Linguistic Barriers

In the last couple of years, I have found myself thrice in a situation where I don’t speak the local language at all. And that got me thinking about how the communication factor influenced my experience in each case.

In France, I drew a complete blank! Few people speak English fluently. So every single day involved at least some gesturing, pointing, mispronounced French words, broken French phrases. In most instances however, the people were keen to help. They wanted to understand what I tried to communicate and tried their best to respond in the best way they could. But it’s a little crippling being unable to kick-start a conversation with someone at the bus-stop or in a supermarket. One feels a bit alienated, there may be no one to talk to or understand for hours at a stretch! My greatest take-away was learning the names of different French food – because the most important communication required everyday was at the restaurant/café counter to find out, “Do you have any vegetarian food, i.e. without chicken, ham, beef, fish, egg, blah blah blah…!”

Chennai was just plain difficult, but in a very different kind of way. With some people (mainly cab/auto drivers, bus conductors, supermarket attendants, police, etc.) I often got the feeling that people didn’t want to understand what I was saying and didn’t care to respond even when they did understand. Don’t mistake me for one of the Chennai-bashers who simply like abusing the place. I quite liked Chennai and had a decent time there. But once in a while the whole “non co-operation with Hindi speakers” really got to me. In my first week, one auto driver kept yelling something to me in Tamil, although I kept saying “Only Hindi”. Only after I looked completely blank and did not respond at all, did he throw in his towel and finally speak in Hindi!

Assam has been comparatively easier. Firstly, because a lot of the people do speak Hindi. Not very fluently perhaps, and a very different accent, but I don’t feel completely paralysed. Secondly, Assamese is very similar to Bengali, and hence many words are similar to Hindi words. Also, I find that the people here, especially in the village, want to know more about a different life or want to tell me about theirs. So they make an effort. The wife of my landlord, for example. She knows only a few words in Hindi. But she still tries her best to talk to me in a mixture of Assamese and Hindi. I hadn’t even heard Assamese before I came here, but with a few gestures included, we have had a lot of communication in the last month, and also a lot of laughs.

So, communication, and therefore language, has certainly impacted my perspective and experience in a location. And it has also brought back my old enthusiasm for trying to learn more languages. Now if only I lived up to my resolutions sometime!