Dear Simone,
Remember the summer of 2002 when we worked on a campsite in France? All the innocent French and Dutch children who ignore the language barrier and try to communicate in all sort of ways? The funniest moment was when a Dutch girl tried to ask a French girl if she wanted to go for a swim in the pool. With hand gestures she showed her she wanted to swim and the French girl nodded in agreement. The Dutch girl wanted to go to the swimming pool immediately so she asked her if she wanted to swim right now and used the Dutch word; ‘nu’. The French girl is completely shocked by her strange proposal to swim naked in the pool. She doesn’t realize that the word: ‘nu’ means ‘naked’ in French. It is hilarious to see how different meaning of words can cause miscommunication.
I just read a very amusing article about Kathleen O'grady, a Canadian Journeywoman, who experienced something similar. After a long day of conferencing she decided to watch television in her hotel room. Behind the counter was a 17 year old boy and he wanted to know what a middle-aged Canadian woman had to do in Nijmegen, so he started to chat with her. After a small talk she asked him: ‘so had it been a busy night?’ He didn’t understand her well so she rephrased her sentence: ‘so have you been busy tonight?’ He still didn’t understand it so she tried it another time, very slowly and with fewer words: “where … you …. busy ….tonight?” After that he looked shocked and he turned pink and he answered:” I just started work and I have to work all the night." Kathleen has no idea what he is talking about, but when she is up in her room she realizes that the key words: you busy tonight must have had a different meaning to this boy. Turned down by a 17-year-old she gave Canada a new reputation.
It is really interesting and comical to see how people can interpret words in different ways, don’t you think?
Love,
Julia
Remember the summer of 2002 when we worked on a campsite in France? All the innocent French and Dutch children who ignore the language barrier and try to communicate in all sort of ways? The funniest moment was when a Dutch girl tried to ask a French girl if she wanted to go for a swim in the pool. With hand gestures she showed her she wanted to swim and the French girl nodded in agreement. The Dutch girl wanted to go to the swimming pool immediately so she asked her if she wanted to swim right now and used the Dutch word; ‘nu’. The French girl is completely shocked by her strange proposal to swim naked in the pool. She doesn’t realize that the word: ‘nu’ means ‘naked’ in French. It is hilarious to see how different meaning of words can cause miscommunication.
I just read a very amusing article about Kathleen O'grady, a Canadian Journeywoman, who experienced something similar. After a long day of conferencing she decided to watch television in her hotel room. Behind the counter was a 17 year old boy and he wanted to know what a middle-aged Canadian woman had to do in Nijmegen, so he started to chat with her. After a small talk she asked him: ‘so had it been a busy night?’ He didn’t understand her well so she rephrased her sentence: ‘so have you been busy tonight?’ He still didn’t understand it so she tried it another time, very slowly and with fewer words: “where … you …. busy ….tonight?” After that he looked shocked and he turned pink and he answered:” I just started work and I have to work all the night." Kathleen has no idea what he is talking about, but when she is up in her room she realizes that the key words: you busy tonight must have had a different meaning to this boy. Turned down by a 17-year-old she gave Canada a new reputation.
It is really interesting and comical to see how people can interpret words in different ways, don’t you think?
Love,
Julia
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