Court interpreters Tay Meng How, Khairunnisa Nabilah Zainal Abidin and Christina Amrita Arul at the Supreme Court library. The woman had not only learnt her young daughter was a victim of sexual assault. She also had to testify in court against the alleged perpetrator, someone she trusted.
“We can’t really control some of the terms and details that may come up in court, because they can be very explicit, can be crude, can be really awkward. But I tried my best to handle the situation with tact and care, and I could see it made a difference for her,” she said. Emotional detachment didn’t always come naturally for Ms Christina, who has been with the State Courts for over five years, as much as she knows objectivity is “the best way to help”.
“It’s very easy to feel swayed by your emotions and look at the accused person in a certain way, but we have to remember to interpret ethically. Our core duty is to interpret for whoever needs our service,” said Ms Nabilah. Malay interpreter Khairunnisa Nabilah Zainal Abidin in a simulated court hearing at the Supreme Court.
"So I took cues from her body language and the way she was responding to the judge; I took the initiative to calm her down, to explain the court’s question and to provide her interpretation in simple Mandarin to aid her understanding. The rapport between court user and interpreter is not always a given. Mr Tay has been questioned about his Cantonese proficiency, but he usually reassures the individual that he is trained to interpret in the dialect and asks for a chance to assist them.
While most initial requests for Chinese interpretation services once came from middle-aged Singaporeans, these court users now include Malaysians, mainland Chinese and Vietnamese – all of whom have varying accents and use terms unique to their country or region. He illustrated that Singaporeans tend to say"shi qian" to mean 10,000, even though the standard term is"yi wan".
Malay interpreter Khairunnisa Nabilah Zainal Abidin familiarises herself with every case by looking out for concepts or vocabulary unique to the case that she should know. “But the English equivalent is ‘to live from hand to mouth’. Older generations like to use this kind of language, so you have to know what they mean,” she explained.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
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