Intercultural Communication, or Anchors of Understanding Aleksandra Niedziewicz
When I was a child, my family went on a holiday and befriended a Jewish family from Israel. Not only had they two daughters, exactly the same age as me and my sister, but also both Polish and Jewish mothers were teachers. We didn’t speak any common language, but that didn’t stop us from partying together in the garden. This led to our parents communicating with a strange mixture of Hebrew and Polish, augmented by a few English words that we all knew. My sister and I played all day in the garden with our new friends, with whom we had a dialogue without words.
One day, as usual, my sister wanted to play in the garden with one of our friends. After breakfast, she excitedly ran out of the house to ask her friend if she had time to meet. She quickly returned, perplexed and puzzled. With fear in her voice, she announced that the whole family couldn’t go out, because they were sitting in silence with a tablecloth over their heads. After a moment, she added that they were probably praying.
Sanaz Nouri
19