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Subject:Re: Learn a new language From:"Gillies, Sascha" <Sascha -dot- Gillies -at- au -dot- unisys -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:52:43 +1000
While I don't....
My dad is a marine navigator around the Great Barrier Reef (yeah, great job,
I know. He calls me from some tropical island while I'm sitting in peak hour
traffic in Sydney :).
He works on international ships where the nationalities are very diverse-
even on one ship!
He's a bit of a "character" and has learnt enough
Chinese/Greek/Arabic/whatever to say "Hi, I'm the navigator", some
rudimentary nautical terms and the occasional swear word.
Apparently the change in attitude of the crew is remarkable. He still meets
the odd arrogant captain but just the fact he made the effort to learn
endears him to them. They giggle at his appalling pronouncation but he
laughs the hardest at himself. It "breaks the ice" and camaraderie is
improved as they try to teach him more words. His working relationship with
them is improved by the personal relationship.
I imagine the same attitude would transfer to NYC programmers.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:JPosada -at- book -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, 13 June 2003 3:05 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Learn a new language
Please...let's not turn this into something ugly...it's a communication
issue and I think we can have a civil conversation on this.
I was just getting a cup of coffee and there was a set of three SME talking
to each other in Chinese (what dialect, I don't know). Last week, I've
regularly overheard my manager and some of his developers discussing
something in Russian. Hey! This is NY, the Big City, I'm OK with all of
this.
My question...has anyone ever made the effort to learn even a rudimentary
level of language used by your peers and if so, what was the effect on them
toward you?
Now, I'm not talking about where you come in already being multilingual and
joining right in...I'm referring to a situation where it is obvious that you
don't know the language and showing that you are making an effort to learn
how to communicate with them.
Just wondering if it helped improve the overall communication situation?
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
NY: 212-414-6656
Dayton: 732-438-3372
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream
of things that never were, and ask why not?"
-----Robert Francis Kennedy, 1968 presidential campaign
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