Life always offers us challenges to overcome. That's what life is about, finding the strength to defeat the obstacles which prevent us from achieving our goals. Though all challenges are identical in principle, some are a bit bigger, or rather, more unique than others, and this blog entry is about one such challenge.
For me, the most frustrating thing that I can experience is to not be understood. That is why I strive towards being a good communicator, laying out my thoughts and ideas in a comprehensible fashion for the listener, no matter who they may be. I know the importance of shaping my words so as to best penetrate the thought process of he/she who is listening, but what happens when that person does not speak any of your spoken languages? Madness - that's what.
Recently, an opportunity to gain some grant money to help fund a project that the NGO which I work with has been preparing has come about. At a meeting with the National MSM Working Group (a group which aims to increase the rights of gays in South East Asia), one guest speaker mentioned a special fund from amFAR which would give $10,000 USD to NGO's who are willing to do research on MSM (men sex with men) in South East Asian countries, or who want to implement a safe sex program which would aim to decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS and STIs in the region. My NGO is working on one such project, and I thought this would be an excellent grant to apply for in order to get some extra funding.
At the meeting was my director, who's English isn't so hot. The speaker spoke in English, and was translated (poorly) into Vietnamese via a headset. I took the initiative and made some notes on the grant. Once the meeting was over, I presented the idea to one of my coworkers, who, despite being very sweet and well-intentioned, didn't seem to understand why this was such a good idea.
For the first time since I've been here, I actually got frustrated. I really wanted her to recognize that this was a good potential for some extra cash for the organization, but the plan that I suggested was not easily understood with her limited English. My own inability to speak Vietnamese didn't help either, and we were at a loss. I was losing patience, because I tried my best to explain that we needed to present this to the director, and that it should be taken seriously.
In addition to the language gap, there is another problem which peers its ugly little head at me. I guess I suffer from the 1St World Syndrome. That is, I am very used to a working environment where coworkers don't diddle. One thing that I forget sometimes is that I'm not in Canada anymore, the work schedule is very different here than in my homeland, and I can't expect to have people act on things right away. I mean, they take an hour and half for lunch at my office, which is considered to be short by the Vietnamese standard of two and a half hours.
This is a problem, because I have already written a proposal about the grant which I intend to present to the director. However, I need to get it translated... and I would like to have one of the staff help me. However, her pace of work is not exactly... well, it won't get done today, that's for sure.
Just another instant of culture gaps. Completely Unavoidable, that is for sure. Luckily, I have some extra reserves of patience that I've kept just in case such a problem might occur.
Living in a foreign country which bares hardly any resemblance to the world you know has many challenges, but the rewards are even more numerous. I've learned the value of taking work into one's own hands, and of being self motivated when it comes to my ideas to better the organization.
This is just another one of things that I need to take in stride, and overtime my ability to adapt to their ways of working will pay off.
Now to go pester the secretary, to see if she'll translate my proposal if I buy her some cakes.
:)
Nick
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