translating
When my little brother was still learning to talk, I could understand him before others could. He never met a stranger and was verbal from the start, so I had ample opportunity to help translate for him when people couldn’t quite keep up with his emerging language skills. At times, even my mom would look at me needing help to decipher his words.
It’s common for siblings to be able to understand each other, even when no one else can. Some go so far as to intuitively just create their own language. Good friends of ours had twins last year just shy of their first child’s second birthday and I cannot wait to hear how those three boys end up communicating in their early days of speech together.
It’s so important to be able to learn to listen to someone well so you can help articulate what they’re actually saying, especially if others are having trouble understanding. Sometimes this is a literal language or speech issue, but sometimes it’s a cultural or worldview issue.
You have to be able to do this in a way that someone’s voice is honored and they are pleased. Misrepresenting someone or putting my own slant or assumptions over the top doesn’t serve them well. But it still has to resonate with the hearer or no real connection in communication has taken place.
This can happen in a myriad of small ways, like offering the perfect word when someone’s brain gets stumped and they can’t think of how to articulate what they’re getting at. Or in active listening and asking questions to help someone fill in gaps that their hearers might not have been able to make the leap on.
And it happens when I do a brand voice discovery exploration with a client. I’m never trying to push someone to be someone they aren’t. I’m simply trying to help give them their voice and articulate it in a way that resonates more deeply with them than they thought possible while also resonating with those that genuinely want to hear what they have to say.
It turns out helping translate for my little brother, years of babysitting many children, years of working with teens trying to pull things out of them and years of cross cultural experiences all help me to hear others well to help articulate their thoughts well.
Everything happens for a reason and provides another piece of the puzzle of who we are and how we can serve others. What is something you are walking in now that you see began long ago?