Miscommunication

We are blessed to have a wonderful Christian man doing our tile floors. He speaks about 95% Spanish and about 5% English. This requires me to pull my Spanish from high school out and do my best to communicate with him. I do fine speaking, as he can understand me, but when I try and understand him, that's where the trouble is. He knows enough English words so we don't have to call his wife very often to interpret. My ears just can't separate the Spanish words when he speaks at a normal pace. They all run together.

As he was leaving yesterday, he thanked us again for the work. Then he said something like, "Que Dios, something something trabajo something something trabajo." I got the "That God" or "Because of God" part and the work parts, but I couldn't decipher the rest and put it all together. I can read and interpret well, so maybe I'll have him or me write it. I did ask him to speak more slowly (a very handy phrase) but I still couldn't make it out. I feel like I missed out on something very important, but I'm determined to find out what he said.

I think of the times when talking to someone in English and there was still miscommunication. Sometimes we are interpreted as having a certain heart (usually bad) and that was neither what we said or how we felt, or what we meant. Sometimes we read others' body language and misinterpret that. We can go through life thinking one thing about a person that is totally wrong. Is that fair to them or to us? Nope. That's why clear, frequent, open, and total communication is so very important. I think of all the relationships that have been prematurely aborted because of miscommunication and it breaks my heart. Let's vow to not only communicate accurately with others, but also to verify they understood the heart behind what we said. Let's also vow to make sure we understand others accurately. One of Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People states "First seek to understand, then to be understood." A good rule to live by!