My personal ethics are a mix-bag due to living in multiple different cultures. I lived in Korea until 7. Then, I moved to the UAE and stayed there for 12 years. Now, I’ve been in Canada for the past 4 years. Throughout, some of the things I came to value are fairness, responsibility, and self-improvement. These ethics can translate, in multiple ways, to that of a natural interpreter.
Casual photos of places I've lived in: Korea (top left), Abu Dhabi (top right), Guelph (bottom).
The fairness ethic of mine developed by experiencing a variety of cultures and peoples in my life. In the UAE, I went to an affluent international highschool, where I met people from all over. However, outside school, the UAE is full of low-wage immigrant workers and it becomes evident that they are underserved in various aspects of life. The UAE essentially has no middle class as you see in Canada - it’s either poor or high-middle class (or higher). In Canada, I experienced the full force of the oftentimes struggling middle class. Many of my friends are white and considered “privileged”, yet they have to work so much just to afford the basics.
Thus, I feel a responsibility, as a natural interpreter, to bring fairness to all. A core aspect of being a good interpreter is to serve a diverse audience (Beck et al., 2019, pg.132), especially if your goal is to spread the message of an environmental issue. This also ties into the concept of “unpacking” my privilege so as to not bias your interpretation to a certain group of people (Gallavan, n.d.).
Barriers create the “underserved populations” and by recognizing this, I can expand my reach towards these parts of society (Beck et al., 2019, pg.132). For instance, economics may be a key barrier towards a large part of the population, especially if they do not possess a personal vehicle or are busy with work (Beck et al., 2019, pg.133). Or, there may be cultural barriers where different groups have very different opinions about nature (Beck et al., 2019, pg.133).
Whatever the barrier, by “unpacking my privilege” and following my fairness ethics, I have the responsibility to reach out to give a fair chance to everyone. For example, if I were to work in a national park, I could make the effort to reduce economic barriers by advocating for cheap transportation (like a bus) to pick up people and at diverse times to allow for busy people to have an opportunity.
Also, as a “minority” myself, I oppose the idea of treating them differently just because they are a “minority”. I think my experience in Guelph exemplified a good approach that ensures fairness. Here, I have never once been treated differently just because I am Asian. If anything, people treated me like a fellow Canadian, even asking me who I voted for during the 2019 election. As such, I think it is important to recognize it is wrong to generalize a minority group (Beck et al., 2019, pg.133) and when making the special effort to reach out to them, don’t make it seem like a special treatment type of deal (Beck et al., 2019, pg.134). If possible, the best approach would be to treat everyone equally while keeping in mind who your current audience is. This can be done by friendly talking to them, asking why they're here, and even internet surveys (Beck et al., 2019, pg.129).
When it comes to responsibility and the self-improvement ethic, this is heavily tied to my Korean heritage. In Korean culture, you are always compared to others, and people have very high expectations of you. Almost feels like you are constantly carrying the weight of the world. Thus, if I don’t get perfect on a thing I am invested in (like academia), I become angry at myself. I think this is a toxic trait of mine but the positives can be used as a natural interpreter.
Image credits: Presentermedia
Having a sense of responsibility allows you to try to perfect your interpretation of nature. While this may be subjective, a good interpretation takes considerable effort, which may be lacklustre without a sense of responsibility for the environment. It is not a walk in the park to make an emotional and intellectual connection with the audience, communicated through nature (Beck et al., 2019, pg.304).
For instance, the usage of arts can tremendously benefit the interpretation. I believe even approaches like theatre and reenactments can be useful for natural interpretation. Having a diversity of approaches that targets all the senses help leave an impression (Beck et al., 2019, pg.107). However, these approaches require heavy investment into knowledge, making connections to the character, props, rehearsals and much more (Beck et al., 2019, pg.219). Only someone with a high sense of responsibility for the environment and position can tackle such a challenge.
With self-improvement, it will help further improve as an interpreter. By taking good feedback and reflecting on your doings (and if it meets your objectives), you can infinitely improve (Beck et al., 2019, pg.419). I think one of the best things you can do to do this is to invite other natural interpreter sites and become a "visitor" for your own sites (Beck et al., 2019, pg.420). Oftentimes, you know more than the audience and thus may leave out key details that the audience may not know. By fixing these issues, it makes the interpretation much more available for all audiences.
Finally, I want to talk about an approach that is suitable for me and others in my generation. We grew up with the rapid development of technology. Many might think this causes a disconnect between people and nature (Beck et al., 2019, pg.166). However, I believe we can use it to also reconnect. Websites, social media, Youtube, etc. have the presence of billions. As such, I see our technology literacy as a huge opportunity to reach those billions of people to reconnect nature into humans (Beck et al., 2019, pg.168).
A foldable phone - a symbol of today's rapid technological development.
Overall, I have a long way to go to be an interpreter. However, I have still learnt much, especially in ways of scientific communication - a topic important in current science.
I hope people feel the same and good luck on the final stretch!
Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2019). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For A Better World. Sagamore Publishing.
Gallavan, N. P. (n.d.). Helping teachers unpack their "invisible knapsacks". Multicultural Education, 13(Pages: 36-36).