Intercultural Communication and Translation News

“Guanxi” (pronounced (gwan-shee) is one of the most powerful forces in Chinese culture. Though the direct translation of “guanxi” is “relationships”, the concept as it is used and applied in Chinese culture is much richer and encompassing. “Guanxi” does express the relationship of one person to another, or one party to another. However, more importantly the term also expresses an obligation of one party to another, built over time by the reciprocation of social exchanges and favours. If one has “guanxi” with another, one will be quick to do a favour, act on another’s behalf and depending on the depth of the relationship, do anything necessary for the other party. By establishing this type of relationship with someone, the other party is implicitly agreeing also to be available to reciprocate when the need arises. In such a way “guanxi” can be considered as a type of currency that can be saved and spent between the two parties. Like money, it is a resource that can also be also be exhausted, so one must be sensitive not to overextend the “guanxi” that has been established.

Read more > Guanxi 

Were you aware that British Sign Language is the second most widely used language in the UK?  Despite this however, British Sign Language still fails to have the same legal recognition afforded to those using other indigenous UK languages, such as Scottish Gaelic and Welsh.

Deaf members of our community face such discrimination on a daily basis and are often precluded from participating in society as fully contributing members. Take for example, the recent well publicised case of Mr McWhinney who was told that he could not serve on a jury due to his need to have a sign language interpreter present for deliberations.

The desire to help further improve services for the Deaf Community and to help publicise the cause makes Kwintessential extremely happy to be able to launch their new British Sign Language Interpreter Service.

In addition to providing interpreting services for the majority of world spoken languages, Kwintessential now seek to address the interpreting needs of those within the community who require sign language interpreting services.

“We have regular requests from clients for the provision of British Sign Language interpreters and we are now seeking to bridge that gap.  Focusing on fully qualified sign language interpreters only, we have built an excellent team of individuals who will be engaged for assignments. As with our spoken language interpreting services, we will invest all our efforts into ensuring that an excellent level of service and professionalism is provided and delivered. We will also help promote the campaign to have BSL recognised as a legal language,” explains Nikki Johnson, who will be overseeing the service.

The British Sign Language Interpreting service forms a significant part of our strategy in gaining recognition as the UK leader in setting and delivering excellence in the provision of language services.

Please visit the service at > British Sign Language Interpreters