Vocabulary

Pondara uses precise terminology. The product currently uses LMS-flavoured words in some surfaces; we are deleting them. The point of vocabulary discipline is not aesthetic — it is to keep the product from drifting back to the LMS framing under pressure. Every screen, every customer conversation, every feature request is a small force pulling the product toward what people already know. The banlist is the counter-pressure.

The four loaded calls

Pondara settles four terminological calls that bind across UI, copy, and customer conversation:

1. Trainer (not Coach, not Educator, not Mentor)

The human role responsible for the learning process is Trainer (EN), Trainer:in (DE, gender-neutral), formador / formadora (ES).

• Coach implies an open-agenda support relationship; Trainer implies responsibility for a defined learning process — exactly what the whitepaper says the role owns.
• Educator is academic-flavoured; Pondara is workplace enablement.
• Mentor is voluntary and informal; trainers carry obligation.

2. Engagement (not Action Run, not Practice, not Attempt)

The unit of one learner running one scenario, once is an Engagement (EN), Bearbeitung (DE), Práctica (ES).

• Action Run is mechanical and engineering-flavoured.
• Practice in EN collides with “best practice”; we use Práctica in ES because Spanish does not have the same collision.
• Attempt suggests pass/fail, contradicting the formative-feedback frame.
• Session is too generic and implies a calendar event.

A repeated engagement on the same scenario (e.g., second pass after reflection) is still an Engagement; the two are linked via previousEngagementId.

3. Field (not Domain, not Occupation, not Industry)

The top-level professional context is a Field (EN), Berufsfeld (DE), Campo profesional (ES).

• Domain is used in software/data senses; would confuse engineers.
• Occupation is too narrow — a Field can host scenarios that span related occupations.
• Industry and Sector are market categories, not learning contexts.

4. Sparring partner (not AI Coach, not Tutor, not Assistant)

In product copy, the AI’s meta role is Sparring Partner (EN), Sparringspartner / Sparringspartnerin (DE), Compañero de práctica (sparring partner) (ES). The English loanword is preserved on first mention in Spanish because in business-Spanish pedagogy it carries currency that compañero de práctica alone does not.

When the AI plays a role inside a scenario (the customer, the supervisor, the patient), it is referred to by its in-scenario role name (ScenarioActor.role), not as “the sparring partner”. The sparring- partner framing applies only when the AI is in its meta role.

The shipping glossary

Three languages, in shipping order.

English	Deutsch	Español
Action	Handlung	Acción
Action scenario	Handlungsszenario	Escenario de acción
Scenario variant	Szenariovariante	Variante de escenario
Scenario actor	Szenario-Akteur:in	Actor del escenario
Engagement	Bearbeitung	Práctica
Hybrid dialogue	Hybrider Dialog	Diálogo híbrido
Sparring partner	Sparringspartner:in	Compañero de práctica (sparring partner)
Best-practice narrative	Best-Practice-Narrativ	Narrativa de mejor práctica
Field	Berufsfeld	Campo profesional
Role (within a field)	Rolle	Rol
Sub-competency	Teilkompetenz	Sub-competencia
Competency vector	Kompetenzvektor	Vector de competencias
Competency map	Kompetenzkarte	Mapa de competencias
Competency library	Kompetenzbibliothek	Biblioteca de competencias
Competency profile	Kompetenzprofil	Perfil de competencias
Formative feedback	Formatives Feedback	Feedback formativo
Evidence	Kompetenznachweis	Evidencia
Trainer verdict	Trainer:innen-Urteil	Veredicto del formador
Trainer	Trainer:in	Formador / formadora
Field expert	Fachexpert:in	Experto/a del campo
Org admin	Organisations-Admin	Administrador/a de organización
Learner	Lernende:r	Aprendiz
Cohort	Kohorte	Cohorte
Learning path	Lernpfad	Itinerario de aprendizaje
Path step	Pfadschritt	Paso del itinerario
Enablement	Befähigung	Habilitación
Enablement Management System (EMS)	Befähigungsmanagementsystem (EMS)	Sistema de gestión de habilitación (EMS)
Hybrid learning island	Hybride Lerninsel	Isla de aprendizaje híbrida

The banlist

Terms that are intentionally never used in product copy. The banlist exists because each of these words pulls the product toward LMS framing.

Replaced by	Banned
Engagement, Action scenario	course, syllabus, curriculum, module (in user copy), lesson (in user copy), unit (in user copy), activity (in user copy)
Trainer, Field expert	educator, tutor
Learner	student
Sparring partner	AI Coach, AI Tutor
Evidence, Trainer verdict	grade, mark (in user copy), score (in user copy), exam
Engagement, Cohort	class (in user copy), classroom (in user copy), semester, week (in user copy), term (in user copy)
Reflection inside the engagement	journal

The “in user copy” qualifier means the rule applies only to user-facing text — technical contexts (e.g., HTML type="module", CSS class) remain legitimate.

Why this matters

The banlist is the discipline

• Without vocabulary discipline, customer conversations drift back to “course” and “module” and the product framing collapses.
• Defending Engagement to early customers who ask for Module is part of the rebuild’s reason for existing.
• Per-tenant overrides on display labels are allowed when a customer’s organisation has a strong house-term (e.g., they call trainers “facilitators”). The underlying entity name in code stays Trainer.

What would make us revisit

• Mike’s preference differs. Adopt his term verbatim and update the glossary; the banlist principle survives even if specific entries change.
• A pilot customer’s organisation has a strong house-term. Allow per-tenant overrides on display labels via the i18n layer.
• A term proves untranslatable in a fourth language. When we add a new locale, treat it as an extension of this policy with a per-term review.