Day 43 - What we've got here is...a failure to communicate

Have you ever seen Cool Hand Luke?  Filmed with Paul Newman in 1967, it's a prison movie classic.  Con Air, sorry Nicholas Cage, not a classic prison movie, especially considering the lack of an actual prison.  Shawshank Redemption...Ok, admittedly a total classic, but Cool Hand Luke was first.  That movie coined the title of today's blog entry and made me consider communication and the power it has over us as a whole.

Imagine for a moment that you have the best idea in the world.  It's life changing, for you and everyone else.  The impact your idea has is mind boggling.  It is the catalyst for world peace, the end of hunger and poverty.  You've reversed global warming and negated the internal combustion engine, all with your idea.  Now imagine that you can't communicate the idea.  You can't speak or write any known language.  Imagine the frustration.  You'd likely want to tear your hair out.

I've been going through this, but on a much smaller scale. I haven't yet discovered the secret of world peace or figured out a way to save the ozone layer.  I have, however, not been able to communicate properly.  People here in Bochum almost always speak some degree of English.  Just this afternoon our downstairs neighbour dusted off her English skills and very eloquently explained to me how our "pounding footsteps" wakes them in the middle of the night.  It occured to me in that moment that I have absolutely no clue how to say pounding footsteps in German.  How would I tell an offending neighbour that their heavy footedness was disturbing my sleep?  The answer is...not easily.

There are many layers of communication, each of which has its own impact and significance.  Body language, unspoken agreements, unwritten rules, even sign language.  They all have relevance and they all mean something.  The trick is to learn as much of it as you can.  The more you know, as the old NBC saying goes.  This video provides some perspective...

Admittedly, I've been resisting the German language.  It's a convoluted and confusing language.  I simply cannot understand why everything has to have a gender, even inanimate objects.  Today, though, I figured something out.  I held the elevator door for a German man trying to catch his train.  He was cursing and swearing, I could see him.  He simply assumed that I would take the elevator and go as soon as possible.  I wasn't in a rush.  I saw him and called the elevator and waited holding the "door open" button so he could get in and when he saw me, he gave me a look like he'd won the lottery.  He got on the lift and was going on and on, in German of course, and between sips of his Brinkhoff's beer, there were numerous Danke Shoens and so on...he was very happy.  It occurred to me, at that moment, that I'd really like to know what he was saying.  Long story short, time to commit and learn German.  For real.

Moving on folks, but the lesson for today is a classic one.  It has vexed scholars for decades.  Nobody can eat 50 eggs.

Sleep tight.

Ian