Zynia - Motivational metaphors for Training and Development

Lost in Translation

I heard a fascinating article on the Today programme, BBC radio 4, the other day. There’s an international festival of Gilbert and Sullivan Opera on at Buxton Opera House at the moment and they interviewed a Swedish man about it – he said there isn’t an equivalent medium in Sweden.
They then got on to a discussion on whether G & S would work in other languages as the puns etc are very English and suit an English sense of humour. The interviewer wondered if international meant people from other English speaking nations such as America and Australia but he was firmly put in his place by being told that there was a Japanese company performing in Japanese – an interesting concept.
It set me wondering about the Zynia story in the Customer pack – “A breakdown in Communication”. However well we think we speak another language we find it very difficult to translate idiom and proverbs, this can lead to all sorts of problems in customer service as our story illustrated so graphically and amusingly. I’ve been trying to imagine how a Japanese opera company would translate some of the punning names especially in an opera like The Mikado, mind you this then brings out a whole other can of worms such as political correctness and the fear of offending people but perhaps it’s better not to go there.