Archive for September, 2008

The taxista has just asked me a question to which I have repsonded with a head nod and ’si’ before he has even finished exhaling. I quickly realize that I don’t know what I have just agreed to. He may very well have asked me if I would come back to his place with him and I, like a dumb gringa as unfamiliar with the streets as I am with the language, could end up a meaningless statistic in a foreign country. Pulling the reigns back on my overactive imagination I settle on the likelihood, given the limited context and his intonation, that I have just participated in some basic form of effective communication. My assumption is confirmed when I am efficiently driven to, and arrive at, my destination in the same condition as when I entered the taxi – albeit somewhat wiser – and our monetary exchange seems fair. But, the experience starts me wondering just how often, with people of our own native language, do we respond without having really heard and understood the other peron; how often do we assume that we’re communicating effectively when we’re really not.