How to avoid getting lost in translation

Readers discuss the limits of language. Other topics: road safety, F1, job interviews and IT workers in the US

Putting language into its proper cultural context is key, a reader writes. Randi Sokoloff for The National
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I very much enjoyed reading Ammar Shams’s work (Cultural context is key to communication, April 26). It illustrated how successful communication is often much more than grammatically correct language.

Mark Farmborough, Ras Al Khaimah

Can schools change?

With regard to the recent comments by the head of Adec (Adec chief: teachers can adapt to change or hit the road, April 25), the school reform project started long before 2010. The so-called new school model of that year is interesting but far in advance of what many local teachers can deliver.

It is a shame they removed the support in schools. The issues in some schools are complex and will take many more decades to improve. The schools have had to deal with a great deal of change and in many cases lack basic resources.

It’s no good just throwing computers and digital whiteboards into the classroom and thinking results will improve. There are issues with the level of English and Arabic. Meanwhile, the number of administrators grows.

Estelle Burton, Dubai

The real purpose of interviews

Your piece about work interviews got me thinking (Seven mistakes to avoid in a job interview, April 27). An interview is a two-way exchange, not just an opportunity for an employer to grill a candidate. It is also a chance for a candidate to assess the company and determine if working there would be a good idea.

There is an exchange of compensation by which the employer pays for the time of the employee, so remuneration is an integral part of that process.

What would be the point of concluding the first interview with one party and being unaware of one of the important factors to be considered in the decision-making process?

Simon Buckerfield, UK

Enforcement of traffic laws

Let's talk about road safety and traffic laws (UAE traffic laws only as good as drivers' attitudes and enforcement, road-safety experts say, April 28). It is great that we have traffic laws, but the problem is that most people ignore them.

I drove from Abu Dhabi to Dubai recently and saw at least five cars carrying children in the front on the laps of parents and loads of drivers texting and talking on mobiles.

The other issue that is dangerous and happens constantly is drivers going at crazy speeds and then slamming on the brakes just before a camera before speeding up after it. Why don’t the authorities install average speed cameras to stop this?

Phil Perrin, Dubai

Formula One has run its race

I note from your sports pages that Malaysia has wisely kicked its Formula One Grand Prix into the long grass. Spectator numbers were falling fast, TV viewing figures have declined and they have decided that it is no longer value for money.

Apart from the price tag of the event, watching 20 cars go around the same track about 70 times over two hours has to be the most tediously boring so-called sports event ever created. Especially as the cars almost always finish the race in the same order.

Dennis Wilson, Abu Dhabi

Old challenges in the IT field

With regards to Rashmee Roshan Lall's latest column (Doors begin to close on India's tech diaspora, April 26), the resentment towards foreign workers in the IT field has been brewing for many years before Donald Trump and others closed the doors.

There has been numerous stories of IT staff arriving in the office in the morning to be introduced to the foreign team that will replace them.

On the flip-side, there are also stories of those same foreign IT workers being held virtual prisoners on their foreign assignments.

Neil Bezuidenhout, Abu Dhabi

A little less emotion please

In reference to Deborah Williams's opinion piece (Dubai, New York and lazy cultural stereotypes, April 26), it would have been good to keep an objective eye on the original article that was published in The New Yorker, instead of rushing to an emotional rebuttal.

Mandana Ziaei, Dubai