Communication is not always about mere words. A delivery arrived on the barge (by river) of the chum and costumes from the Sayanskoe Koltso festival. Yura borrowed some money from me to pay for receiving the delivery. Then last night Alona told me there were some costumes in the delivery that I should photograph, and that I should do so before they were sent off again on the plane down to Krasnoyarsk, for delegates to wear to a consultative congress.
(This begs the question why they were sent on the barge in the first place, when it could have been arranged to send them straight to Krasnoyarsk for far less money.) (The congress will have delegates from the various indigenous peoples in Krasnoyarsk Krai, as well as politicians from the Krasnoyarsk Krai and from Moscow, to discuss issues relating to indigenous peoples.)
I had understood that it would be good to photograph the costumes today. Melody had understood that they would be in Yura's workshop. I did not know they would be there, and Melody did not know it was urgent. When I got up this morning I tried working on the transcription with Baba Anya. Even while I was doing that, I was being asked to hurry up because we needed to get ready to go oit with Yura to see Alona at the museum.
Culturally, I would have expected an invitation from Yura to his workshop, to show me the costumes he had made. I did not even realise they were there. Later in the day Alona asked me why I had not photographed the costumes. We figured what had happened and explained that we missed the full communication, which was met with the response, "but I told you." If only people knew what second language speakers went through sometimes. But even when words are understood, miscommunication can occur. I am sure Yura was wondering why I had not come out there, while I was wondering why he had not shown me his costumes. When I finally figured it out I apologised to Yura, explaining that of course I would have photographed the costumes if I had fully understood. Yura just smiled, I think we were again on the same page (well never fully).
2 comments:
How much harder it is between different languages and cultures, when these same kinds of misunderstandings/miscommunications occur between people of the same language and culture...
Yep!
And that's also kind of my point. I am sure on some level that it was cultural, because Alona seemed so surprised that we hadn't deciphered her intentions.
BUT- whether it was cultural or simply a misunderstanding, we felt stupid. And it then feels like people are looking at us that we did not understand because of a linguistic difference. They could never figure out that there could have been various other reasons for the misunderstanding.
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