Tuesday, September 19, 2017

"Original," Not "Regular"

It seemed an ordinary enough thing to do: order a box of popcorn at the movies. I told the person behind the counter what I wanted and he replied, "What kind?" My response seemed straightforward enough, "Regular." This is where things got complicated. "We don't have that." he said. I looked behind him and could easily see they had plenty of what I wanted. "Yes, you do," I said. I pointed to what I wanted and said, "That." He turned, looked at to what I was pointing and said, "Oh, you want original popcorn." I confess to being a bit taken aback but finally nodded and said, "Yes, I want original."

This innocent little exchange took less than two minutes but in that time a common obstacle to smooth and effective communication was very much on display. The salesperson and I were not familiar with each other's terminology. We knew what we meant but I did not know his meaning nor did he know mine even though we were both talking about the same thing. Our mistake was that neither one of us took the time to learn the other's language. We simply assumed the word we attached to a certain kind of popcorn was universal. As it turned out, the assumption each of us made was wrong.

This is a particular issue when persons from different cultures attempt to communicate without first making any kind of effort to learn the other's language. The result is they often get trapped or sidetracked over otherwise simple blips. The result often ranges from mutual frustration to needlessly wasted time to costly or even failed effort. In my case, I was lucky in that I was finally able to acquire my popcorn and then enjoy my movie in the way I like best. But others are not always so fortunate. Being successful in another culture often requires preparation and accepting the reality that how we might converse is not always how others talk.

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