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German to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Human Resources / Employee sales training
German term or phrase:Festlese-Feedback
Dear colleagues,
I am translating employee responses to a survey regarding a sales training event conducted by their company, a very large US corporation. This is the survey question: "What about XXX (name of training program) was most helpful to you?" One of the responses: "Festlese-Feedback und die wirklich vielen Gruppenübungen."
I wonder if any of you have come across the above term. I get the idea: in talking to the customer the person gets so fascinated with a particular idea that he/she forgets the real job - selling. I cannot figure out how to express it succinctly in English. Can anyone help?
Thank you very much for your thoughts and suggestions. There is indeed no information on the actual training exercises other than what can be elicited from the (very sparse) responses. Those evaluating them are however familiar with the training program and should therefore have little trouble understanding what is meant. I decided to go with "tunnel vision" after all and to leave a note for the client.
Hi there Ramey. I agree that it would be preferable if it were possible to come up with a short phrase, and for all the reasons you give, but I am not convinced that anything that short gets the meaning across. While you are right that the people evaluating the survey know the content, but who is this translation for? Do they have the same level of understanding?
As I said before I think Inge's idea of tunnel vision could be brought into play to keep it fairly short, or your "feedback on obsessing" comes closest, but if I were reading that on its own without the German input I am not sure I would understand it fully.
I hope you're well! I think it's quite possible to keep it as short and idomatic as the original. Here are my reasons: 1. those evaluating the survey most likely have an idea of the training program's content. 2. "Festlese-Feedback" is a word creation, the English logically must also be created. 3. Any long explanation would take the juice out of the employee's answer, which MAY be followed up on by his/her superiors (horrible concept, superiors, I mean, who's to judge?!). Do you get my meaning? It's beautiful day in middle Germany, hope your's is, too!
Based on your explanation of what is meant, I don't believe it is possible to come up with a nice snappy phrase to match the German. Ramey's "feedback on obsessing" probably comes the closest, but I think you have no choice but to paraphrase it to something like "feedback on the tendancy to fixate on one feature (of the product)" There are all kinds of alternatives to fixate, like overemphasise, oversell. I also think your tunnel vision could work. How about "feedback on "tunnel vision" syndrome"?
is what I'm convinced is meant here. The feedback on one's fixation. Or fixe idee feedback, or obsession feedback, or feedback on fixations, feedback on obsessing (which is very idiomatic and perhaps the best solution). This is a word creation, so creativity is required. the rest is up to you! Good luck!
it's a small world ;-), I was thinking that maybe the feedback is so powerful that the person is overwhelmed or captivated by it.. but really I think it could be just one person's "made-up" word, so it's probably about making up your own one in English hoping that it reflects the person's idea.
imaging meeting you here :-) Could it be the person became enamoured with the trainer and was blown away by the feedback? Or is it simply a matter of having selected the wrong word and the person meant to say "convincing"?
feedback from colleagues and trainers is meant to make the trainee aware of his/her habit of "sich festlesen". I thought of "tunnel vision" or something along those lines but am not quite happy with it.
for your response, Ramey. In this context it's about the sales person trying to improve his/her sales pitch. One frequent shortcoming of salespeople is that while trying to sell they get stuck on one specific feature of the item which which they are fascinated. They then spend their entire pitch on that particular feature. More often then not they will lose the sale because the customer needs are neglected. During the training sessions the trainees get called on this approach by colleagues and instructors. That's the feedback.
The first thing that comes to mind is "fascination-feedback" - but that's a bit of a guess. Feedback is when they get a response to a given action/thought/idea, etc. Is this correct in this context? What "Festlese" could be, from your description, is that he/she has "taken the bait" or is, literally, riveted to a book, conversation, person,etc. Do I read you correctly?
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Answers
2 hrs confidence:
feedback on reading immersion
Explanation: DUDEN:
festlesen - beim Lesen vom Inhalt so fasziniert werden, dass man länger liest als ursprünglich beabsichtigt
It's about reading, not selling. Those trainees may have been given texts to analyse or summarise in a short period of time. Whatever that training is, festlesen is about the reading process. And the Festlese-Feedback is, I think, the outcome of a psychological quirk that people possess when they get too immersed in a body of text. It's the result of reading-induced immersion.
So, I think a better translation would be something like "feedback on reading immersion".
I have found many examples with this exact expression. You can look them up.
Example sentence(s):
What Works: A Reading Immersion Program for At-Risk Adolescents. Report No. 88-1.
The translation workplace 
