Saving the Good Lost in Translation

'What you see is what you get' is a commonly known phrase in the world of technology. In human communication, the same term sometimes requires another look for a closer understanding. From 2019 to 2021 I completed a MS degree in conflict analysis and resolution from the Carter School in Arlington, Virginia, United States. I got a more balanced perspective about human experiences in general, given my previous more optimistic view of the world until then due to mainly being a positive psychologist. One thing that came to light was how the social dynamics of actual conflict may get presented quite differently from what we tend to learn on paper or read in books. By the time I was in this program, I had already started thinking of myself as a 'street psychologist' -- a term I still use occasionally. I have had this inkling all along about how the application of intellectual ideas in the real world is a much more exciting space of discovery.

One theme that tends to get revealed quite clearly is the difficulty or delay in interpreting the experience of the other side, be it individually or between groups. Even in psychology, this is a theme that makes good well-meaning solutions not work therapeutically or practically at times. Therefore, here I'll list what I have observed as common underlining themes explaining some of these gaps in understanding.

One challenge that tends to emerge is purely cultural, i.e. not simply being aware of what may be naturally understood or assumed in one cultural experience may not even exist in another. For example, in one of my courses I had women from the military as my group members. They once expressed how men in Afghanistan wouldn't even consider talking with them when they went with any progressive aid or solutions. On surface, a Western mind would interpret this as rude and sexist. However, being from the closest possible culture, I tried to make the matter easier to understand by sharing something along the lines of how they simply may not have a norm for how to talk with foreign women. Therefore, in such a scenario, a woman from their own country with some understanding of the Western stance can be effective not only as a linguistic translator, also, most importantly as a cultural translator. Any changes in education or the work culture, for example, in most such settings, particularly suggested by the Western world, are seen as covert strategies for destroying tradition and culture. Put differently, in a more patriarchal set up if you want to introduce the idea of education for women or work possibilities for women, the idea has to be offered as something that'll make the men of the group feel included, and even better -- in charge. Else the interpretation is one of threat to family structure and existing values. As in 'We don't want our women to become modern, immoral, and divorced like you.' is the answer you'll get if you really asked traditional patriarchal groups to be truthful, obviously due to a more generalized slightly inaccurate understanding of lives on the other side of the world. Hence, any kinds of advanced education opportunities are seen as a threat to men's existence in many societies because then men may become expendable. Therefore, a more receptive method is, using a smart Afghani female translator of course, to relay how education is supposed to help the family survive more easily in general. Then work settings can be designed with cultural considerations in mind in which strict protocol of behavior can still be observed without compromising work quality.

The other idea that is slightly less understood or differently valued in the West is 'honor.' We have an entire literature on cultures of honor found in the United States (see work by Richard Nisbett and colleagues, for example). However, the daily experience of honor-based behavior in more culturally tight societies, which may include parts of many south Asian countries as well, is expressed in subtle ways. For example, there is a family status quo that's apparent in which as a norm you choose to speak or not speak when more or less people are present. To someone else, this may appear as timid behavior if not recognized correctly. A real-life scenario here can be as follows -- Imagine as a Peace Corps volunteer, just to make things real, you enter a house to learn about the family's most recent peril or problems in daily living and have the children become the interpreters for translating all the problems. Children reporting authorities from outside what's going on in the family may be slightly demeaning to the adults of the family because it would shift the dynamic observed generally. Linguistic limitation isn't supposed to be treated as a disability in such scenarios.

Walking in with an adult, a similarly dressed interpreter, would be a better option instead.

The other common space of misunderstanding, easier to demonstrate using therapeutic or initial local meetings in conflict resolution in remote non-Western settings, is missing the various reasons for why people smile*. In the United States, if you smile a lot, it's usually a sign of your personally found happiness or sometimes even a recent success you may want to share with others. However, in a lot of Eastern collectivistic cultures, a smile is also often used as a way of conveying congeniality, an intent to relate selectively using only positive emotions, saving face or even to cover sadness at times. Why? To not pollute the social environment, particularly in the presence of strangers or in novel contexts in which people may not know you well yet. I'm sure, someone from the Western world will now try to recall why they could never understand all the nodding and smiling by someone from the East despite talking about a serious issue. In short, the Asians aren't lying to you when you sometimes try to help them or want to know more about them. They are often waiting for an opportune phase in the relationship, including relationship type and conditions in which expressing a problem may be more appropriate. Hence, moments of revelation have to be captured carefully after much trust building or by using more indirect or collectively recognized methods of sharing.

The above isn't an exhaustive list of unsaid issues that emerge in such conversational spaces. My intent here was to shed light on what might get missed forever by many well-intentioned people.

Relevant paper

*Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. (2006). Cultural affordances and emotional experience: Socially engaging and disengaging emotions in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 890–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.890