by Barry Gantenbein—Barry@HighVelocityCommunications.com
After firing up my rental car in the parking lot of a motel in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada, I snapped on the radio. Scanning the dial, I discovered that every station I could pick up was broadcasting in French.
Because it was morning drive time, no music was being played on the dozen or so stations I found. I couldn’t understand a word that was spoken. Twenty-five years removed from my two semesters of college French, my grasp of the language is limited. I turned off the radio, and hit the highway.
I was driving from Moncton, New Brunswick to Gatineau, Quebec to cover a couple of stories for the Canadian Issue of Governmental Solutions magazine.
From telephone conversations with my contacts for the stories, I knew that Quebec is primarily French-speaking. Possessing a list of French phrases that I had Googled and vague memories of my college classes, I wasn’t fully prepared for my French immersion.
Driving through the province, I noticed that directions on road signs are written only in French. Fortunately, I knew that oest means west—valuable information on my westward journey.
After driving in silence through rolling, wooded hills for a couple of hours, the landscape changed to farmland and small towns.
I turned on the radio again, but still couldn’t find an English-speaking station. I listened to accordion/guitar music, then some classical music before discovering an English-speaking public radio station.
Stopping for gas, I couldn’t figure out how to print out a receipt at the pump, so I had to go inside and ask the clerk. I greeted the person behind the counter with my best, “Bonjour.”
The woman must have I realized I didn’t speak French, because she quickly switched to English. I left the station with the receipt in hand—a successful international business transaction.
Lunch proved to be a challenge. I pulled off the highway into a small town, in search of food. With all the signs in French, it was hard to tell a restaurant from a radiator shop. I was almost ready to give up and head back to the gas station for junk food, when I spotted Tim Horton’s—the ubiquitous Canadian coffee shop. The club a la Tim was tres bon.
With my belly and gas tank full, I was back on the road. I maneuvered my way through road construction in Montreal and Ottawa to my final destination of Gatineau, where I greeted the hotel clerk with a friendly, “Bonjour.” She immediately began speaking in English.
Evidently, my French pronunciation isn’t very good. At every attempt at French, I was instantly exposed as an English speaker.
But that’s not the point. I was able to buy provisions and find my way through a country where I don’t speak the language. The people I encountered were kind and gracious and helped me in every way they could as I bumbled my way through Quebec.
I tried my best to speak French, and with a couple of exceptions everyone I met spoke some English. Together, we made it work. We communicated.
Communication is what is important. Whether it’s business, your personal life, or a trip to another country, communication creates success.
