Friday, March 18, 2011

Communication Breakdown

My driver and I are starting to get used to each other but we seem to have more problems than successes mostly due to language. I've been trying to get him to take me to a little store called Bread Talk the last two days after work. The first day the conversation went like this...

Andrea: I need to go to Bread Talk, do you know where that is?
Driver: Yes

And then he drove me straight to the hotel.

Then today, I planned ahead and wrote down the name of the shop thinking maybe Bread Talk sounds a lot like hotel. I even tried to direct him this time but we got to the pivotal junction and I said, "turn right here" but we turned left and again drove straight towards the hotel. I tried to navigate him back to the shop but we hit a one way and I gave up. I'm starting to think he may not like Bread Talk.

The second misunderstand was a little more surprising. I talked with another ex-pat to get advice about having a driver. She said some drivers like overtime and working weekends while others don't. I decided to be proactive and ask my driver.

Andrea: Do you like working overtime like nights and weekends.
Driver: Overtime bad.

I thought that was pretty clear so I assumed he would want the weekend off. So today, I told him the next time I would need him was Monday morning. He asked about Saturday and I said, very cheerfully, no you can have the day off. He looked very disappointed and said that's not good. I'm not sure where I went wrong but I'm sure we'll get this worked out.

1 comment:

  1. Have you gotten there yet? If not, what language does he speak? I know some people that are from India and speak some languages spoken there.. Maybe I can help! =) Stay safe! Miss ya!

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