Communication Faux Pas

Learning a new language and a new culture inevitably leads to mistakes now and again. Here are a few entertaining examples of miscommunication we have had while learning Tok Pisin.

During our month in village living, Eric often wanted to use the phrase “you don’t need to,” e.g. “You don’t need to spend your whole day giving us a tour,” or “You don’t need to find a spider to show Joella.” However, we didn’t know the word for “need” at the time, so he used the closest phrase he could think of. As it turns out, instead of telling people “you don’t need to,” he kept telling them “you must not” – “You must not give us a tour!”

When we were at training after we’d first arrived here, I had to go into the city to see a doctor. The nurse for our training group set up an appointment for me. The doctor told us to come on Saturday morning. When we arrived, he was the only one in the office—no other patients, secretaries, nurses, etc. He seemed surprised when the nurse told him I was there for my appointment; he had thought we were coming to tell him about our organization! He saw me anyway and told us to come back the following week to pay the bill because he didn’t know how to charge us!

One morning early on in our village stay, I was sitting with a group of people under (yes, under) our house. As one of them rolled a cigarette—tobacco was fairly commonly grown in the area where we did our village stay—they said, “Bruce! Bruce!” and held up the cigarette. I thought they were telling me that “bruce” was the word for tobacco, but then someone gestured with the cigarette for me to turn around, where I saw a man waiting to be introduced to me. I thought, “Phew, I’m glad I realized they were telling me that man’s name is Bruce and it’s not the word for tobacco.” The man joined the other men who were teaching Eric various crafts, and he taught Eric how to weave a mat. Later, someone asked Eric who had taught him to weave it, and I told Eric the man’s name was Bruce. He continued to tell people for a few days that Bruce had taught him. People seemed to have trouble figuring out who that was. Later we realized that the group I had been with was telling me that “bruce” is the word for tobacco—the man’s name was actually Terry!