Exploring the Challenges and Strategies of Interpreting Humor in Conferences “Arabic-English”

Abstract

This article discusses humor in simultaneous interpretation and its intricacies based on cognitive, linguistic and cultural challenges it raises. The aim is to present an empirical study that investigates difficulties facing interpreters as they attempt to relay humor through various research methods such as case studies, discourse analysis of real-life events including United Nations briefings and presidential press conferences. The analysis reveals that most often employed strategy in handling humorous content is close rendition which enables interpreters to preserve humor’s essence and tone despite linguistic and cultural barriers. When direct translation seems impracticable, other strategies like reduced rendition, simplification or generalization also come into play. By bringing out the delicate ways of interpreting humor during real time, this research emphasizes on interpreter’s skillfulness, cultural understanding and the ability of managing the rapidity of simultaneous interpretation. These findings contribute to interpreter training enhancement and establishment of best practices for humor translation across languages and cultures through more effective communication between them.