Communication Conundrum

Last Tuesday's devotional was given by Bill Eggington, an expert in linguistics. I found his remarks insightful and especially relevant to our theme of globalization and transnationalism. In a world where we encounter people from different countries and cultures on a daily basis, it is important that we realize our differences and how this contributes to the way in which we communicate.

During my senior year in high school, I was fortunate to become good friends with two exchange students. Bianca, from Italy, and Juli (pronounced U-lee) from Denmark. Throughout the year I was able to learn about their home countries, their families, and the customs and traditions they had. One of the most important things I learned from them was the importance of communication. Bianca had fairly good English, but a strong accent. I would often have to ask her to clarify what she was saying. At first I felt bad having to ask her again and again what she was saying, but she later told me that it actually helped her English. When I first met Juli, we had to communicate through hand gestures and we did a lot of smiling and laughing. However, as the year went on, many people at school thought that Juli was American because her English had become so good.

When I first met Bianca, I thought that she was rude, but I later learned that she was just very opinionated and outspoken. I learned to admire her ability to speak her mind. Juli seemed very shy when I met her, but I soon came to realize how funny and sarcastic she was. I am glad that I did not let our different languages stand in the way of the friendships I made. I was reminded of the importance of realizing the different ways in which we communicate during the devotional. Especially in a world where it is so easy to communicate with people from different countries, we must learn to be patient and open minded.