How important are words, anyway? How critical to good communication? And what do you do when you can’t seem to find the right one, no matter how hard you try?

Breakfast at Ronald’s

Back in 2000, I spent three months working in the city of Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, and my employer put me up in a fairly nice hotel (not quite a resort-type place, but close). Unfortunately the hotel was somewhat isolated from the city. After several weeks, I was so bored I asked them to move me closer to town, and within a couple of days I moved to the Shin Yuan Park Hotel, right in the heart of the downtown district. Now we’re talkin’! There was a whole lot more to see and do at the new location.

Well, it was definitely not 5-Stars, at least by my admittedly American standards (more like 1.79-Stars), but after all, what did I have to complain about? (Let’s see… let me count the ways.) The room was tiny, the restaurant was the pits, I had to open the windows to get cool because they still had the heaters on (it was about 70 degrees F outside), the doorbell sounded like a demented flock of birds chirping (really!), the staff barely knew English, and at least once every few days the electronic room key didn’t work.

But on the other hand, I was now only about 2 or 3 blocks from the three most important places in town – Burger King, McDonalds and KFC! After weeks of strange Chinese-influenced food (would you like soy sauce or pineapple on your eggs this morning, sir?) I could already feel my stomach relaxing. (Of course, you don’t call it Chinese food; here, it’s just “food”.)

So to celebrate my freedom, on my first Saturday morning in the new hotel I went around the corner for a McDonald’s breakfast. Finally, something normal: pancakes, bacon and tea. After what I’d been eating, it was like Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As I was about to leave, though, I discovered I had forgotten to get a receipt (they don’t normally offer them to you) – and here’s where the fun began.

Language Barrier

When I went back to the counter, I encountered a serious language barrier. As it turned out, nobody understood what I meant by “receipt”. At first, I tried the Chinese word successfully used with taxi drivers, but apparently it didn’t convey the same meaning. We wrangled with this conundrum (which I think is Chinese for I have no idea what you mean) for nearly 30 minutes, and the whole thing turned into something of an impromptu language-lesson-comedy-routine that would have made Monty Python or the Saturday Night Live crew proud.

I racked my brain (sound of brain being racked), but couldn’t think of any other English words that might make sense – “ticket”, “paper” – nothing helped. I tried the usual things: saying it louder (as if that would help!), and writing it down (most Taiwanese can read at least some English); alas, still no help. By now the manager had called the entire staff over into a sort of huddle (it looked like the Chinese version of a scrum), with much high-speed discussion, gesticulating and waving of arms. We even got other customers involved; by now we had a sizable crowd of helpful citizens, chipping in with various suggestions.

Finally, a new customer came in, and after she ordered something to eat, they handed her a receipt! Aha! Problem solved! I pointed to it, and was at last rewarded with the look of comprehension dawning across every face in the room, accompanied by a chorus of “Ah’s”.

Well, I finally got my receipt. The manager, who spoke the best English, explained the problem – the word they use is “report”, not “receipt”.

Here’s the Thing

Words are curious things. It’s understandable that communication might be difficult when trying to bridge the gap between two languages. But even if we are supposedly speaking the same one, it’s still surprisingly easy to be misunderstood. That’s because on occasion, a particular word you use might not have the same meaning as it does to someone else.

It happens all the time; take the word “dinner” for instance. Show of hands: how many of you think it refers to the midday meal, and how many understand it to mean the evening meal? If you told someone, “Meet me for dinner at that new French restaurant, Jacques in le Box“, would they be waiting for you at noon, or at 7 p.m.? You might know exactly what you meant, but they might not!

The problem is that this can lead to a wide range of consequences, from the hilarious incident I shared above, to one that could have deadly serious implications (peace talks, come immediately to mind). As a friend of mine occasionally reminds me (yes, I listened; and thanks!):

Words are important!

(And you may be assured that as I write this, I’m figuratively standing in front of an imaginary mirror and shouting it to myself as loudly as I can!)