Cheerio!

I'm off to London later today for business, back on Wednesday.  Sheila (Rachel's neice) will stay here with the kids, Meaghan's got the after-school shift as always, and everything should be fine.

One of the enjoyable aspects of my various jobs with Abbott-TAP-Takeda over the years has been the international travel.  I think I've averaged about 2 trips per year, each normally 3-5 days -- that's not too much, so it's always been a nice change of scenery.  I get to practice my "cross-cultural skills", as we ex-Peace Corps people say, understanding and connecting with whomever I'm doing business with.  That often includes learning a little bit of the language.

In one of my early jobs with Abbott I was on a team of engineers and chemists responsible for scaling up the manufacturing process for a new antibiotic.  The plant was going to be built in Italy, outside of Rome -- we helped design the plant, and were preparing to be there for the startup.  Our department secretary spoke Italian, so she taught us a word or phrase each day to help us when in Italy.  We learned the basics (numbers, simple verbs and common nouns, etc.), and some frivolous stuff ("Vadano Orsachiotti!" means "Go Cubs!").  We also learned the technical lingo we might need in the plant; my favorite phrase, which I'll always remember, was "Non capisco -- ha funccionato bene nel laboratorio..."

That means "I don't understand -- it worked fine in the lab..."

I wound up making several trips there, staying in Rome and even squeezing in a little tourism.  The 50-100 words I learned did come in handy, and (given my modest training with French and Spanish) I found Italian pretty easy.

Other projects have taken me to Japan, Korea, China, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary.  For each non-English place I learn at least some basics, like "Hello", "Excuse me", "Thank you", and "Cheers!"  (In hindsight it seems odd that I learned to say "I don't speak Hungarian" -- "Nem TOOD-yawk MOD-yor-ool" -- as if that wouldn't be painfully obvious...)  Sure, the Asian languages are almost impossible to really learn (ditto for Hungarian), but memorizing and using 5-10 words shows at least a little effort, and an interest in the culture, and is always greatly appreciated.

The same principle applies here in the States, I think -- especially in or near big cities, with so many immigrants around.  Saying "Thank you" to a Polish friend ("jen-KOO-yuh") or "Good Morning" to your Romanian contractor ("BOO-nuh dee-mee-NYAH-tzuh") is a way of making a little connection, and we need more of that.

Spanish is a little more sensitive, given the concerns about America's cultural identity, but I still use the occasional "Buenos dias!" or "Gracias!" when appropriate.

So I'm off to England for the first time in years, and my British English is a little rusty.  Cor, I'll be knackered when I land, all at sixes and sevens, but London's jolly good, so I'll soon be chuffed, and Bob's your uncle.  Or something like that.

Pat