“Serving overseas as a small-town American has been intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last twenty years overseas!” -Matt
Translators get shot too
When was the last time you have been put in a social situation where you felt very uncomfortable? I feel like I get caught in a lot of these situations as I live between the USA and overseas.
When overseas, our American visitors love to engage with the locals and ask questions. Often questions that seem innocent and harmless to us Americans are very offensive in other places around the globe. I learned quickly, as a person put in the middle of these situations as translator, to reword or change the question, and often the answer they receive in return. I call it “flexible translating” to keep the intended good will between everyone and avoid what could become a very tense situation.
There are times I won’t translate things. It isn’t unusual for American visitors to ask me to translate graffiti they see on city walls. Though the graffiti is often non-offensive, there can be some graphic stuff too, and it stays untranslated.
As I write, I am back in the States for a short time and realized that translation comes with its risks here in America too. At a continuing education course, a frustrated man came in this morning. He spoke no English and would try to communicate through “Google translate” on his phone. Conversing wasn’t working between him and the school administrators. Without thinking and to the administrators’ relief, I started translating for them.
However, this was when the problems began. When it was unclear what each was saying to the other, they seemed pretty civil, but once I the translator stepped in and the communication became clear, the temperatures rose. The man ironically, gradually shifted his mounting frustration and intensity at me and not the administrators. In his anger, he couldn’t separate the message from the translator. I tried unsuccessfully to extract myself from the conversion that ended with the man stomping out the lobby door as he angrily glared at me – not the school administrators.
Yes, the messenger often gets shot, but there are a lot of translators who come away with just as many bullet wounds.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story! Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
