The egg story and body language.
This is for one of the members here at WA, I hope you understand my obscure answer.
Pandemonium in Pleiku.
Vietnam has many delightful things that can happen. If you approach those difficult or strange situations with a sense of humor you can make life long friends or at least have a great story to tell, and I have plenty of those.
After spending my first 2 plus years in HoChiMinh City I was desperate to get out of the craziness and mellow out in the countryside. I ended up agreeing to work in Pleiku at an English school. Pleikus only redeeming features are its people, the surrounding countryside ( then difficult to get traveling docs to visit ethnic communities) and Royal Tea.
Royal Tea
Pleiku was extensively bombed through the wars and its architecture has a strong Russia influence.
influence, think bland and boring. However I did end up spending 9 months there, thanks to a coffee shop that let me mix my own Long Island teas and the friendliness of the people.
However, my Vietnamese was quite poor at that stage and the language barrier was a thing. There were not many who spoke English and only one ex-pat that I knew of.
Pleiku close to Supermarket
Shopping was mainly done at the supermarket and the little bits I forgot were picked up at random shops close to my home.
There was one day I needed eggs and decided my Vietnamese was adequate to cover that humble request. " tôi muốn trứng gà" The little withered old lady sprawled out behind the counter didn't think so, even after I had exhausted myself with varying peaks, valleys and troughs of pronunciation.
What to do.. well I made out like a chicken would, quack quack, flapped my arms...did that special face straining and held up my hand as if I was holding an egg and said "trứng gà"
Well she looked at me as if she had a crazy foreigner in her shop trying to " be overtly friendly " with a chicken, but I did get my eggs.
Why did I tell this story....first to use as an analogy. Sometimes we think that the client understands what we say, but when we check...we are not even close.
And why a story. Because we are hot wired to love stories right from a young age. There was nothing better than sitting on Mum or Dads knee having a story read. And even this brought back the warm fuzzy feelings.
And as a reader, would you prefer the warm fuzzy feelings or the cold steel structure of selling stupidly.
The same as letter writing, there are basically 3 steps.
1) where is the main character. Wants, desires etc.
2) How did your product or service change the outcome.
3) How did it help relieve the presspoint.
And from what I've seen, there are 4 main types of stories. More on this later if you wish...Then I can tell you about the overdressed xe-om and the embarrassed student.
Lol.
Zoopie
Recent Comments
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This is a great post! It combines a great, funny story with a valuable lesson. I am definitely interested in hearing more of this as this is exactly where I am -- just before starting an email campaign! So I can't wait to hear more!
Keep 'em comin'!
Barbara
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This is very true, communication issues, are not just related to language, miss-pronunciation. Trust, me, I know. I have been in Thailand long enough and have had numerous conversations with Thai people when I (know) I am saying the right word, but all I get is a blank look and a confused face in return.
My favorite (unrelated) story about understanding and culture, comes from a jobsite where there are people from different cultures working.
George steps up to the boss and tells him he is desperate for a number 2, and time is short. The boss knows that the closes bathroom is down the street at the gas station, so he tells George, "Just use the van it will be alright."
Later that day, you guessed it, the boss finds a steaming pile in the back of the van, where George made his deposit.
Alex
ROFL…omg, I hope that’s true…