The story of my life

As I've spent more time overseas, I've felt a bond of kinship with David Sedaris, a humorist who's spent a good portion of his adult life in France. Few writers can adequately describe the absurdity of being a foreigner like he can, and there's one story of his in particular that I feel completely captures the essence of what my life has been like the past three or so years. The essay is titled 'Jesus Shaves.' Here's the audio version, which is about ten minutes long, but well worth a listen. (FYI: There is one curse word at the end, but it's bleeped. Consider yourself warned.)




The story is entertaining enough in itself, but I cannot tell you how many times I have had conversations like the one he describes here, in my EFL classes and in daily interactions with people I meet. For adults trying to communicate in a foreign language, especially in an educational setting where one person in the conversation is far from fluent in the target language, linguistic skills hinder the more complex philosophical and comparative cultural conversations we'd like to have.

Often enough I'm the teacher in the scenario, trying to be patient but completely confused as to what my students are trying to tell me about their personal philosophies. But I've certainly had my share of moments as the student, using a stilted ungrammatical mutant language to try and talk to a native speaker who is struggling just to figure out which words are coming out of my mouth, let alone comprehend the implications of what I'm saying. When you say something the other person doesn't expect, due to a cultural or theological difference, it's easy for them to assume that you simply made a language mistake. The temptation is to give up when communication isn't smooth, and that can cause all sorts of problems.

However, God can and does work through these moments. Later on you might look back and laugh at the miscommunication, or be inspired to go and research these questions further to get a better understanding of what your friend was trying to tell you in the first place. I've learned a lot from simple Google searches inspired by incoherent explanations, and had great conversations prompted by asking a more fluent English speaker for clarification on what Joe Six-Words-of-English tried telling me earlier. There is much to be gained from a foray into the wilderness of cross-cultural communication, if you look at it as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than simply an awkward embarrassing encounter.