Language Barriers

I am a little more sensitive about language barriers than most, because both my parents are not native English speakers.  My parents are both from Brazil, but spoke Portuguese and German as their primary languages up until they moved the United States in the 60’s and 70’s.  In fact, my first language was German, although I was born here in the states.  I think many people mistake lack of command of a language for stupidity, and I know that isn’t the case.

 

I started another project this week, with a company that is part of NTT.  NTT is the largest Telco in the world, and is headquartered in Japan.  They sent several people from Japan to make sure that we understood the requirements from their side.   I found myself completely frustrated at times, because I really wanted to understand what they wanted.  I know for a fact that the people I met from Japan are smart, passionate people abut what they do and I was frustrated that I couldn’t have a peer to peer conversation with them that wasn’t a lot of work on everyone’s part.  We got through it, but I know it was hard on them and hard on us.

 

I am a customer service oriented person, and when I can’t actively participate in a conversation, I get flustered.  I am either going to have to learn Japanese or start work on the Universal Translator again.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 22, 2005
  I spend a fair amount of time in Southeast Asia, and will be spending more time in China. I'm seriously considering learning Mandarin; it is, after all, the most widely spoken language on Earth. I see two options: night courses at a local community college, or computer software. I've read some good reviews of the software from Rosetta Stone; for about $350 or so you can get both course volumes. I think I'll try that first -- should be easy enough to put on an expense report :)