Newspapers back in the UK almost never use the word ‘expert’ in a headline. In articles, it is mostly only ever used as a description of a specific person, e.g. ‘Dr Nobbs, an expert in …’ Contrast that to here, where ‘Experts’ (often capitalised) feature large in the media landscape: ‘Experts call for new investment [...]
Posts Tagged ‘language barrier’
13 Mar
Development Thought for the Day
Posted by MJ in Africa, Development Workers. Tagged: language barrier, technocracy. Leave a Comment
28 Feb
Aid workers are from Mars, Researchers are from Venus
Posted by MJ in Development Workers. Tagged: development research, language barrier, multi-country analyses. 1 Comment
One of the reasons for my recent radio silence was that I was attending a workshop to discuss a new research project into which we had been roped. It was a faintly surreal experience for me and, I guess, the other field representatives*, who were drawn from various other developing countries across the globe (Africa, [...]
2 Nov
Dealing with Criticism
Posted by MJ in Conservation & Development Agencies, Development Workers, View from the Bottom. Tagged: language barrier, NGOs, political support for aid, success rates. Leave a Comment
I promised a response to GL’s guest post on how conservation NGOs respond to criticism, and here it is. The first thing to note is that I don’t think this analysis is particularly unique to NGOs or the conservation sector. Governments, donors, hell probably even academics can come over all defensive when their pet projects [...]
6 Sep
Language Barriers: Real and Imagined
Posted by MJ in Development Workers, View from the Bottom. Tagged: bureaucratic obstruction, language barrier, per diems. 3 Comments
We are quite excited here about expanding our work into a new province. There are a couple of donors involved, and one, having wiggled their toe in the water for quite some time without achieving much, was in something of a hurry to show some results, so the preparations, at least for the initial bit [...]
