ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - July 31, 1998

For those of you who have been following my travels on the Internet, this will be a repeat, but I think the message is important enough to deserve a second consideration.

Wandering around Europe, I am continually reminded that life goes on in many languages -- and goes on quite nicely, thank you.

While I struggle to make myself understood in French, the people seem to appreciate the fact that I am trying to work in their language. With as multi-ethnic as our industry is becoming, I think there is a lesson in all this.

As operators, we expect our non native-born staff to learn English, but how much of an effort are we making to learn (at least a bit of) their language? Communication is communication, regardless of what language it occurs in. How about asking some of your non English-speaking staff to start teaching you some of their language? Sure, you will butcher the pronunciation and they will all have good laugh at your struggles, but if you are willing to be uncomfortable in their language, they are likely to be more willing to be uncomfortable in English.

We are all just people sharing the same planet. What language we do it in is really not that important in the scheme of things.

Walking around among the crowds of tourists, I heard French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Japanese, English and several other dialects I didn't recognize. What occurs to me is that we Americans are really cultural lightweights. We have a tendency to think that our way is the best (or worse, the only) way but we don't have near the cultural roots of most other countries on the planet. I mean, how many other cultures in the world are younger than we are?

I wish everyone could experience this flood of humanity and really see how similar we all are. I think it would make us all a little more tolerant . . . and a lot more humble in the face of those whose cultures pre-date ours by thousands of years

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