Inspire Action · Brad Carter

Observations, Ideas & Reflections on Leadership from eSwatini

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022

You are here: Home / Challenges / Translate: This needs improvement

Translate: This needs improvement

April 10, 2014

I started writing this post several weeks ago… but it never was completed. I wanted to be witty and creative in expanding on the original article. Now I’ve realized that isn’t going to happen, so I might as well stop waiting on something creative and witty to come to me for a Swazi version of the chart.

—

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a lecturer (who also happens to be my wife) who offered a few suggestions of how she might communicate to one of her students about the poor quality of the paper she was grading. The main desire being communicating clearly the work is sub-par and needs to be improved without being too harsh or mean.

We softened up some messages about “raising your level of work to college standards” and “this sentence needs improvement” in order to meet our expectations.

Then I left the room and this link jumped out at me in my Twitter feed:

“How To Say ‘This is Crap’ in Different Cultures” (Harvard Business Review Blog Network)

So, of course I clicked to read it. Unfortunately, no African cultures are represented in the article, but it focuses mainly on European differences. But, the point still remains. We give and take feedback in very, very different ways. Many of these ways are influenced heavily by our culture.

Here’s a chart summarizing the article.

British-Dutch Translation Guide

Obviously this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but today’s mission (one of them) is to find out the African translation of some of these phrases and start improving the way I give feedback as a lecturer, leader, and manager.

—

What did I learn that day — and in the conversations and explorations with my African colleagues and students since? The article’s chart is very relevant to my context here: I identify with the “British” columns while my African friends identify with the “Dutch” columns. Needless to say, that means frequent miscommunication and difficulties.

The real challenge, though, is to discover what misinterpretations I’m making when listening to my African friends. Knowing how they might be misinterpreting my comments — and working to be more clear — is helpful. But I also need to know how to better interpret their comments.

Perhaps another chart will appear soon for the reverse.

Filed Under: Challenges, Culture/Language, Management, Org Leadership

Don’t Miss Another Blog Post

Sign-up to receive leadership and life lessons in your email inbox.

Comments

  1. Jenene Marnach says

    April 10, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    Your posts are always worth reading and I look forward to every one of them. I guess to be clear we need to ask our African friends how they are translating what they heard from us. Keep up the important work, you ARE making a difference.

    • Brad Carter says

      April 10, 2014 at 4:57 pm

      Thanks, Jenene!

      Too often I think we don’t even know that we need to clarify what we’re saying — it is so natural for us to know what we mean and to be understood. And, too often, people don’t ask questions or seek help and understanding.

      I appreciate your encouragement!

      On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 4:36 PM, Brad Carter's African Education wrote:

      >

My African Education

I’m blogging about leadership, learning, and life from the Kingdom of eSwatini. Reflecting from my cross-cultural work in Christian higher education at African Christian College and entrepreneurial efforts like UKWAZI Makadamia and the Locavore Farmers Market.

Get Posts in your Inbox

Recent Posts

  • Goal Setting in Academic Success
  • Student Mobility in Africa
  • Implementing Blended Learning Strategies
  • Teaching in English
  • Remember me?

Categories

  • Africa
  • blogging
  • Books
  • Challenges
  • Church
  • Community renewal
  • Culture/Language
  • EdD
  • Faculty
  • Family
  • Favorites
  • Higher Ed
  • Macadamias
  • Management
  • Media
  • Missions
  • Neighborhood
  • Nonprofits
  • Org Leadership
  • Outcomes
  • Personal
  • Random
  • Students
  • Successes
  • Sustainability
  • Theology
  • Uncategorized