I've discovered a magic word for cross-cultural-communication situations..."tatoeba." This handy Japanese word, meaning "for example," has simplified many a confusing/sticky/awkward situation. Tatoeba...(see, it's useful!)...
Say a group of sweet fourth-grade girls is trying desperately to explain a complicated playground game to you. They so badly want you to join in. They use all of the English they can muster, and I have no doubt that the rest of the explanation in Japanese is superb and precise. But you are only slowly picking up the Japanese playground terminology, so you can't quite get what they're trying to convey. With a simple "tatoeba..." on your part, they demonstrate the game for you and you know exactly how to join in.
And that's just one instance in which "tatoeba" can and has saved the day. I've learned that getting people to talk in examples is just better than talking abstractly, and that goes the other way too. If I feel like a fellow teacher does not fully understand some brilliant idea I have for a classroom activity, I bust out a "tatoeba..." and, nine times out of ten, they get it. They might not necessarily agree that it's a brilliant idea, but at least they could give it a fair shot:) Now, I just need to teach all of my students how to say "for example..." in English, and we'll be set.
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