Lost in Translation

[William F. Owen]

As for controling the pace of the conversation, well that depends on who you are talking to. Arabs as a rule seem to be given to rambling. If it is just some random guy I may try to cut him short and keep him on point but if I am talking to a sheik or anyone else who thinks that he is important then it is often better to let him go rather than to offend him.

As I said, the items I outlined were not teaching points. Merely an illustration that the poor Soldier/officer concerned, had clearly been given no guidance as to the correct use of a translator. - previously I assumed all deployed US officers had been given some training.

The guidelines we used were strictly for gathering info at the tactical level, EG: "Seen any Serb Fighters here?" - and assumed a pretty low level of Interpreter skill, so completely inappropriate for meetings of negotiations.

That depends entirely on what the exchange is about.

SFC W

Yep. Context, context and context.