In the final part of the latest show, Hugo Heij shares his tips for avoiding translation traps.
His advice is, quite simply, to:
• Prepare and
• Practice.
Both obviously apply to any skill we want to perfect; but for reasons I’ll look at before the end of this post, we’re not always as willing to do either in relation to communication as we would be if we were, say, learning to drive.
No-one in their right mind would pitch up for a driving test with no previous road experience. The vast majority of people take some formal lessons and supplement those with several hours behind the wheel, with an experienced driver beside them. Yet we launch ourselves into all sorts of language-based interactions without a second thought.
We native English-speakers are especially prone to that, because we assume ‘everyone speaks English, don’t they?!’
Well, yes, as I said in the first post on this show, plenty of people around the world certainly do – and some of them do it to a much higher standard than we achieve ourselves!; but, as I also said in that first post, the assumption that everyone will speak our language, so we don’t need to go to the bother of trying to speak theirs, comes at a cost, in the form of missed opportunities.
If a goal-focused individual knows that a more relationship-focused person is likely to need a few minutes’ chat before getting down to serious business, both will be able to give more to and take more from a meeting.
Those whose professional lives are wrapped up in jargon, but who take the trouble to translate it into plain English whenever possible, open doors which remain closed to their more inward-looking colleagues.
A Brit who appreciates that an American who says:
Is simply saying:
‘I’m moving on now’, and not:
‘You’re boring and I don’t want to talk to you’,
will be far better placed to succeed in the States. On the other hand, an American who understands that British politeness really isn’t ‘passive-aggressive’ – we’re just trying to be nice! – will be in a much stronger position to take advantage of opportunities in the UK. It follows, of course, that if we Brits and Americans can get to grips with Australian humour – not to mention the more lethal members of the population – the sky’s the limit – and it’s a very big sky!
In light of all that, it should go without saying (so, naturally, I’m going to say it!): time and effort spent learning even the most foreign of foreign languages is an investment.
When we make the most faultering effort to speak somebody else’s native tongue, we’re saying so much more than the words we might be screwing up. The underlying message is:
‘I want to find common ground with you’.
Everything we say or write has layers of meaning. The deeper we can drill down into those layers, the more likely we are to find common ground.
On the show, we make the point – which I’ve made before and will no doubt make again – and again – and again! – before we’re done, that everything starts with awareness. If we can’t see an obstacle, or the opportunity lurking behind it, how can we remove the one to reveal the other?
I think awareness is at the bottom of why we accept the need for preparation and practice in relation to a skill like driving, much more easily than we do in relation to communication.
Both experienced drivers and learners are only too well aware that driving isn’t an innate human ability. It has to be learnt.
Although, as we heard in Programme 3, speech is an incredibly complex skill – or, rather, set of skills – it feels much more like an instinct, because we don’t remember learning. We don’t remember the journey from having to scream for attention, to being able to ask for it. All we know is that now, we speak. A qualified driver might have cause to think about life without a licence – and a learner may dread the thought of never getting one; but we rarely, if ever, stop and consciously think about life beyond the level of language we have. We can’t imagine how difficult day-to-day living would be without it, or how good it could be if we improved our skills.
In a purely commercial context:
The more effectively we can communicate, the more time and money we save, the more efficiently we operate, the higher the return on our investment, in human and technical resources, and so, the more successful we become.
Hugo proves that, personally and professionally.
In the next programme, we’re looking at other activities related to communication which feel more like instincts than skills – so we don’t always optimise our investment in them.
In:
‘What can we see through our ears?’
I talk to Dr Michael Proulx of The University of Bath, about his work on devices to help blind people access visual information – and how that research can help us all to improve our communications, by showing us how to make better use of our senses.
This is the first of three programmes on the theme:
‘Talking of the future’,
looking at innovative ways of turning obstacles into opportunities. It all starts, with Programme 8, on 1st October.
In the meantime, if you have any:
• Questions
• Comments or
• Communication issues you’d like to chat through,
come and talk to me. All the details are on the website.
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