To add to the long list of things, that "just don't work like they should here". Alongside my keyboard, phone networks, ATM machines, electricity, taxi drivers, and so on.
Body language is great, right? I mean, you can go into a petrol station in the Tuscan countryside, ask for directions in English off a guy who doesn't speak a word of English, listen and watch as he explains, thank him, and then get to your destination. Without body language this type of thing would be near on impossible.
James said to me before I came, that "your normal reflexes don't work here". It's more than that.
I'm sitting in a cafe getting ready to go and the waitress is filling my glass of water. It's OK, I'm gesticulating, we are leaving, I don't need water, no we're going, it's OK, more hand waving. She smiles and nods and fills up the water. Doesn't help of course that they don't really have a word for 'no'.
It just doesn't work. All the things you've learned about how to communicate, and all the non verbal cues, 90% of it is simply turned off. It's like even with the language you still have to re-learn the body language piece. Massive blind spot! Who knows what cultural faux pas I am committing on a daily basis.
Go with the flow I guess, and keep learning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment