Nature Interpreters

“Nature is man’s teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.” ~ Alfred Billings Street

The Nature Interpreters Program is an experiential vacation which is crafted for you to discover nature and what it means to you and your everyday life. By exposing you to the lush surroundings of Bubbles Resort & Dive Center in Perhentian Island, you will be able to understand nature with your five senses – sight, sound, touch, scent and taste. But more than that, you will have the opportunity to observe with your heart and feel with your mind the wonders of Mother Nature and learn lessons from her which you can apply to your life.

During the course of your program, you will be open to the elements of the ocean and the surrounding forest around Bubbles. The program is developed such that you will have time to firstly, experience nature, and then analyze and interpret what it means for you, together with fellow Nature Interpreters.

The aim of the program is to open up your feelings and thoughts by way of interpretation – linking new experiences with previous experiences – and forming new perceptions and understanding. After all, as Nature Interpreters, we are to translate Mother Nature’s language to one that our hearts and minds can understand.

What does a Nature Interpreter do?

As a Nature Interpreter, you will be put on a comprehensive program which will require you to exercise your mind through experiential learning (by way of Observation, Analyzing, Interpretation and Realization) and be physically involved in conservation efforts.

Some of the activities in the NIP include forest and shoreline observation, reef surveys, beach restoration and turtle conservation. Engagement and dialogue with fellow interpreters and tourists at Bubbles are also part of the NIP. You will get first hand experiences on the front lines of marine and turtle conservation in the Perhentian Islands Malaysia. You will also help to collect scientific data through these activities that will be presented to the Malaysian government and local universities to help direct future conservation in the Perhentian Islands.
A Nature Interpreter is put through four stages of thought processes in order to understand Mother Nature’s language.

Observation: Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting their surroundings. At this stage, interpreters are asked to take note of what caught their attention and why.
Analyze: After observations, interpreters reflect on what they have observed. Through this reflection, it is hoped that more questions are raised about the environments which they were observing. During analysis, initial reasoning will be achieved and here is where experiential learning starts to take form.

Interpretation: From analyzing observations, questions are raised. In the interpretation stage, interpreters are encouraged to share with fellow interpreters their findings and then attach meaning to their feelings and thoughts of those findings. This way of sharing allows interpreters to rethink old perceptions and experiences and attach new meaning to them, thus enabling new interpretations. We call this an update to the experience library, where previous notions and understandings are altered and updated with new meaning. In this stage too, interpreters are reminded of certain factors that may have a hand in influencing interpretation – moods, time of day, physical surrounding, personal biases, past experiences, symbolism etc.

Realization: Once interpreters accept their new interpretations, this realization brings a change in their experience library and have on-going repercussions to how they interpret the world and their everyday life.

Visit their website for more info  www.natureinterpreters.com