Communication again...
So coming back to my favourite theme – somedays I just cannot make myself understandable. I took a different route home this weekend and needed to change cars to get back to Minna. When I got into the Suleja car I knew that I would drop (get out) at Minna Junction to take another car home. But the driver stopped about 20 mins before I expected on the main dual carriageway. ‘Hadjiya, you drop here’, he said ‘Eh?’, I said and went on to explain that I was not getting out of the car on the main dual carriageway and that his colleague had promised he would bring me to the junction. ‘Bring money’, said he. ‘We go to the Junction’, said I and we each took turns repeating ourselves…
Turns out there was a car for Minna, out of sight, on the far side of the road but he was not sharing this information until he got his money. And I was not sharing my money to facilitate him stranding me half way home at 4.30 in the evening.
I appreciate that communication is more difficult when English is your second (or 3rd or 4th) language, but I can tell when people don’t understand the words I use. What is difficult is when people are only willing to listen to what they want to hear. It seems to me that in a hierarchial society, like Nigeria, people are simply used to giving or following orders. The skills of articulation and critical thinking are not taught or encouraged. Of course, all of this is probably exaggerated when you are dealing with a misplaced stranger (like an oyibo taking public transport), but all the same it hinders communication greatly…
I asked a young colleague today if he knew a good place to get colour photos printed. He turned to confer with his pal on the other side of the rooms. In one-hundred-mile-an-hour-Hausa they exchanged about 30 phrases. Voices were raised, they spoke over one another, all in a tongue I cannot understand. Then he turned to me and said, 'there's a place near Mobil'. Didnt that used to be a comedy sketch...
Turns out there was a car for Minna, out of sight, on the far side of the road but he was not sharing this information until he got his money. And I was not sharing my money to facilitate him stranding me half way home at 4.30 in the evening.
I appreciate that communication is more difficult when English is your second (or 3rd or 4th) language, but I can tell when people don’t understand the words I use. What is difficult is when people are only willing to listen to what they want to hear. It seems to me that in a hierarchial society, like Nigeria, people are simply used to giving or following orders. The skills of articulation and critical thinking are not taught or encouraged. Of course, all of this is probably exaggerated when you are dealing with a misplaced stranger (like an oyibo taking public transport), but all the same it hinders communication greatly…
I asked a young colleague today if he knew a good place to get colour photos printed. He turned to confer with his pal on the other side of the rooms. In one-hundred-mile-an-hour-Hausa they exchanged about 30 phrases. Voices were raised, they spoke over one another, all in a tongue I cannot understand. Then he turned to me and said, 'there's a place near Mobil'. Didnt that used to be a comedy sketch...
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