TRAINER, TRANSLATOR, OR BOTH?

Effective training facilitation is both art and science. The science part might be considered as the imparting of clear, factual, testable and repeatable information. If training facilitation were just that it would be more like a lecture, read directly from notes and delivered from a lectern. The art side of training is very rich. It involves emotions, entertainment, safety and challenge, and above all—meaning. This reflection highlights translating meaning.

A key trainer skill is similar to that of a professional translator. I only speak one language but part of the difficulty I’ve found in trying to learn other languages is that syntax differs between languages. In English I might say ‘give me the red apple’, in another language the noun might come before the verb or adjective, in others the order is different. But it’s more complicated than that. It’s not just about translating words; it’s about translating meaning in a culturally respectable way. It’s all very complicated in my mind! Kudos to all the professional translators and multi-lingual trainers out there.