The first mini case was so funny. It clearly reflected the communication gap between the farmer and the colleague. It wasn't the language that lead to the gap, but it was the lack of knowledge of the place. It is really interesting to know that there is the same word for the city and the country. The passage frustrated me too. Initially I thought that the colleague didn't know exactly where he had to go. I thought he was stupid. On a second thought I even thought that the farmer wasn't aware of Tunis and was just randomly pointing that place to be Tunis. Huh! This how difficult is it to live or roam in a country without any prior knowledge of that place.
Such a frustrating situation would have never come up if the colleague or Dr. Nolan would have studied a bit about that place before going on a venture even without a tour guide.
Such a frustrating situation would have never come up if the colleague or Dr. Nolan would have studied a bit about that place before going on a venture even without a tour guide.
This case does highlight the communication gap that could potentially arise when you are in a foreign place and do not know the local language. As such, I thought your title was very apt. I thought your point about a tour guide was relevant, because he would have probably known what the farmer was alluding to and thereby have prevented the confusion and irritation that arose between the two parties due to lack of communication.
ReplyDeleteThe cases posted show us that inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural communication are very important.
engr 103
I like how there a small gap in knowledge generated such a huge misunderstanding. Just like idislikethiscolor said intercultural- communication is essential if we are to work in the globalized world of today. We need to strive to understand people who come from different background in order for us to work together very effectively.
ReplyDeleteThis minicase reminds me of an example that my high school Chinese teacher has told us more than once during our class. In chinese, different words can be said with same pinyin characters. The only way to differentiate these words is the pronunciation of each word. When I was in the eleventh-grade, as I was learning the basic in speaking oral Chinese, we learnt how to say “hello Sir!”,” Hello Madam”,etc. Of course I don’t remember what I learnt anymore. However I still remember that the word Xiao xie can in some context or pronunciation – I don’t remember anymore – call a person a prostitute. Our teacher gave us this heads-up.