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| Photo: Speaking many languages. From left are Mr Julius Dantile, Pansat
Western Cape; Prof Ludolph Botha, Senior Director: Academic Support
Services; Prof Carlotta von Maltzan, Department of Modern Foreign
Languages; Prof Botman; Mr Hannes van der Poel, Councillor:
Stellenbosch Municipality; Prof Siegfried Huigen, Department of
Afrikaans and Dutch; and Dr Harold Lesch. (Photo: Anton Jordaan (SSFD)).
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US interpreting venue – first of its kind in the Western Cape
The first interpreting venue to be launched at a university in the
Western Cape was opened at Stellenbosch University earlier this year.
The venue is situated in the Arts building and can accommodate sixteen
guests and six interpreters (two per language combination).
"This means that all three official languages of the Western Cape –
Afrikaans, English and Xhosa – can now be interpreted simultaneously,”
explains Dr Harold Lesch, lecturer at the Department of Afrikaans and
Dutch, who is also responsible for the establishment of the
interpreting programme and the interpreting venue at the Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences.
According to Dr Lesch, the interpreting venue will be used for the
training of students, empirical research on interpreting in particular,
short courses, and services to the university community and the broader
public.
"We would like to produce interpreters that are equipped for practice
and for the South African reality,” says Dr Lesch. "It is becoming
increasingly important that interpreters become involved in building
bridges between various language groups to improve racial harmony.”
The opening ceremony was attended by the rector, Prof Russel Botman,
who said that an interpreting venue of this kind will contribute to
democracy in South Africa through producing quality interpreters that
can work in courts and hospitals.
"I don’t think there’s a better way to improve the South African
society than to help improve communication between the people of this
country.”
"The actual question about language is one that concerns the
administration of justice. For example, a person standing in front of a
judge in a courtroom will need to know the following: will this person
understand my side of the story, will he or she judge my case based on
the exact facts that I provide, and will I be judged fairly? In this
regard interpreting has a very important role to play,” Prof Botman
said.
"This is not about the language of the elite; it is about people in
villages who put their sick in wheelbarrows to take them to a doctor
who doesn’t understand them. It’s not only about the right to speak
your own language, it’s about life and death.”
• Contact Dr Harold Lesch at 021 808 3573 or by e-mail at hlesch@sun.ac.za.
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