Monolingualism corrupts cross-cultural research by forcing mediated self-reports

Evidence

My monolingual identity is a major inhibitor to my communication internationally, and to that of most Americans. The hodgepodge of French, Portuguese, Swahili, Spanish, and Arabic that I can utter does not substitute for the multilingual fluency needed for nuanced discourse. For example, if I must use male translators to ask uneducated Palestinian women how they feel about their lives, how am I to judge the filtered responses? What editing has occurred? What facial and tonal nuances have I missed because of my primary English-speaking identity? What fears do they have that I will get them in trouble with their menfolk in satisfying my outsider curiosity? — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1181

Categorization

• QUESTION: The methodological worry here — translator filtering of gendered testimony — is worth chasing: what do scholars of women in conservative societies actually do to compensate?