Tuesday, June 14
... but none of us are speaking the same language.
This post kind of reminds me of one of my earlier posts, where I complained about the difficulties of communicating with the people of the Arabic language, and my own troubles learning how to speak the language. However, this is a bit different in that everyone is speaking the same language, technically: English. In the office, everyone speaks English, simply because that is the one language everyone has in common. With a team of people from France to Palestine to the States to the UK, all gathered here in Oman, English is the one language which everybody speaks. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that we speak the same language. Perhaps it is a cultural difference, or a difference in expectations, or misinterpretations, but more often than not, there is some sort of miscommunication occurring, and it's not due to the accents. Of course, the greatest struggle occurs when two people who aren't native English speakers are in conversation, and they are trying to communicate through the one language they have in common, although neither are completely comfortable with it. It's like English is an extremely thin balancing beam upon which we teeter-totter our way across, trying to meet at one common destination. Or maybe it should be described as a sort of DMZ, in a figurative sense.
... but none of us are speaking the same language.
This post kind of reminds me of one of my earlier posts, where I complained about the difficulties of communicating with the people of the Arabic language, and my own troubles learning how to speak the language. However, this is a bit different in that everyone is speaking the same language, technically: English. In the office, everyone speaks English, simply because that is the one language everyone has in common. With a team of people from France to Palestine to the States to the UK, all gathered here in Oman, English is the one language which everybody speaks. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that we speak the same language. Perhaps it is a cultural difference, or a difference in expectations, or misinterpretations, but more often than not, there is some sort of miscommunication occurring, and it's not due to the accents. Of course, the greatest struggle occurs when two people who aren't native English speakers are in conversation, and they are trying to communicate through the one language they have in common, although neither are completely comfortable with it. It's like English is an extremely thin balancing beam upon which we teeter-totter our way across, trying to meet at one common destination. Or maybe it should be described as a sort of DMZ, in a figurative sense.
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