When Traveling Abroad, Use Your EQ
What do you do if you don’t apperceive the accent or customs? That’s if your EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, comes in handy.
On my contempo bout to Russia, the humans in ample cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg) knew English, but not in the babyish villages (Yaroslavl, Uglich).
I anticipation I’d aces up Russian quickly, but I didn’t for several reasons:
- Jet Lag turns your cerebration academician (neocortex) to mush
- You can’t “picture” the words because the Russian alphabet is Cyrillic; i.e., Catherine the Great’s antecedent is “E” because in Russian, it’s Ecaterina.
- Russian’s not a “Romance language”. The sounds and accent aren’t familiar. They acquire sounds that don’t abide in English.
- Russian humans are affable and agilely charming, but they’re careful workers who break focused. They’d aswell rather advance their English than advise you Russian.
- They’re aloof in accessible so you don’t apprehend a lot of words. If I said, “Good morning” in Russian, I’d get back, “Good morning.” Silence.
RELY ON YOUR NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION.
One affair I did was amplify my announcement (pleading) and gestures (2 fingers for $2), and put some amore in my eyes. Abhorrence is contagious; so is trust. Their expressions, if revealed, were absolutely recognizable, i.e., a shrug, breaking eye-contact if they’ve fabricated their endure offer.
SCARY BABUSHKA
In museums such as the Hermitage or the Armory, earlier women sit in a armchair in anniversary room. It’s their job to accomplish abiding no one touches anything.
When the Ugly American (Paul) in our bout accumulation affected a blind in Peterhof, the Russian grandmother (babushka) sprang to her anxiety with a thud, clapped her easily twice, loudly, again avant-garde against Paul afraid her feel and barking Russian. We didn’t charge to acquire the words.
INTERPRETATION PLEASE
But what did this beggarly in this country? Was Paul traveling to Siberia? How could we acquisition out?
One of the things our mother does is adapt for us. A acclaimed agreement involves advisers agreement a babyish on a Plexiglas absorber comatose beyond a top table. If the babyish crawls to the bend of the beheld drop, he’s. It feels solid but looks like a precipice. So he looks over to his Mom to acquisition out what he’s declared to do, which beggarly award out how he’s declared to feel. If she looks happy, he proceeds. If she looks scared, he stops.
So we angry to Leo, our Russian guide, to see how austere this was. Leo was bedlam and relaxed. A adolescent man with abundant EQ, he bound put his arm about the Russian women, axis her abroad and abatement her. How? Babushkas all over the apple are bendable on adolescent men.
CATCHING ON QUICK IS ANOTHER EQ COMPETENCY
- – We were warned about the gypsies – such faces, such gestures. Ann, who anticipation they were “sweet” and didn’t listen, got pickpocketed.
- – If you acquire the flowers the youths accord you in the villages, it isn’t a gift. They will abode you with looks until you angle over some money.
- – You’ll bound see the shopkeepers apprehend to bargain. They name a amount and again pause, expectantly.
- – How affected are you to “beautiful lady”? Vendors everywhere apperceive those words in English.
- – Who can abide a child? Here’s Katya active my sister - http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/islands4.html at Svir Stroy.
- – It’s clearly actionable for Russians to acquire American dollars. Bound you’ll apprentice they all do. Just as continued as you don’t ask. (It isn’t actionable to accord dollars.)
- – Community admiral common acquire a abominable job. A smile goes a continued way with them.
WHAT THE CUSTOM?
You never know. A artery bell-ringer in Saint Petersburg bent my eye and the afterward took place, after any words. I “asked” if I could yield his photo. He was flattered and agreed. I took his photo, again offered him $2. He befuddled his arch no, no. I laid the bills on his tray of matroyshkas. He pocketed the $2, smiling, again handed me a baby and hugged me.
TELLTALE SIGNS OF REAL LIFE
What’s it like? Analysis out the action of the accessible -- the children, the dogs, and the seniors.
The accouchement were all healthy, tall, able-bodied and well-dressed. I never saw a ancestor adorning a child, or any charge for it. Evidently their accomplished activity they authority their mother’s duke if walking-like up to age 60.
Check out the amphitheater at Moscow’s North Terminal Park and see how abundant they affliction about their kids.
The Babushkas were airy and advantageous searching You’ve never apparent such shiny-coated, healthy, well-fed dogs and cats.
TROMP L’OEIL
That means, in French, fooling the eye—another reality check. There were two incidents of tromp l’oeil I’ll mention.
First, look at this Moscow apartment building: http://www.theintrovertzcoach.com/Moascow%20apartment%20building.jpg . Looks like a slum tenement, doesn’t it? “No,” laughed our guide, Toma. “We don’t take care of the outside of buildings here. There are luxury apartments in there 2200 sq. ft.”
Second, here is Catherine’s Palace (http://www.hum.utah.edu/languages/images/photos/rusphoto32.jpg ). When you arrive in Moscow, you think the buildings are huge. They are huge, but there’s something else going on, because you’ve seen huge buildings before. What they do is build with standard-sized bricks, then plaster over them, them paint them with marks as if they were made of bricks 4x the standard size. Perception warp!
PRIMAL FEAR
Here’s an incident that called for some quick EQ. We were walking in Moscow’s Harbor Park where there were lots of families. I became enchanted with a little girl of about 2, with curls all over her head, and before I knew it, she ran to me, jumped into my arms and gave me a hug and a kiss. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eyes I could see two agitated parents closing in on me from either side.
