The News Flow Paradox

It seems the closer you are to a disaster the longer it takes for the news to get to you. A ferry sinks in the Philippines and my parents in Germany are the first to tell me about it. The current disaster in Japan is again a perfect example to defy the logic of "near" is "close".

Friday
I was oblivious to any news of the disaster until my sister from Germany sent me a worrying text message. That was at around 3:30pm (Manila time) and I was headed for a meeting. She must have heard the news in the morning radio show. Germany is 6 hours behind Philippine time.

I immediately texted a Manila-based friend forwarding my sister's text reading “I just heard about the earthquake and tsunami! Hope you are okay!” Earthquake? Tsunami?? Here in the Philippines??? My sister obviously assumed I was already informed and therefore dropped 'in Japan'. My friend testified: business as usual in Makati.

The people I met had heard and seen pictures and videos of the 9.0 earthquake and the tsunami wave flattening whole cities in northern Japan. I finally got my verbal news update!

Saturday
Early Saturday morning I was finally able to browse the Internet for news. I watched videos on youtube of waves washing away cars, houses, boats, and people. I clicked away on endless articles on CNN.com, blogs, and links. The expected death toll was at 1,000 then.

Before I left Manila for the weekend I updated my Facebook status confirming: I'm okay and there is no immediate threat for the West coast of the Philippines. A tsunami warning had been issued for the East coast, triggering a flood of e-mails and text messages from family and friends in Germany.

At the hotel outside Manila, TV was my main source of information. The last update I registered before calling it a night was the overheating of the nuclear reactors and the possible threat of a melt down.

Sunday
Upon waking up I read another alarming text message from my sister. One of the reactors did blow up and the plume might affect the Philippines. I switched on the TV and saw steam escaping a torn reactor building. I made my way to the hotel lobby to find a newspaper. While chewing on my breakfast I read some articles explaining in more detail what exactly happened and what the risks are.

It wasn't until Sunday night, internet access, and Wikipedia that I fully understood about the physics of a melt down, containment chambers, and the doses of health damaging and 'acceptable' radiation. Isn't it incredible how fast a lay(wo)man can gain at least some technical understanding to put news into better perspective? I just love the Internet! I just wished it were more positive news to research on…

The hidden language barrier

The goal of communication is to convey a message between a sender and a receiver. Communication is successful if the message is understood by the receiver in the way the sender meant it to be understood. Our individual background, knowledge, experience and culture greatly influences the process of sending and receiving, the act of decoding and encoding. If we take communication across borders, things get tricky.

When I used to work in Cambodia, I was consciously aware of the language barrier, which literally built a wall between the Khmer people and me and vice versa. Not speaking Khmer beyond polite greeting formalities, I was able to gauge the limits of conveying or receiving a message. My Cambodia experience was a classic demonstration of an obvious language barrier.

Fast forward to the Philippines. English and Tagalog are official languages besides 171 other spoken local languages. Most Filipinos speak an accent free American-influenced English, especially in the cities. This is one of the reasons for the call centre industry to boom, and my own Tagalog skills to still hover around a taxicab chitchat level.

However, speaking the same language does not automatically mean to communicate or to be understood. This takes the language barrier from a linguistic level to conceptual level. Within the past almost 4 years, I have learned my fair share of dealing with what I call a “hidden language barrier”.

The widespread use of the English language in the Philippines often lures me into believing that the message I try to convey in English is understood the way I intend. Needless to say, the first months living in the Philippines were marked by frustrating communication errors. No matter what I said, it seemed I could not make myself understood. It puzzled me because obviously we spoke the same language. Just when I was about to make peace with this status quo it dawned on me. It was not the Filipinos who did not understand me. I was the one who did not use the right “language” to deliver my message properly.

What sounds oh so logically in retrospect, was a long process of realization. The next challenge was to adjust my messages to the Filipino context.

This meant, in the first place, to get rid of all my assumptions and expectations I would place into a statement. I would not expect my counterpart to “read my mind”; meaning to assume he or she would share the same background or experiences I draw from, when talking about a given subject.

Secondly, I tried to stay away from sarcasm (which works well with certain friends back home and here, but not in general), jokes (which might not be considered funny around here) and cultural references that are hard to follow. All this, being culturally sensitive, seems very logical. However, it is hard to be sensitive if the pitfalls camouflage well in a universal language and Western habits.

Last but not least, I adjusted to the hardly ever direct communication, especially when it comes to yes/no questions.

Now that I am past the frustration and know how to communicate properly the doors for interesting conversations open left and right. Language is just as much a part of our culture as a society’s history and customs. It is well worth studying it, too!