Interpreters in The Time of Crisis: Borders and Barriers

The work of interpreters in frontlines is completely different from that of community interpreters. It needs advanced skills and competencies, in addition to resilience and a amenability to survive and prepare to face multiple risks. The language and culture barriers are the most pressing challenges facing conflict interpreters. Besides, diversity of culture, society norms, and hostile nature have a huge impact on the interpreters' work. The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language (Kirkpatrick, 2020). 10 Yemeni interpreters working in conflict zones in Yemen were selected using an open-ended questionnaire to explore if they face challenges and barriers in their work as interpreters.  For this purpose, the paper aimed to identify the barriers and challenges that encounter interpreters in conflict zones in Yemen. The findings showed that interpreters encounter many challenges, including linguistic, social, cultural, and psychological challenges, in addition to pressure work, translation lost, workload, security threatening, diversity of dialects, diversity of society, workload, and term conflicts. The findings also showed that most interpreters are affected by cultural and psychological factors more than linguistical and social ones. The study recommended the interpreters to be aware of cultural sensitivity and to avoid psychological pressure and tension.