It Don’t Mean a Thing... Simultaneous Interpretation Quality and User Satisfaction
Philip Macdonald · OpenstarTs (Univeristy of Trieste https://www.units.it/) · 2013
The issue of quality has been extensively discussed in Interpreting Studies (IS). Quality is subjective, ineffable and cultural. As the “aspiring-to-science community” (hereafter “ATSC”1) defines “scientific” as empirical, quantifiable and objective2, it is bound to struggle when dealing with such a concept. Yet, precisely because it stipulates that a scientific approach requires a quantifiable dimension, it has to try and define quality in an objective manner. Shackled by its postulates, the ATSC has drawn upon two approaches that have predictably come short. One vainly seeks to define quality and subsequently “objective and quantifiable” criteria to assess it. The other claims to draw on marketing and strives to measure user satisfaction, primarily through questionnaires. The most advanced work in marketing, however, has taken on board the findings of cognitive