[Ailist] "Dialect coaching"

[Christopher J Chapman]

Dear Amanda,

You wrote:
> virtually.  In a recent event, someone asked me if I knew of such a 
> thing as a "dialect coach" - someone who could work with people to 
> overcome some of the challenges of multi-cultural communication, in 
> terms of both "sending" and "receiving" communication.  I am unfamiliar 

Adding further to what Marilyn was describing previously, it seems that 
my first thoughts about what a "dialect coach" is or does are probably 
correct (I've not heard or seen the term dialect coach before).  So here 
is my guess:

A "dialect coach" in my mind is a person who does BOTH translating or 
interpteting as needed AND ALSO guiding or leading AT THE SAME TIME. 
Any leading is of the servant-leadership style.  People who may need 
things translated first do not have all the infomation yet and so are 
more dependent on the giude/leader/coach for directing themselves.  For 
instance a Deaf person who may need input in the form of sign language, 
and does not understand written or spoken languages (yes there are quite 
a few of these left in the world), is going to be influenced by the 
signing interpreter whether this is supposed to happen or not.  So what 
that person decides to do or not do may be influenced by what gets 
signed to him/her first.  However, this Deaf person has as much right to 
be well informed in life as each and every other human in the world.  So 
that Deaf person would gain a lot of benefit from interacting with a 
coach so long as input and/or output are getting translated or converted.

I suggest that a good example I know of is the national charity named 
Sense in the UK (Oops sorry!  "Charity" in the UK means a 
Non-Governmental Agency and not-for-profit organisation.  There, perhaps 
I am doing it myself - dialect coaching!)  You may really prefer to talk 
with Sense International, whose offices are also within Sense's in the 
UK (London).  You can find out more about Sense at www.sense.org.uk 
However there was a big proviso  - these people do not think they are 
coaches, rather they use the terms intervenors or Support Workers.  I 
have tried to introduce the idea of AI to the people running Sense, with 
I'm not sure what success (I'm on the inside not the outside).  However 
Sense is a very pro-active organisation that is letting friends, family, 
staff and the people themselves that it enables, have a say in how it 
runs itself.  It seems to be living its primary purpose, but perhaps one 
or more of you can confirm that?

I hope that helps!  I might be able to provide much more specific detail 
off the list.

Kind regards,


Christopher
-- 

Christopher J Chapman
near Cambridge, UK
Profile page:
http://www.ecademy.com/user/christopherchapman