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Why do I talk louder...


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Years ago I had a Japanese boss. She spoke English, but not very well. I'd find my self speaking louder and louder when she didn't understand me. Until a coworker would tap me on the shoulder and say "Chief....slower...not louder" :blush:

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The movie Rush Hour covers this very well. When they first meet Chris Tucker yells to Jackie, "Do you understand the words that are coming out my mouth"?

It's normal. :roflol:

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It seems to be a common tendency. When I was ESL-ing to the Russians years ago in Washington State, I had to remind social services people (and other ordinary folks who dealt with these immigrants) to STOP SCREAMING at these poor people--they weren't deaf, dammit!! In fact, the shouting was kinda scaring them, as they didn't understand why people were shouting at them all the time. "More slowly" is the key, and is eminently more polite to the foreigner. :rolleyes:

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Back in my training days I was part of a team caring for a very ill premature newborn. The family was Hmong, coming to the US with the fall of the South. They didn't speak a word of English, but we needed to explain how sick the baby was, and what we hoped to do. We could see the worry in their eyes, and they could see the same in ours, but that was as far as we could go.

Then we got news that a friend of the family could help. He was a Viet Nam Vet, regular Army, and had taken the family under his wing. He offered to explain things to his friends.

So we got everybody together in the ICN waiting room. The team explained to this big, burly, crew cut ex-NCO what our concerns were, and how we were going to treat the baby, asking him to tell the parents. He nodded, "Sure, Doc, I'll take care of it."

He turned to the waiting parents, who looked up at him expectantly. Then, in his best DI voice, he roared, "BABY VERY, VERY SICK, YOU UNDERSTAND? BABY VERY SICK! MAYBE GET BETTER, MAYBE NOT..."...

The kid made it, and the team is sure that explanation to the parents was part of it. :D

Edited by kevin c
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So we got everybody together in the ICN waiting room. The team explained to this big, burly, crew cut ex-NCO what our concerns were, and how we were going to treat the baby, asking him to tell the parents. He nodded, "Sure, Doc, I'll take care of it."

There is a factory in town that hosts engineers from China. I'm not sure how much they learn, because the visiting engineers speak precious little (translate: next-to-zero) English, and nobody in the factory speaks any dialect of Chinese.

Sometimes these visitors end up in my office. We communicate via hand signals, a few words in English scratched out on paper, lots of pointing and diagrams. I'm tempted to call the Chinese take-out place in the next town over and ask them to put one of the teens on the phone to translate (ethical issues with that). I've been lucky enough to find two area physicians who speak Mandarin as a first language. If the medical problem requires more than one doc visit, it's "worth it" to make the 20+ mile trip there for treatment.

No, I don't shout English ... though the liaison from the factory tries that regularly.

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I once had a job with a co-worker from Trinidad. The bosses / owner however were Armenian. Of course they couldn't understand each other one bit. So one of my regular duties was to come and translate for them.

Yep, English to English translator , that looks impressive on a resume. ;)

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I once had a job with a co-worker from Trinidad. The bosses / owner however were Armenian. Of course they couldn't understand each other one bit. So one of my regular duties was to come and translate for them.

Yep, English to English translator , that looks impressive on a resume. ;)

:roflol::roflol:

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