I love conducting training. Okay, maybe not physical training, but training in bible and business stuff I definitely enjoy. However, this week presented me with a new challenge – training people who didn’t speak English. Or, to be more specific, who spoke a little English.
If training people who don’t speak the same language (via an interpreter) is frustrating, training people who speak a little of the same language but not quite enough to completely understand you or feel comfortable speaking in is actually more frustrating.
Why? I hear you say (I have very big ears you know).
At least if they completely don’t understand English, EVERYTHING has to go through the interpreter. But if they understand just a little …
1. I’m not sure whether they’ve understood me or not, so I keep pausing and looking.
2. If they don’t understand me, they’ll start speaking in Portuguese to one of the other students, meaning that both of them can’t hear me.
3. If they have questions, because there’s no clear interpreter, often they’ll just ask one of the other students
4. I don’t know if they get me jokes, damaging my ego …
Well, we got through it. Later, I heard from a reliable 3rd party that this was 'the best training they had ever given by an Australian'!
God bless
john
(Yes, for those with keen eyesight, you’ll notice we have the 3 Ws – the who, the what, and the why!)
No comments:
Post a Comment