To study this, within this research, the researcher has developed competency assessment framework for professional Thai-Japanese interpreter. The above factors have increased the demand for Thai-Japanese interpreter in Thailand to increase and make the number of supply sites increase in this situation. Fortunately, for this market in Thailand, there is no barrier to entry and start working as a Thai-Japanese interpreter at all.
However, there are pros and cons to this freedom and ease of starting a career as a Thai-Japanese translator. Therefore, I am interested in studying Thai-Japanese translator in Thailand regarding the knowledge, skills, attitude, personality and other requirements needed to be a professional Thai-Japanese translator in this field. Thai-Japanese Professional Interpreter Competency Framework in Thailand. This study focused on the practitioners' perspective by conducting in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey for data collection.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- History of Interpreter
- Factor of Popularity
- Current Situation in Thailand
- Competency Framework
This factor has increased the needs of Thai-Japanese interpreting services in Thailand since the past decades with rising Japanese companies and organizations. And much better condition is that it is very easy for anyone to start working as a Thai-Japanese interpreter in the blink of an eye. Or are there any organizations that certify Thai-Japanese interpreter like in other countries.
This surprised and shocked people who were Thai-Japanese interpreters and those who understood Japanese. Then this TV show launched its apology all over the media and mentioned their problem of inappropriate choice of Thai-Japanese interpreter. The cause of interpreter errors may be the lack of a tool, system or standard for certifying the competence of Thai-Japanese interpreters in Thailand.
METHODOLOGY
- Methodology Process Flow
- Sample Selection
- Participants for Interview
- Participants for Assessment
- Literature Review
- Interview
- Attribute Setting
- Assessment Sheet
- Assessment Implementation
- Key Interview Questions
Group one is 3 Japanese people who have experienced or have used the interpreting service as a Thai-Japanese interpreter. Another group of two interviewees are 3 Thai people who have worked as Thai-Japanese interpreters in Thailand. This means that another group of Thai-Japanese interpreters will be asked to do self-evaluation for their own.
To carry out this process, I selected numbers of Japanese persons and Thai-Japanese interpreters working in the same company or organization. The first interview question will start with 'In addition to knowledge and skill, what are requirements for professional Thai-Japanese interpreter and why. During the interview with 3 Japanese persons, main questions will be focused on asking about their concrete perspectives, concepts, ideas, definitions, recommendations rather than abstract ones about being a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter.
Likewise, the same focus will be applied to the interview with 3 Thai individuals who are currently Thai-Japanese interpreters. An assessment tool has been developed based on the result of the attributes identified at an early stage and intended to be used for assessment in the next process. Against the self-assessment, his/her Japanese employers were also asked to use the same assessment.
The purpose of this way of working was to paint a picture of the difference in the gap between the perspective of the Japanese user and the Thai-Japanese interpreters. Do you think the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLTP) level N1 is the must for a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter and why? Do you think simultaneous interpreting skills are also a must for a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter, and why?
Besides knowledge and skills, what are the requirements for a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter and why?
ASSESSMENT MODEL DEVELOPMENT
- Participants for Interview
- Professional Competency Attribute
- Knowledge (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)
- Skill (Consecutive Interpreting Skill)
- Expertized field (Production system, Quality system, Accounting)
- General knowledge of Thailand and Japan
- Personality
- Assessment Model Development
- Expected Result of Assessment Model
What about the specific requirements for a professional Thai-Japanese translator? Due to the lack of academic studies on this topic, I conducted the individual interview with each participant using a direct and semi-structured question; "Besides knowledge, skills, what are the requirements for a professional Thai-Japanese translator and why?". Start from the conclusion, after interviewing all the participants, I realized that in the context of Thai-Japanese translator, there are 6 other attributes besides the 2 basic ones. To check the importance of the JLPT level perceived by the Thai-Japanese translators in the interview, I started with the question; 'Do you think the Japanese Proficiency Test or JPLT N1 level is a must for the professional Japanese translator and why?' For this question, all 6 participants agreed on the same opinion that it is a prerequisite to use Japanese effectively as a Thai-Japanese translator that a professional Thai-Japanese translator should have this level.
However, the JPLT N1 level does not really guarantee the interpreting effectiveness of all Thai-Japanese translators. Since I am not a native English speaker and the Thai-Japanese translator is not a native Japanese speaker, only 90% accuracy for the translation service is quite enough for me. For the Thai-Japanese translator, getting the general information of their country, Thailand alone may not be enough to support their translation service.
