Lost in Translation
by Amy Ferguson
The world is our oyster.
There is nothing better than hopping on a plane and finding yourself in a new country. As an english speaker I feel very fortunate that, wherever I go, people often can speak English. However, when I visit a new country I always try to make an effort with the native language.
Whilst living in Rome, I made an effort to learn Italian. I studied tenses and verbs, I learned common phrases and household objects and, most importantly, all the swear words. However, when I arrived in Italy, I found that knowing Italian and actively speaking Italian were two very different things.
I liken this story to educational jargon. As teachers, we love acronyms and initiaves and benchmarks and trackers and indicators... the list goes on and on. Every place of work has them - the idiosyncrasies of their line of work.
With every passing educational reform or fad, new jargon is introduced. With Curriculum for Excellence, it was Experiences and Outcomes. Then, it was Significant Aspects of Learning (SALs for short. We do love acronyms.) Then, it was benchmarks. We have subject-specific vocab a-plenty, but what does it actually mean?
Abstract thinking is our brain's ability to capture concepts which are not tangiable. Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget reasons that this is developed in our adolescent brain known as the 'formal operational stage'. This occurs between the ages of 11-16. Until this point, young people can find it more challenging to form attachments to things that are not tangible. Therefore, it can be reasoned that when we overload young people with educational jargon, it is unlikely to mean much to them.
In addition, like many beautiful languages, many things can be Lost in Translation. There are certain words in many languages that do not have an equivalent in any other language around the world. To quote but a few examples:
Toska – Russian A mixture of pining, restlessness, yearning, nostalgia, melancholy, and depression.
Jaysus – Indonesian An unfunny joke that’s told so badly that you actually laugh.
Tartle – Scottish The hesitation before introducing someone when you’ve forgotten their name.
Prozvonit – Czech Ringing somebody’s phone once so that they call you back.
I believe that the same can be said of educational jargon - everyone's interpretation of the words is slightly different.
When in Italy, there were many occasions when I didn't understand what was being said. This would often make me a little flustered or send me into a blind panic. What if we are doing the same thing to our young people? What if we are overloading them with abstract concepts that they do not understand, sending them into a panic about their own progress and attainment?
Perhaps we should strip away the educational jargon and focus on the heart of the matter - our young people. After all, the one emotion educators can convey regardless of jargon, abstract concepts and untranslatable terms is the passion they have for learning and teaching.
È il cuore.
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