Life on the Other Side of the Language Barrier

Group B's adventures today included riding the subway to the lower east side of Manhattan to the Trinity Church Food Pantry. After a few wrong turns and with a heavy reliance on Google maps, we finally made it to our service site. We were greeted by a feisty Latina woman on staff whose English and Spanish were nearly impossible to differentiate. Luckily for me, I know some of both so I could keep up with her orders (kind of). The work there was fast-paced and the woman expected us to do everything perfectly the first time, or she would become frustrated and take it upon herself to do the task. Right away I was put to work sorting beans--the dry kind that come in a bag. My job was to sift through 10 bags of kidney beans, picking out all the broken ones. My other group members were assigned various tasks such as cutting vegetables for the salad, slicing bread, or organizing the food storage room. Shortly after we finished our task, we were generously fed a hearty portion of rice and beans; a meal that has become a staple in our diet since serving in New York. Along with the rice and beans, we had salad, a roll, canned peaches, and apple juice. 

As the line of guests grew ever longer outside the doors, we assumed our positions for serving the food buffet-style and prepared for the rush of people coming to enjoy a free meal on this chilly winter day. We served food to nearly 200 guests, which was apparently a slow day for Trinity. The staff said this was due to the extremely cold temperatures (when it's cold fewer people are willing to wait in line outside for a meal). Still, I was surprised with the vast diversity of the people who came in. Americans were the minority, while Asians made up the majority of guests and Latinos were a close second. Many of the Chinese guests spoke little or no English, but through a little acting and sign language I completed my role of bread-hander-outer. Even as a mere lunch server, I made a conscious effort to make eye contact with each person, remembering the parting advice that Mark gave us before coming on this trip. By making eye contact, I can tell a person who may feel invisible that they are seen, even when language acts as a barrier--as was often the case at Trinity. 

After serving lunch, in a whirlwind of orders given by our boss-lady, we quickly tore down our stations, cleaned the tables, swept the floor, and helped transform the cafeteria room into a food pantry. At this site, there was a complicated system involved with giving out food from the pantry. The algorithm takes into account the number of people in their family as well as the approved guidelines for a balanced diet. Based on this algorithm, a person was allotted a certain number of points to spend on each food group (produce, grains, and protein). Every food item was assigned a certain number of points between 1 and 5. However, some items were grouped as 3-for-1 point,  2-for-1, or even 4-for-1. After a 2-minute run-down on the point values of a hundred or so different items, we were working against the clock and had no choice but to dive right in. Needless to say, it was incredibly chaotic complicated to keep track of.  We were pressed for time as guests were lining up once again, and we were instructed to spend no more than 4 minutes with each person. Just as I was finally beginning to figure out the system, things got complicated for me. 

Many of the "customers"were Chinese, which posed an issue since my Cantonese doesn't go much further than"hello" and "I'm hungry"(a few phrases I learned from one of my foreign exchange student friends in high school). Almost all of the Chinese people that I worked with spoke no English, which, as you can imagine, presented another obstacle to the already-confusing point system. As they tried to decipher the sodium-soaked goodness inside of the cans before them, I tried to explain, "These are mixed veggies," or "This one is pineapple." In the protein section, I politely asked them if they wanted fish or beef, trying to explain that fish was a 3-for-1 deal while beef was just 1-for-1. Then I would move on to the canned protein, patiently explaining the point system to them. "You can have seven more cans, if you'd like," I'd say. "Would you like some soup or some carrots or peaches? You can get that big can of tomatoes, but that's worth 2 points, so if you get that you can only have 5 more things." My attempts to explain politely were not helpful, I found, because I would often get blank looks or be ignored completely; a clear indicator that my English words were empty and meaningless to them. One lady, who had 3 points to spend, picked up a bag of flour, which was worth 5 points. "I'm sorry, that one is worth 5," I said. "You can only spend 3." She persisted, saying "yes," to indicate that she didn't understand a thing I said and that she really wanted the flour. "You can get rice or cereal instead," I explained as I pointed to the other options. She again motioned at the flour. Realizing that she wasn't understanding me, I finally simplified my response and just said a clear and firm, "NO." That was one of the few words she understood. 

I couldn't help but feel bad and a little frustrated that I couldn't communicate as politely and kindly as I intended to. The my instructions either non-English speakers from that point on included simply "yes," "no," or "one more." I worried about sounding rude or condescending by being so short with them, which was the opposite of what I was going for. I was frustrated because I knew I wasn't accurately communicating the way I wanted to. Yet, I had to converse with them in the only way that worked; the only way that I knew how. 

It was then that I realized, THIS IS PROBABLY WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE ALL THE TIME--frustrated at their inability to communicate effectively and understand in a majorly English-speaking country. This realization made me reconsider the way I interact with and judge a person, especially a foreign person, based on their ability to communicate. Perhaps they are not being portrayed the way they would like to because they simply lack the ability to communicate. Perhaps their true personality is trapped behind the language barrier. And now I know how frustrating that can be--especially when it comes to complicated topics such as the food pantry point system. I can only imagine how difficult other complicated things must be, such as healthcare or even American money.

Despite all the frustration of today, the cool thing about my experience was that I got practice to communicating without words, working outside of the confines of language. Through intentional eye contact, a little acting, and seemingly endless patience, I believe I was able to show the guests they were important and that my time with them was well-spent. I learned how to communicate non-verbally, with kind eyes and friendly gestures. With a loving shoulder pat I sent my new Chinese friends on their way, telling them to have a nice day. Because I learned today that your body language is often heard as clear as spoken language and sometimes your tone is more important than your words. 

-Erica Noyes