earticle

영어

Court interpreting is a special domain within the realm of legal interpreting. The existing literature has examined court interpreting mainly through discourse analytic studies and surveys of key stake holders, such as interpreters and legal professionals, but little research has focused on interpreters engaged in the occupation of court interpreting. In this paper, the term, court interpreter, refers to interpreters engaged in court proceedings, regardless of their professional training and qualifications. This paper seeks to highlight the human aspects of court interpreting based on one-one-one interviews with fifteen interpreters who have been working at criminal courts and administrative courts in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The findings reveal the personal profiles of court interpreters, how they started court interpreting, what motivates them to continue court interpreting, how they perceive court interpreting, including its positive and negative aspects, their role as interpreters, and their court interpreting experiences. The main reasons for their interpreting at courts are intrinsic, mainly a sense of satisfaction derived from serving the society at large, and partly financial remuneration. While they find court interpreting rewarding, stimulating, and interesting, they also find it challenging and frustrating because of the lack of understanding and cooperation from court officials including judges. Drawing on the interview data, this paper offers some suggestions to improve the court practices of engaging interpreters in the legal procedure.