The language barrier is crumbling

Google translation has been around for a little while, but I just used it in any sort of extensive fashion recently with this first follower dance party project that's going on. One of the people that joined this still as of now unknown project is a man named Lykle de Vries.

Lykle is involved with some really cool projects such as New Music Labs, which helps musicians maintain and cultivate their fan base. Basically, he helps ensure that his client's art is received. Lykle also has another business that focuses on new business development for a variety of clients.

Here's what's fascinating me right now though; the new music labs site I linked to above is all in Dutch - because Lykle lives in The Netherlands. With the power of Google Translate though, all I had to do was enter the url of his site and I'm taken to it and everything appears in English.

The language barrier is literally crumbling.

Now, for some people, this may not be news. They've seen translate before, and it's not new to them. That's fine, but I've been thinking about this reality the last couple days and I think we're going to witness another one of those monumental shifts - or maybe accelerations - in the kind of content we consume.

It's amazing to me that now, we'll be able to get any web page delivered in pretty much any language we want. And, Google chrome just added translate right into the browser - at least for windows. So if you visit a site in another language, it just asks you if you want to view it in your language.

I'm amazed by this kind of stuff.

So now here's what I'm wondering; how long until we begin copywriting pages towards Google translate? Some things translate better than others, and I wonder if this is the next evolution of copywriting. We'll now not only be trying to capture an audience that speaks in our natural language, but we'll also writing with the Google Translate engine in mind.

How long until this technology is incorporated into Instant Messaging, text messaging, and other forms of communication?

I'm certainly not arguing that this should replace learning another language - but I am suggesting that this will yet again dramatically increase the amount of information we're able to consume, and the audiences we're able to reach online. As a result, it will change the way we create websites and how we write on these websites.

I hope I never get to a point where I'm not completely amazed by the awesomeness of this stuff, and it's more proof that this whole internet thing is just only getting started.

By the way, I've added a little widget in my sidebar so that any visitor to my site can view it in any number of languages.

Hello world indeed.

Determination

© Copyright Cheryl Sterling. All rights reserved.


When I announced that I was going to execute on one of Andrew Dubber's ideas, and subsequently opened up the project space to anyone that would commit to writing one blog post a week about it, I really had no idea what was going to happen.

What's happened is that I'm now working with people I've never met, from multiple countries, and who all bring amazing talents and unique perspectives to this still as of yet unknown project. By joining, they've influenced what kind of idea I'm likely to execute on and have already helped to keep the momentum going.

Cheryl Sterling is one of the people that joined the project, and in addition to making spectacular hand made quilts, she also takes some pretty incredible self portraits. When I was checking out her blog, the photo you see at the top of the post just jumped out at me. I think it's really striking, and complex, and even a little scary.

But one word kept coming to mind when I saw it. Determination.

I asked Cheryl if she'd allow me to post it on my blog as a sort of kick-off to the project, because I'm determined to make good on my promise, and actually ship one of Andrew Dubber's ideas. There was something about it that set the right tone for the start of the project. It's like a visual that's saying: "I'm serious. We're going to do this thing."

The other reason I thought this photo was so great though was because the longer I looked at it, the more gentle it seemed. It's like someone that has their game face on.

So don't be scared, we're just a group people determined to do something fun and have a unique experience. Today's the last chance to get access to my project space. If you've been on the fence, I hope you'll join.

The difference between teaching and coaching

I've been thinking lately about the difference between teaching and coaching, and how by understanding the difference between the two, we can learn more from those who are doing both. Likewise, understanding this difference can also help us properly focus our energy when we are ourselves showing someone how to do something.

Both teaching and coaching are of course helping someone learn a particular skill or sharing a certain piece of knowledge, and both of them are gifts that are given to a student. Teaching however, is primarily a one way interaction. A person that knows something shows you how to do something or tells you some piece of information that they know.

If I write a blog post on how to use Google Apps to set up your company email accounts, I'm teaching you. The only interaction required is that I send this information to you, and you receive it. There, I've taught you something.

Coaching on the other had requires a cyclical, ongoing interaction. In order to coach someone, you need to first teach them something, then observe the student, and then provide feedback again. Unless all three of these interactions are taking place, it cannot be considered coaching.

The biggest difference is that, ultimately, teaching is about the teacher and coaching is about the student.

Think about who your favorite teachers were. I bet you'll find that the thing that made them so great was not just the way they taught you. Most likely, they also watched how you did something and gave you great feedback.

The best teachers aren't just teachers. They're also coaches.

I think about this when I'm reading blog posts. There's a difference in tone in those that are coaching versus those that are teaching. People that teach talk about what they're doing, how they did something, and teach you how you can benefit from some of the same things that they've learned.

People that coach though, their posts seem to be based more on the observation of others, and then giving feedback based on those observations. It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

The other way this difference can be seen is based on how people react when you reach out to them. If you reach out to someone that's taught you something and you don't get a response, it just means that they can't coach you. If someone writes you back though, and gives you a little bit more insight or perspective based on an observation, then that's an entirely different kind of gift.

Coaching, by it's nature, is more scarce. One person can teach a room of 1,000 people how to do something. It's very difficult, if not impossible, for one person to coach 1,000 people because observing those 1,000 people would require an extraordinary amount of effort.

I point these differences out not to say that the teachers aren't doing enough. Again, it's simply impossible to coach as many people as you can teach. Instead, it's important to recognize and truly appreciate when someone takes those extra steps to observe what you've done and gives you feedback. They can't do it for everyone, and it's really important to understand that they've given you something much more rare than teaching.

Likewise, if you're teaching people, think about how you can coach someone now and then. Because when you do, you're taking a moment to invest in the student.

It isn't the point of coaching of course, but in return for doing so, you're likely to earn a true fan for life.