Failure to Communicate

I'm helping a Swiss and French documentary team prep for three weeks of shooting this month in Cleveland. It has been both interesting and funny at times to experience the communication challenges, as both language and cultural differences surface at unexpected times.

For example, I asked Adam White today when he was going to Dan's. The French heard: "when are you going to dance?" And so the French crew joined the American crew in teasing Adam for a moment...we all enjoyed that.

They have also been practicing the pronunciation of Newark, since they flew into NJ and knew that is was a different city than New York, but they have a hard time hearing the difference. Meanwhile, I have shared my most well-retained phrase from high school French class: je voudrais allez a la plage: I would like to go to the beach. And that seems to be some level of entertaining as well.

Our first big shoot day will be on Sunday at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse and I expect that we are just beginning to discover our situation. Sunday will be a day for understanding in many ways.