“Human soft skills and connection will never be replaced.”

Perceptions of paraprofessional translational competence in a multilingual business environment

Abstract

Paraprofessional interlingual translation is a common and everyday task of contemporary white-collar workers. The aim of this article is to investigate whether the workers practising paraprofessional translation in their business environment are aware of the competences that they need for these translation and interpreting tasks, and how they describe and perceive these competences. In order to find the answers to these questions, six employees of a Finnish sports equipment company working in a multilingual business environment were interviewed. As the interviewed employees were not professional translators, the data were analysed using Byram’s (2021) Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model, which made it possible to describe not just translational, but also other aspects of their intercultural communicative competence. The results showed that the employees’ perceptions reveal a receptive attitude towards otherness as well as experiential knowledge gained through living abroad. Their multilingual professional contexts pose challenges that prompt them to solve problems through empathic reflection. And finally, the research also suggests that, in general, the employees were not aware that they have translational and intercultural competences despite the fact that these prove to be very valuable, in both professional and personal contexts.