Lemmechek

At the station they might say “mind the gap” but what you most often really have to mind is the communications gap, or the language barrier.

A few years I was doing fashion production in Bali. My production manager Kylie was in the factory being the middle–girl between us and the manager of the factory.

So we asked what something in the production was called and the answer that came back was literally “it’s called lemmechek” (we were texting forth and back). My partner and I looked at the reply in disbelief. How could she not understand that?

It took a while to convince my production manager that what the factory manager needed to do was to go and check. “Let Me Check.” But in Indonesian-English it came out differently.

So, when you communicate are you constantly making sure you are understood? Are you checking your rapport with your listener all the time? If not, you could well fall into the gap.

The trouble is that when you do, your communication becomes extremely ineffective.