Today my morning was spent helping one of my coworkers translate a breastfeeding training manual for garment workers from Khmer to English. There was a draft in English I just had to make sense of it. It took 2 hours during which I learned many new things and had the following conversation with her:
A: This sentence says, “to do the breast milk expressing effectively it needed to have a Oxytocine/twisted shape and the good techniques”
P: yes
A: twisted shape of what?
P: to make breast milk flow, oxytocine – it is like a hormone
A: yes I understand oxytocine, and I understand the good techniques part….but what about the twisted shape
P: like foreplay to warm up the breast
A:…excuse me?
P: like when we have sex with man, cannot just have sex, have foreplay
A:…um. . . .
P: so to express breast milk, cannot just express any time – need foreplay.
A: you…need foreplay before expressing breast milk? We’re telling garment workers to fool around before expressing breast milk?
P: what is fool around?
A: you know, like, kiss…..and stuff…..
P: no no, foreplay for the breast. Like if someone massage your back breast milk will flow, or if you put warm towel on your breast or if you use a comb.
A: you…use a what?
P: a comb
A: *completely uncomprehending look*
P: *takes a ruler (pretending it is a comb) and combs from the top of her breast to the bottom* Like this it is very effective to make breast milk flow
A: *dumbfounded silence*
Pause.
A: so…. what does this have to do with the words “twisted shape”?
P: yes?
A: All of that sounds like an explanation of the good techniques
P: yes.
A: but what about the words “twisted shape” in this sentence?
At this point my coworker resorted to googletranslate.
P: (after a minute) ah…not “twisted shape.” Wake up.
A: Wake up?
P: yes, we have to wake up oxytocin.
A: So. . . . what we’re looking for in this sentence is something like ” to express breast milk effectively the mother needs to use proper techniques to stimulate the production of oxytocin.”
P: yes
A:…..like a comb….
