We could never have imagined that when we went to China we would visit a school where the children (6-11 year olds) would greet us with a drum roll and welcome. The classes were large (65) and the energy and enthusiasm those children had totally enthralled us. When we asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up the answers sounded familiar – an astronaut, a singer, a footballer, a nurse.
One of our group, Paula from Santa Barbara, told them: “When I was a little girl, I thought if I kept on digging in my garden, I would eventually dig through to China”. They laughed.
We finished a delightful hour by singing them “You are my sunshine” in Chinese. We had rehearsed with our tour guide Iowa.
Here’s the first two lines of that tune in phonetic Chinese.
Knee shur wah deh young quong, we ee deh young quong [You are my sunshine, my only sunshine]
Knee jong wah kwai leh, dong tien hoon an. [You make me happy, when skies are grey.]
So if you want to get through to people you must speak their language.
Posted by Barry Graham on Saturday, May 14th, 2016 in Features › News ›
Tags: communication, language, needs, presentation skill, presenters