Chaos, When Thoughts Become Words

Your words have power. Choose them like you’d choose your next coffee, carefully and with purpose. Words have the power to bridge gaps, build connections, and foster understanding. But in a multi-lingual work environment, they can also lead to some amusing, and sometimes, awkward misunderstandings.

Let me share a little story from my experience. Picture this: our admin person was diligently booking tickets for an intercity trip. We were traveling on an AC double-decker bus which to my surprise, had sleeper bunks. It was my first time on such a bus, so I was unaware of a specific rule: if a woman booked a sleeper bunk, the adjacent bunk would only be assigned to another woman for safety reasons.

Amid a bustling office, the admin guy approached me with a sincere question. With utmost seriousness, he asked, "Ma’am, would you mind sleeping with a complete stranger?". You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. Faces froze, eyes widened, and I was caught somewhere between shock and amusement. The poor admin was promptly pulled aside, and his “blunder” was explained. His question was quickly clarified, but the story spread like wildfire through the office. For months, he received travel requests with people cheekily asking if they could “travel with complete strangers.”

This may have ended with laughter, but it serves as a great reminder: words, when used casually or thoughtlessly, can lead to unexpected consequences.

In a diverse, multi-lingual workplace, it's easy for phrases that are perfectly innocent in one language to sound odd, or even offensive, when transliterated into another. Imagine a colleague who frequently says, “I’m reaching” when they mean “I’m on my way” because that's the direct translation from Hindi or Tamil. Perfectly clear in their native language, but to someone unfamiliar with the context, it might sound like they’re struggling with a GPS!

Or consider the phrase “What is your good name?” This is a direct translation from several Indian languages and it’s a polite way to ask someone’s name. But to a native English speaker, it might prompt them to think, “Do I have a bad name too?” These examples may seem trivial or humorous, but they highlight a deeper truth: our words carry weight. In a multi-lingual environment, it’s not just about what we say, but how we say it. When we communicate, especially across cultures and languages, we need to choose our words carefully. 

So, let’s use our words wisely. After all, they have the power to connect us, inspire us, and sometimes, even make us laugh in the most unexpected ways!