Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Language and translation

Research that is carried out with respondents in another country has the risk

of certain issues and potential problems. You must first of all decide

whether the respondents will be able to understand the interview if you

conduct it in English. If you decide that they will not understand the

content, you will have to translate the questions into their language, conduct

the interview in their language and then translate their answers back into

English when you come to the analysis and writing-up stage. Translating an

interview in this way has two major issues. First, you must be very careful

that the translated version has the same meaning as the original English

version, which is not always easy to ensure. Second, the interview process

and transcription take even more time than normal and you must build this

into your research time frame. 

Illustration 6.3

 shows an example of an

interview that was translated and conducted in Italian. The student found

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this process very time-consuming, although the results were extremely

interesting.

Illustration 6.3 An example of research carried out in Italian

It is important to note that the research was conducted in Italian

and that all data reported has, therefore, been translated into

English by the author.

Interviews were conducted on a non-scheduled basis and

depended on the availability of local residents, and fieldwork

notes were taken of the responses given. Each participant was

asked a total of nine questions, each worded in familiar terms to

avoid complex and ambiguous language. The English transcript

of the interview questions is presented below in English and

Italian.