Saturday, January 31, 2009

COMMUNICATION IS AMAZING


Last winter, we (yes, 12 of us, as in the picture) went to Turkey. The one thing I thought was amazing is the communication. Frankly speaking, I think I spoke Malay more than English when I talked to the people there, and obviously I used Malay more with my 11 Malaysian friends that went with me. Not that they were able to understand Malay, but I guess unless you know their language, it will not make any difference to what language we use up there. Most of them do not speak English. Istanbul was ok, but Bursa? Although I like Bursa people more - they definitely are more friendly, in general.

It was amazing. I guess sign language became the most significant mean of communication while we were there. Writing and drawing too! There are few other things I learned for my own reflections, but in this entry, the focus is just on how amazing communication is.

Anyway, the funny bit was when we were communicating with the taxi drivers who were about to bring us to Uludag. There were eight of us talking in Malay and English and a group of friendly taxi drivers trying hard to understand what we were negotiating. At one point, Aina asked them something about the timing in Turkish language, as she happened to know that word (I can hardly remember the word now). And I can still remember all the taxi drivers came closer with hands indicating to their watches, answering enthusiastically to Aina's question - I supposed. Those delighted faces... it was as if they were saying "finally, there is someone who can speak Turkish". The hilarious part was when Aina made a blurry face (obviously she didn't understand a word they were saying), so she turned around looking at the rest of us, and we started laughing. Then the taxi drivers started laughing as well. They knew Aina didn't understand that - again, I supposed. LOL. That was hilarious. And it was just amazing how the communication worked, but it did!



The picture on your left was to tell that we needed two taxis and to confirm the charge was 120 lira for each taxi for a return journey. The other one was to tell them "we are not going to pay you until you bring us back here and we want to stay there for a while, taking pictures". Taking pictures - although we actually ended up skiing; or at least learning how hard trying to ski was =P. By the way, the taxi drivers actually understood what we were saying before we even drew these pictures. Amazing! (ouh, and these were not the real drawings - I must have thrown them away)

"O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware."
[Hujurat; 13]

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