The Challenges of Oral Interpretation from Persian to Arabic(A Case Study of Military Discourse)

The current study aims to focus on the Persian to Arabic oral translation of speech of high-ranking military officers, maneuvers, and military parades. The purpose of the study is to find the challenges of oral interpreters and to find the influential factors to this kind of translation. In doing so, a descriptive-analytic approach was used to answer the research questions. Random sampling was used to investigate 200 minutes of audio-visual speech of high-ranking military offices, military maneuvers and military ceremonies, broadcasted in Alalam Arabic News Network. The analysis of the challenges showed that lack of military terminology knowledge, misunderstanding of the speaker’s intention, omission, losing key information, and incorrect addition were among the most important challenges of oral translation. Non-linguistic challenges included cultural different between two cultures, the rate of the speech in the origin language and bilingualism of the translator. These challenges were mostly apparent in parade ceremonies, military maneuvers, and commanders’ speech respectively.