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!
