I have been working as an interpretive planner for several years now, and find that as I become familiar with the industry jargon it’s easy to forget the meanings I once associated with various words. An obvious example is the word interpretation—it is used so frequently and so causally that I can’t really remember what the word would have meant to me before working at TSI.

Two things recently made me think about this. First, Lisa Brochu posted a blog last week titled “Media Madness” in response to finding out that someone landed on her blog after typing “what means interpretive media.” It occurred to me that while we use the phrase “interpretive media” every day, it is definitely not an intuitive description of what it means.

Second, a coworker told me a story. She was describing a project we are working on to her mom, and explaining how she is struggling a little to make watersheds engaging for visitors. Her mother was surprised that a watershed exhibit wouldn’t be interesting to people and commented on the importance of the watershed concept. I was shocked and immediately thought “Oh my gosh, do people actually care about watersheds these days? That makes my job so much easier!” It’s always seems a little odd that nearly every nature center or visitor center project we work on includes a watershed message, but I have no memory of ever hearing the term before working as an interpretive planner. Then my coworker informed me that her mother is a science teacher and it made a lot more sense.

There are many examples of words that I had never encountered (or didn’t retain) before working at TSI that are now completely commonplace to me—estuary, raptor, permeable, rut, etc. There are also many word that have different uses—interpretation, intangible, messaging, media, etc. I often need to remind myself (and sometimes clients) that these words need to be defined if we are talking to the general public.

Do you have any examples of vocabulary that you commonly use, but may not be familiar to people outside your industry? What did you first think of when you heard the work “interpretation” within the realm of cultural and natural resource management?