[A bit long but can't shorten]
Two weeks ago, my friend lost his cell phone after a night of drinking and partying. I texted my friend's phone, in case someone would have found it. Much to my surprise, someone called me back !
I was called while I was at work. I immediately answered : "This is my friend's phone. Can I take it back ?"
The guy tried to say something, stumbling out some incomprehensible words. I asked him for an appointment, trying to articulate the best I could, but he didn't get a word of what I said. I was talking with a foreigner, incapable to get one word in English. But he finally managed to say : "... ... yeah ! Chinese ... Marina Bay Sands !" So I found a Chinese girl. I explained her the situation and asked her to tell the man that we could meet at the MBS at 10pm. She finally got an appointment the day after at the Marina Bay MRT station at 10am.
I immediately told my friend that the phone had been found. Just in case, I asked a friend of mine the Chinese translation for "Where are you ?"
The day after, we were on time at the spot. I called my friend's number but I directly fell on the voicemail ! Good joke. We spent 30 minutes pacing up and down the corridors of the MRT station but nobody. I tried to call him back twice again, but without success. Finally we gave up and separated at the MRT station.
I was shopping when I've suddenly been called back by my friend's phone number !! I tried to speak slowly but he didn't get what I meant. It was so frustrating that I got angry. I said in Chinese : "Where are you ?" "Marina Bay MRT... SMS" I understood that I had to text him :"Marina Bay MRT Station. 11.30am" I took the first cab I met, telling him to run over the Marina Bay MRT.
Arrived at the station, I couldn't find him. I was in distress. I called him back, and asked him : "At which exit are you ? A, B, C or D ?" And he answered : "huuuh... ahhhh... yeah" I was about to implode !
Finally, I asked an employee of the Hotel to tell him to come in front of the hotel. He seemed to understand and I couldn’t explain my relief when I saw him coming to me with the phone in his hand... What a hard work ! I warmly thanked him with some gestures. Here, the intercultural barrier was the language. In addition, I was phoning him, so I couldn't use gestures or body language, which was really frustrating.
Edited #1: Thanks Dhanya
Edited #1: Thanks Dhanya
Hi Guillaume!
ReplyDeleteIt was lucky that your friend got the phone back! :D Anyhow, I guess such circumstances are quite common. Language barrier leading to communication breakdown. It was good thinking on your part to approach the hotel staff to help you in translating the information!
I suppose through this incident, it shows the importance of non-verbal communication in transmitting the message as well. Sometimes, verbal speech is just not enough.
On a side note, your post wasn't long at all! It was nice reading it!
Cheers,
Maple
Hi Guillaume!
ReplyDeleteIs it Maxime's phone? It's great that at least he attempts and does give the phone back. :) That reminds me of how people usually talk to me in Chinese instead of English and I can't understand a thing since I only understand basic Chinese. And even when Native Chinese people talk in English, sometimes it is hard to understand since they speak in distinct accent.
Teresa,
DeleteI couldn't give you a name sorry. The only thing I can tell you is that his name is composed by an M and a X. He could be anybody ;)
By the way, I think that this man was a pure Chinese because he spent 20 minutes with the employee of the hotel at the phone. And the only thing she told him was to meet in front of the hotel.
Thanks for your comment dear.
Hi Guillaume,
ReplyDeleteI could completely relate to your position as a chinese-ignorant in Singapore. While majority of the people do converse in the basic english, there have been times when I could not get a transaction completed because of the language barrier. For example, in a wet market it was almost impossible to buy fish. I just did not know what to ask for. The lady behind the counter tried her best to pause and say what she was saying slowly. It just did not help! I did not know the language.
The best thing to do at these times is ask the person next to you who can speak in mandarin to help out, like you did! I wonder what else one can do though.
Dhanya,
DeleteThank you for your comment and you grammatical tips ;)
As you said, language barrier is perfectly is almost impassable when you don't understand it at all. For some languages, you could guess what your interlocutor is actually meaning. For example, the French is a Latin language, so it has the same roots than Italian, English or Spanish. I mean that some words are common, based on the same etymology.
Ask me for speaking mandarin, and I will be completely lost, like you buying your fish :D
See you on Thursday my dear
Oh and I think the 'I've been called while I was working' should be 'I was called while I was at work' since you are reporting everything else in past tense!
ReplyDeleteHi Guillaume!
ReplyDeleteI think you and your friend had a terrible experience! (There is a saying; Wine is a turncoat ； first a friend, then an enemy! Like your friend, I had many experiences that I lost many things because of drinking!)
Anyways, currently it is quite difficult for me to talk with other people by telephone. As you know, I do not have good English skills yet, so that I need others’ body languages to understand perfectly what they are speaking. Unfortunately, there are many situations when I have to talk with others by phone.
This is a story that Yujin and I experienced. In the last recess week, he and I planned to go to other countries so that we were reserving flight. However, there was a problem in Yujin’s passport name, so we called the institution where manages the passports. The officer explained so many times about what we should do, but we could not understand what she was speaking. Finally, we asked our Singapore friend to call her and we were able to solve the problem and make the reservation.
Because I had similar experience, I can absolutely understand how you felt!
This is a very interesting and dramatic scenario, Guillaume. It clearly illustrates the power of language, and the difficulty of using the phone as a channel to communicate when two communicators don't share the same language.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!