So it is assumed that a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter also knows about information on the Japan side. A good Japanese interpreter should know about frequently asked topics such as business environment, society, current political situation and culture. As a Thai-Japanese interpreter living in Thailand, it is just enough to know about Japan at a certain level since she/he is just a foreigner living outside of Japan.
A rough knowledge of the situation in Japan is enough for the Japanese interpreter to engage and carry on the conversation with the Japanese. Thus, additional personality-related questions were asked of all participants: 'what are the favorable personalities a professional Thai-Japanese translator should have?' From all sets of participants' responses, I grouped their similar responses into top 10 favorite personalities. As for the personality of the Thai-Japanese translator, I do not consider this point to be an issue.
I have used many Thai-Japanese interpreters for years, I understand that most professional Japanese interpreters used to study in Japan and it taught them how to behave or react accordingly in a proper way to Japanese people. At the end of this process, based on the result of interview and literature review, 8 main attributes were constructed as a set of professional requirements for Thai-Japanese interpreter. As reported in the early part above, again, there are a total of 8 attributes for being a professional Thai-Japanese interpreter, which consists of 2 attributes from literature review and 6 attributes from interviews.
CASE DEMONSTRATION AND FINDINGS
Participants for Assessment Demonstration
Result of Assessment
As a result shown in the radar chart, pair 1 between Japanese employer A and Thai-Japanese interpreter A, 6 attributes out of 8 were evaluated at the same levels, which were considered as a very good level. Two attributes were evaluated by Japanese employer in better result higher than self-evaluation, expert knowledge of quality and personality. The highest score assessed by the employer was personality, while the lowest was placed on general knowledge of Japan with only 2.0 points.
To summarize this, translator A had to improve almost attributes to reach a professional level especially general knowledge of Japan, knowledge of accounting expertise and knowledge of quality expertise where they are considered as fair or good. Regarding pair 2, Japanese employer B and Thai-Japanese translator B, 5 attributes out of 8 were rated at the same levels of 4.0 points or very good. However, 2 attributes were rated as the lowest score with 2.0 points being equivalent to a fair level in self-assessed accounting expertise knowledge and employer-assessed general knowledge of Japan.
Although knowledge of accounting expertise is rated higher than self-assessment, it is only a fair level which means more improvement is needed to be considered. Two attributes were rated higher than self-esteem; specialized knowledge of quality and general knowledge of Japan. This can clearly be said that translator B had to make more efforts to reach the employer's expectations and meet the professional level.
Interpreter C's self-assessment score appeared to be slightly exaggerated when it showed that 3 attributes were scored higher than the employer; interpretation skills, knowledge of accounting expertise and general knowledge of Japan. Among them, accounting expert knowledge and general knowledge of Japan were rated only 2.0 points with a fair level, and this indicated the priority of this participant's self-improvement. In summary of interpreter C, it is very clear that this participant also needed to improve many attributes especially the 2 items with the lowest score.
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Discussion
Recommendation
APPENDICES
Basically, each attribute is divided into 5 levels where 1 is the 'lowest professional level' and 5 is the 'highest.
Appendix A : Japanese Language Proficiency (JLPT)
One is also able to read material written on general topics and follow their narratives as well as understand the intent of the writers. One is able to understand orally presented material, such as coherent conversations and news reports, spoken at an almost natural rate in everyday situations as well as in a variety of settings, and able to follow their ideas and understand content Theirs. One is also able to understand the relationships between the people involved and the essential points of the materials presented.
One is able to read and understand written material with specific content regarding everyday topics. In addition, one is also able to read slightly difficult writings encountered in everyday situations and understand the main points of the content if some alternative phrases are available to aid one's understanding. One is able to listen to and understand coherent conversations in everyday situations, spoken at an almost natural speed, and is generally able to follow their content as well as to understand the relationships between the people involved understand.
A person is able to read and understand passages on familiar daily topics written in basic vocabulary and kanji. A person is able to listen to and understand conversations that occur in everyday life and generally follow their content if they are spoken slowly. One is able to read and understand characteristic expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana and basic kanji.
One is able to listen to and understand conversations on topics that frequently arise in daily life and classroom situations, and can pick up necessary information from short, slowly spoken conversations.
Appendix B: Consecutive Interpreting Skill
Appendix C: Expertized Knowledge of Production System
Appendix D: Expertized Knowledge of Quality System
Appendix E: Expertized Knowledge of Accounting
Appendix F: General Knowledge of Thailand (Economy, Society, Culture, Politics)
Appendix G: General Knowledge of Japan (Economy, Society, Culture, Politics)
Appendix H: Personality
Self-Assessment Sheet
