“Hey, look! There’s an Asian!” When we lived in a town in central Ohio about ten years ago, I recall getting so excited to see someone that looked like they were remotely like me. The people of the area were predominantly of Swiss and German descent and there weren’t migrant workers to speak of. I don’t recall any blacks that lived there so when it came to people of color, the folks who ran the Chinese restaurant and I were about it.
Every time we’d get take-out from the Chinese restaurant, they’d get so excited to see me. I could see the gears turning in their heads. Ooo, another Asian. Where is she from? “How long you in country? What your name?” they’d ask. They would give me big smiles and I’d try to engage them in conversation. I can usually make out most of the limited English from immigrants from Asia but Randy laughs that there are many folks with southern (American) accents that I don’t understand at all.
Now that I work for a Fortune 500 company, we have access to a hotline of interpreters via Language Line Services who provide translation services in over 173 languages which according to them represents 98.6% of their customer requests from the 6,809 languages spoken in the world today. I find that pretty impressive. It has proven handy especially as we seem to have many Chinese clients who aren’t completely fluent in English and explaining details of contracts in simplified English would do all parties a disservice.
There are times though where my skills to understand my fellow Asians comes in handy, especially when a client who speaks limited English comes into our office. There is nothing like that moment of satisfaction for both the client and me when we reach a point of understanding. It’s like a community “Aha! moment” when the proverbial light bulbs come on and we find a way to communicate. Those are the best days in my work, helping people feel understood, helping them communicate their needs. Although I think the ability to fly would be an awesome super-power, I’d rather be some kind of mutant would could quickly learn and speak all languages. The spooks in D.C. wouldn’t like it as I could easily break their codes but to be able to make the world a smaller place through clear, effective communication would be absolutely amazing.