Abstract

This chapter analyses how officers training to work in a multinational military staff orient to challenges caused by a lack of access to what their colleagues are saying, due to their conversing in a language they do not speak nor understand. The study uses conversation analysis to investigate situations where non-Finnish-speaking officers ascribe meaning to Finnish-language talk. The analyses examine the aspects of the prior talk the non-Finnish-speakers were able to interpret, the available semiotic resources these interpretations could be based on, and the next actions these turns achieve or make possible. The data consist of audio–video recordings made in the tactical operations centre (TOC) of a multinational brigade during an international computer-aided crisis management exercise.