Why Can’t We Be Friends

Hello folks, let’s chat… I don’t have all the answers for fixing our increasingly divisive world, but it would help if we made an effort to listen to each other again, however different the other person might seem.

Might we turn to a story for illustration?

I’m not the type to do the manicure/pedicure thing. I’m still not sure how it happened. All I know is, I had a bit of time before the radio show when I passed Mama’s fav nail salon and BAM! Suddenly, I was seated in a comfy chair chatting it up with my new friend Peter and hoping what I was asking for was what I would be getting. Did I mention that Peter is Vietnamese?

However, since I truly enjoy meeting all kinds of people and hearing their stories— everybody has one you know— I intentionally leaned in to focus on his English. Soon enough we were understanding at least half of what each other was saying and grinning at the rest.

I even had Peter teach me a bit of his native language. I learned that Vietnamese is a tonal language, meaning a word has different meanings based on the inflection you give it. Peter said this explains why their voices rise and fall more than ours. Isn’t that interesting?

Peter taught me that if I say, “chow” and my voice goes down, I’m using the word for mother, but if my voice goes up when I say “chow”, I’m asking about food.

“What if my tone is flat?” I asked, signing a straight line.

Peter frowned. I couldn’t totally understand his response, but I think I heard the word dog.

So, here’s the moral to my story. When I arrived, I had been tempted to put my earphones in and zone out to a podcast because it seemed too hard to understand Peter. But I didn’t. And because of that, the two of us had bonded by the time I left his shop.

With a little practice, I’ll be able to ask about his mama and ‘em without calling him a hungry dog.

What? It’s a start, y’all.