An older Indo-Canadian fellow came into the office yesterday while I was on the desk. Squamish has a large Indo-Canadian population, in fact the freenet is next to “High-Class Fabrics”, where they sell sari material and Bollywood flicks. (incidentally, our neighbours on the other side are a cheque-cashing establishment, a pawn shop and an “escort service” – yes, this is Squamish.) The older gentleman was looking for Employment Insurance forms. I gather we used to keep a stock of them to be helpful, but Human Resources Canada has since decided to save trees by having it all done online or on the phone. Environmentally thoughtful people at HRC. I explained to him that we didn’t have the forms anymore, but we could help him do it online, and explained our costs and hours. About half way through the conversation I realized that the reason we were having some difficulty communicating was because he didn’t speak any english. I was suprised for a second, then unsure how to proceed, then remembered that I have had plenty of these functional conversations in languages I didn’t speak and we successfully concluded.

Occasionally, looking back on my time in south east asia, I wonder how the hell we managed to function in places like Laos where we couldn’t begin to speak the language and couldn’t read the script. I have no memories of it being an overwhelming challenge, just a challenge. Sometimes I forget how that could be possible.

It is possible of course. Mostly you just speak whatever language you know and point as much as is polite and throw in any words you’ve picked up in the local language. People talk back to you in whatever language they know and do the same. And most of the time, as long as you don’t get too worried about the impossibility of it, the substantial thrust of what you’re trying to communicate gets through.