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Voce fala Portugues David Bockmiller Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil for business. While I was in Brazil, I spent a couple hours getting to see the country. A co-worker and I wanted to get a few souvenirs to remember our trip. We walked around a small coastal village and entered a T-shirt shop. This shirt shop had one salesman who was in his late twenties and looked like he just stepped off the beach. It became perfectly clear as we entered the shop that the salesman did not understand any English. Of course, we did not know how to speak any Portuguese. Behind the counter, there were hundreds of T-shirts neatly folded and stacked in individual plastic bags. There were a few T-shirts on display in the front window. Fortunately for me, one of the T-shirts I wanted was on display in the window. But, I still needed to tell the salesman what size shirt I wanted. Because we did not understand each other, we had to resort to pointing and gesturing in order to communicate. I pointed to my chest indicating that the shirt was for me and I wanted a size that fit me. He handed me a shirt that I placed against my body to check the size. Perfect. I got the right size on the first try. Since what I wanted was not that complicated, I purchased my shirts without great difficulty. On the other hand, my co-worker’s attempt to buy shirts was a different matter. He did not know what he wanted and he needed various sizes of T-shirts for his family. (I should point out that my co-worker has seven children from ages 12 years - 10 months old and he was going to buy for all of them.) The salesman started pulling shirts out of bags and laying them on the table for him to see. The salesman would ask questions in Portuguese which we did not understand and for which we had no answer. It was very interesting and somewhat amusing to watch. The salesman got frustrated a few times. My co-worker got frustrated as well. I think my co-worker went through about fifty T-shirts until he got all the ones he wanted. In the end (after an hour and a half), we walked out of the shop happy customers with ten shirts between us. The salesman was equally happy. He made over R$200 on T-shirts. As we exited the shop, we talked about how difficult an experience that was and how much easier it is when we speak the same language. My co-worker pointed out that sometimes just understanding the language is not enough for effective communication. Language is a blessing and speaking the same language yields even greater blessings. Far too often we take for granted this blessing and ignore fundamental qualities that we can develop to create greater communication. Remember the story of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). My co-worker and I developed an understanding with our salesman (and he with us) that allowed us to communicate even though language was a barrier. This turned out to be very important in our conversation because we really could not understand each other. Application of the folowing ideas can help us communicate better: Share a common goal The salesman wanted to sell T-shirts. We wanted to buy T-shirts. We should always look for a common goal. Develop common ground and build on it slowlyWe started with simple gestures. We ended being able to understanding Portuguese shirt sizes and some numbers. Use patienceIt took us one and a half hours to buy ten T-shirts. Enough said. Don’t be afraid to take risksWe could have left the store. We could have bought shirts at the duty-free store whose employees speak English and take American dollars. But, we didn’t. Always respect each otherEven though we could not understand each other we always remained polite and friendly. Respect helped us work though the language barrier. We must always remember that effective communication is very important to building and maintaining relationships. Do not let barriers prevent us from becoming closer together in Christ. Using these simple ideas in our conversations will help us become better communicators and better Christians.
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