There are a bunch of blogs and websites that I “read” that are written in English and at least one other language. I’m not bilingual. In fact, it seems I can barely spell bilingual based on the correction my spell checker just suggested. (I think I wrote something dirty ; )
Sometimes, if the text is not English but there’s a cool diagram or something I want more information on, I’ll attempt to use Google’s translation service. Sometimes it’s helpful and sometimes not so much. Like I’ll be reading along and then get to some translation that makes me think, “what do horseshoes have to do with social learning?” (If you know, let me know).
So I had to laugh when my colleague Karen Balcomb sent me this interesting lesson on translation. Karen is your co-worker that greats you and gives you a smile on a Monday morning. Usually our ‘how was your weekend?’ moment is via Skype or GTalk as it was this morning.
(OK, where was I again?)
Oh yes, translation. Seems the Welsh translation for this sign is:
I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.
One journalist noted the obvious:
“When they’re proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh.”
For learning practitioners, it’s a good lesson in using an expert to help you accurately translate text and concepts. But there’s more to consider.
In a paper Intercultural Internet-Based Learning: Know your Audience and What They Value, researchers at Utah State University noted the following about language differential:
- Language and culture are intertwined. Learning the words is not enough.
- Many international English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners who take online courses find that their cultural orientations and second language abilities may magnify their problems at first as they attempt to complete Internet-Based Learning (IBL) courses, but these can be overcome with increased use of online courses.
- Some university leaders and course designers may think that as long as their online course is in English, it is equally available to any student who speaks English.
The same researchers suggested that instructional designers preparing for a global audience would do well to:
- remember in their needs analysis to choose an appropriate level of English for their international courses
- express content simply and precisely in IBL courses.
- When designers know they will have both native and non-native speakers responding to the instructional discourse style, as much as possible they should create materials that are culturally neutral. This requires use of a simpler sentence structure and avoiding slang, colloquialisms, local humor, and local insider examples whenever possible.
In the 21st Century in general, IBL designers and instructors would do well to consider that in some ways they are always designing for a global audience.
Reference:
Intercultural Internet-Based Learning: Know your Audience and What They Value. Joanne P.H. Bentley, Mari Vawn Tinney, Bing Howe Chia; Utah State University. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 2004.
Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic literacies: Languages, culture, and power in online education. Mahwah:NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Workplace Learning Today
Subscribe by Email
Connect on Facebook
Connect on LinkedIn
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a notion that people who don’t know a second language and who aren’t interested in knowing one often approach language with a very literal, almost mathematical mindset. Not out of malice, but because they take their native language for granted. They know what they mean when they say “park,” for instance, forgetting variations like “office park.”
I once helped develop online university courses for an international audience. The strictly-enforced standard was “no contractions.” This college’s policy was that words like don’t, isn’t, you’ll, we’re would be too difficult for non-native speakers of English.
It’s one thing to avoid saying things like “at this point in the project, it was third down and long yardage.” To pretend that standard American English doesn’t use contractions, or that they’re somehow more difficult, is just academic twaddle.
Dave makes a good point. English is not simply one language – even for the native speakers. A non-American may wonder why an American restaurant patron suddenly feels the overwhelming need to take a bath. Why else would they be asking for directions to the bathroom with a look of near-panic on their face?
I caused much hilarity on arriving in the UK, by referring to a “stiffy” which is what 3.5″ floppy disks are called in South Africa.
Many of our idioms are drawn from our cultures and we need to be aware, if we are addressing a multi-cultural audience that some of the references may just pass the user by.
This is quite closely related to the subject of literacy, which Doug Belshaw addressed here.
Karyn Romeiss last blog post..Sometimes you want to see the whites of their eyes
Agree, good point Dave. I think I do often take my native language for granted. Two experiences I’m reminded of: (1) I was a foreign exchange student in high school (Belgium) and had American high school French language classes in the 70s that were about as useful as a PC missing every other key. The family I stayed with spoke English about as well as I spoke French. I had the hardest time trying to come up with an alternative English or French word for “until” (I actually used ’til in a sentence). And, there were many other words equally difficult to translate. (2) In my current classes at Syracuse University only about 1/2 of the students in my classes speak English as their first language. I always feel disadvantaged. I wish I spoke a second language.
Karyn…stiffy. Good one. You must’ve been red-faced. BTW…how many people know what that “save” icon is in MS Word (the floppy). Remember when they were actually floppy? Back to the 70s I go.
Kia ora Janet.
Thank you for this post. You have made me think a bit.
This point of view of mine may cause a reaction in some. I apologise for any pain and discomfort it may cause – I do not intend to hurt or cause discomfort in anyone.
I think the same mindset that thinks its okay for the translator to proof-read the translation as thinks everybody understands everything they say in their language.
The English earned a reputation of assuming everyone spoke their language (never mind their dialect) and that everyone could also understand it.
But my experience is that other cultures with non-English tongues adopt the same point of view about their own tongue.
I put it down to arrogance, that is a part of the human way of thinking – a property of the species.
But that same arrogance led humans to believe (and not that long ago) that Earth was the centre of the universe. It is a collective, tribal, property.
It is the property that took missionaries all over the world spreading their religion, their way of thinking, their beliefs, without real thought for the beliefs of the cultures they were visiting. It is still going on today, when some people believe that ‘democracy’ has to be shared by everyone and taken to places where it does not exist. The fact is democracy is also bound with culture in a similar way as language or dialect.
It is the same property that makes humans believe that the planet is endangered and must be saved (for humankind). In fact, the planet is perfectly safe. It’s our view of it that’s threatened.
So it is with language. We listen to the critics talk of how English or French or M?ori (or any other language) is being used and abused today. But their languages are perfectly safe. They continue to evolve, as all the other languages do. And some will die out and new ones will either appear or evolve. That’s how it’s been since ‘language’ began.
Ka kite
from Middle-earth
Ken Allans last blog post..Elearning Self-assessment
Great comments as always Ken. Thanks for getting me thinking about this in a new way.