By Masimba Mukichi
Effective communication can enhance interpersonal dialogue – likewise ineffective communication can inhibits dialogue and in times of need one may fail to get help because of communication breakdown. The following real life incidents reveal it all.
Recently in London, a Romanian visitor, Vasile Belea, 63, got lost after being separated from his son on the London Tube. He was left on the platform after doors closed before he embarked the train. He went to the police twice soon after the incident for help but they could not understand him because he could not communicate in English. He gave up asking for help and he became stranded for three days. He finally got help after seeing his picture in the press – as a missing person. He then went to the police station, where he was finally united with his family.
In another interesting related real life incident which was featured in the January, Chat Magazine, Marina Chapman, 63 from Bradford, West Yorkshire who was born in Colombia, South America was taken by an unknown stranger at the age of 4 and was dumped in the forest by the stranger – the stranger disappeared. She was left alone in the forest at that tender age. After having lost hope, one day a group of monkeys surrounded her squawking. The monkeys started nudging her and became excited of what they were seeing.
The monkeys later went to find food on tree tops and some seeds dropped on the ground where Marina was. Marina took them and ate them from then on she developed a bond with the monkeys such that she started following them wherever they go and the monkeys seemed to accept her company. She learned how to climb the trees on all fours and even learned how to communicate using the monkey’s language. She said a monkey’s whistle was an indication that there was food available in the area.
She also learned how the monkeys alerted each other when there was impending danger – She could also alert the monkeys of pending danger and the monkeys could also alert her when there was imminent danger. In reality there was communication, she had managed to speak the language of the local monkeys for survival. She was later rescued by a passerby, when she was almost aged 10. A caring family later took her in after running away from a brothel and the family taught her the human language again.Roughly she had spent 5 years in the jungle among monkeys without a bath or a haircut, living on the monkey’s diet and speaking the monkey’s language for survival.
These are real life stories which support the importance of speaking the local languages – effective communication using a local language can enhance one’s chances of survival in a difficult situation.
Irrefutably! The English forefathers were perfectly right when they said – when you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
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