Persian Linguistics in Medical Interpreting
Mohammad Nashir
Introduction
In this article we will discuss in a short format - how Persian Linguistics influences Medical Interpreting, through careful research and of course, some personal views.
Context
# Chardin's claims and a clearly intriguing concept on Persian Linguistics (Introducing the format of Linguistics in Persian history in General).
# Arab and Persian Medicine
# Difficult decisions in Afghan related Interpreting - Persian language (Farsi/Dari)
# Conclusion
Body
Here is an example of Persian history in the setting of Persian linguistics, in the e-book 'A Journey to Persia' [Page 132] it is written "the educated Persian was well versed in three languages, Persian, Arabic and Turkish". Continued "Chardin acknowledged Persian was not difficult - any more than Italian was to an Englishman", I mention this fact in one of my pieces in relation to scriptures and similarity of language, for instance, because French and Spanish are romance languages, they would be deemed as ethical to learn one after another, but they would not be challenging, as they are relatively similarly structured.
Here is another interpreting statement [Page 132] "Chardin believed that no other oriental language, modern or ancient, so nearly corresponded with European grammar as Persian".
This is a significant and hearty statement, mainly to say this, is a broad claim and someone would need to fully, intricately understand the differences.
Now let us look at another piece of history which relates to Persia's far flung history and its relation to Arabic Medicine, as they later shared the same time period, but Persian medicine formally was introduced later.
Here is an example from the e-book 'A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate' [Page vi] "With the advent of the Arabs, Arabic became the tongue of all men of learning. It was only towards the end of the Baghdad caliphs, say in the beginning of the twelfth century, that Persian began to be used as a scientific language".
This is principle, for the reason that the Persians may have existed with strength before the Arabs, but their introduction as scientific language came in the beginning of the twelfth century.
In the e-book 'Lippincotts Primary Care Psychiatry' [Page 185], the issues such as interpreting come into place, but as Afghanistan and Afghans are very commanding of their women in tribal regions (based on IR - International Relations and extensive research in the Afghan field), the majority who do not speak English would come from these regions so a problem you would face, would be the following....
"A 25 year old married, Farsi-Speaking, Afghan woman presents to an urgent care clinic with complaints with difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, and a choking sensation for the past few months. Upon questioning, she reports other problems including a depressed mood and insomnia as well as decreased energy, concentration and appetite. She is a mother of two small children and is now 12 weeks pregnant. She feels overwhelmed by the prospect at having another child. The patient is Muslim, but she wants another abortion despite her religious beliefs. Her husband is adamantly opposed to an abortion stating that 'it would be a sin'".
So without going into the finer details this e-book below states to go for a Farsi interpreter, however this is already flawed, as Afghans do not speak Farsi, they speak Dari and an Iranian speaker would aggravate the situation due to not understanding or difficulty with politics, despite having an Iranian might diffuse the situation, a different ethnic group, would be even better as it would cause indifference and the two would not hold the same values apart from "Afghan" as titled.
Conclusion
So we have looked at Persian Linguistics briefly in a Medical and Interpreting setting, we know that there is a rich history and knowledge in Persia or commonly known now as Iran and Afghanistan, although more associated with Iran. However Iran is a very wealthy country in comparison to Afghanistan and the significant elite establishments and education systems in Iran are significantly greater in stature, than those you would even find in Kabul, due to war, corruption and other political matters which have happened in the last 40 years (see 1979 war - Afghanistan)
What causes problems for an interpreter mainly one who would be educated in Dari and Farsi, is building a relationship with the opposite neighbor (e.g. Afghan, Iranian). As in this case, a mutual interpreter would only be one who has no history of political affairs or hatred within the country and especially religion as Afghanistan was a theological state up until 2001 and many intend to keep it that way (i.e. Taliban).
Interpreting is difficult, however in my experience and from research, an Afghan interpreter may face 3x the challenges a normal interpreter of for instance a French interpreter would face. An Afghan interpretee would more likely be misinformed, poorly educated due to war and claim of asylum due to not being able to go back to Afghanistan.
So this would require a lot of sensitivity on the part of the interpreter to facilitate communication, without getting too involved, the key principle is never get involved.
References
McCarron, R, Xiong, G, J, Bourgeois, 2009, Lippincott's Primary Care Psychiatry [e-book], Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, a Wolters Kluwer Business, Available through Google Books, Accessed 2nd March 2012,
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