Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Language..No Barrier

Today, I had an interesting experience. It was the first time I went with my friend P to the gym. It was my first day so I was looking around and trying to figure out how to use treadmill. I was looking around when two ladies entered the room. Apparently, they were there for the first time as they were not sure exactly what to do and how to use the machines. So I tried to help. However, they were from Somalia and did not know English. But somehow through few words and many hand gestures, I was able to explain how to run on treadmill. So it worked and after our workouts we started chatting with them. At that time we found that they were from Somalia. They asked us where we came from. When P said we are from India, one of the women said she loves Bollywood movies and loves Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Amir Khan. We were extremely surprised. I had no idea that Bollywood movies were so famous in Somalia. She told us that , they dub movies in Somali language. How interesting is that! Out of nowhere we meet this girl from Somalia and have a great interaction with her without speaking English and she tells that she loves Indian movies. Guess, when it comes to communication, language need not be the barrier.