Even More Shocking but True Part 2
March 3rd, 2008
You must read the previous post in order to understand this one!
Language is so important! Here is a story. I was about 8, church basement, Wednesday night, Grey Awana uniform on, sitting in a assembly of my peers listening to a “talk” give by one of the Awana leaders. He asked a simple question, “How many of you have been to Spain?” to which everyone raised their hand. I was the only one who hadn’t raised their hand. I was very confused. (My word, these kids were well travelled and cultured what with all of them going to Spain and such.) Slowly but surly, every one started saying, “Come on, yes you have, yes you have.” to which I honestly replied “No, really I havn’t.” Finally we all determined the confusion. What he said was “How many of you have been spanked… not….. been to Spain.” We all had a good laugh.
Language is important, being heard is also important but being understood is vital. (I believe I will write a pithy post on that one day.) We all trip around these fine points many times in our lives, on both sides of a conversation.
You see, everyone else in the car, was on the same page except for me. I know, shocking really. They all understood Chenoa to mean that when she said “She ate them.” she meant the mother dog not the owner lady. Still disturbing really, but I don’t know that I would of thought so much about it if I had a asked a few more questions. Questions are really, helpful tools in getting you pointed in the right direction in every conversation.
Ask many of them people!
Entry Filed under: International Travel
4 Comments
Add your own1. Sandy | March 4th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Maybe it’s because you are “literal”. I know that I am, and that gets me into some hot water sometimes — I hear and process things in a literal way.
I would’ve thunk the same thing as you
2. Emily C | March 5th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Oh, thank God! I know it’s “normal” food in some cultures, but…well, it’s just a relief to hear the truth!
3. Rebekah | March 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Okay- I take back my ewwwwwwww– dogs do eat their young sometimes…. you know pregnancy can make any mammal crazy!
4. Flo @ Yielded Heart | March 6th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
A few weeks ago, I was having a quick conversation with someone we’re acquainted with, that we haven’t seen in a while, and I just announced that we are “expecting” again. She smiled, and then moved on to say that yes, we should get together again- maybe this summer. Well, then I said by that time we’ll have our little addition with us- I’m due in June. She said, “aha.”
It’s frustrating, coz I knew she didn’t understand anything I said, and yet kept saying aha!
A similar thing happened the following week or so, and I also got that “yes, I heard what you said… but not really, but I’ll just nod and act like I understood you anyway” friendly respond. I walked away, and overheard her dd telling her, “You were not listening to that lady at all! You didn’t even understand what she said! She was asking how Samuel (her son) was doing.”
(Just sharing my frustration on being understood…)
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed