I was sitting in the dentist waiting room this morning when a young lady came in. It soon became apparent that her first language was not English as she tried to explain to the receptionist that she had made an appointment. Fine, except the dentist’s server was not working, no records or information could be accessed, and the receptionist tried to explain this.

Confusion and apparently a shortfall in understanding.

So the receptionist tried to help the young lady understand…by repeating exactly what she had already said, just a lot louder. Like, raising my voice will make everything clear! As you can guess the solution was no solution and only served to send the young lady onto the defensive.

This is not the first time I have witnessed this sort of exchange and I’m sure most of us have seen the same if not been apart of one. Isn’t it strange how this course of action seems to be a default for many of us. We don’t even seem to think it through, we just go there. Have you ever seen an adult raise their voice to a child and it’s apparent that the child has no conception of what is being said to them. There’s no connect, no grounds for understanding. And you end up wondering which of the parties in the transaction is actually the one displaying ignorance?

It’s said that if you cannot explain your subject to a child and the child understand then you don’t really understand your subject. And often it’s by reducing the information to pictures or a story that it becomes easiest to understand. There are many, many ways to pass information to another. Sometimes we just don’t have the words, or at least the right words but we know what we wish to communicate. So it’s our communication skills that we need to brush up on. Maybe.

But I’m thinking there are other skills or life qualities that need work. Such as kindness and patience. Both go a long way to compensate when we run short in life. So, if you run into a situation where your words are not doing what is required then take a moment and think of other ways you can share what you were going to say. As a wise woman said, “oranges aren’t the only fruit”😊

Yours, observing life’s moments,

Wic