Lost in translation

There are hundreds of great signs like this all over the Internet. In fact I found a sight that is just about the problems of communications.

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It's funny, but it's all the result of the language barrier that God put in place at a tower a long time ago.

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Now we struggle to communicate. I'm facing that this coming week as I prepare to teach in Crimea on the Black Sea. I know I will face this very thing- saying one thing and having it come out completely different. It's a great challenge to make sure that what I said is what they heard.

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A number of years ago I was in Haiti preaching and my translator seemed to translate much more than I said. I would talk for 30 seconds and he would translate for 2 minutes. I started to get suspicious, and so I asked another translator who was with us, "Is he saying what I'm saying?" He replied, "No, not really." In fact, what was happening was this translator was a pastor as well, and he was using these times to simply preach what he wanted to say. He made no attempt to translate what I said at all! When I caught on I said to him, "From now on you only say what I say, ok?" He was surprised that I figured it out, and sheepishly agreed. From then on it seemed his translations were much shorter. It's funny how many hurdles language has placed between us.

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So my big challenge this week is to communicate. I have trouble doing that in English, imagine using a translator! I hope most of what I say doesn't come out like this sign.....lost in translation.