’s working environment. However, despite the fact that the working environment is not favorable for MI, they still act as “message deliver”, “cultural mediator”, “communication facilitator”, and “stance tilter” by using interpretation strategies such as “addition”, “deduction”, “abstracted translation”, “clarification”, “involvement”, “personal conversion”, and “loyal translation” to facilitate communication for both sides. Moreover, to serve the abovementioned roles properly, MIs also have to keep improving themselves relentlessly to recognize the importance of register of the target language, as well as to strike a balance between their regular military jobs and assigned interpretation tasks.