During a session with the psychologist yesterday, we discussed some of my barriers to communication and my tendency to get tongue-tied. I told him of some of my worries about saying the wrong thing and more importantly not being understood. Part of that stems from having a family conversation code that has countless allusions to all kinds of things.
In trying to explain that, I referred to an episode of Star Trek : the Next Generation in which Picard and the crew encounter a species that communicates by allusions. I referred to the episode as “Tanagra when the wall came down.” The psychologist is Trekkie to the point that he instantly got the reference. This made the process so much easier and yet illustrates the barrier I sometimes feel in trying to communicate.
Of course, my desire to be precise also gets in the way. This came be seen as the episode was called “Darmok” and the repeated phrase that conveys the opening of communication was “Shaka, when the walls fell.”
On the theme of language, today, I was chatting with Danielle, my substitute physio, during a break. For no good reason, we talk in French. I mentioned that it seemed a little odd to be Daniel and Danielle, as in French the names are pronounced the same whereas in English they aren’t.* She hadn’t been aware of this.
*Unless the “Daniel” in question is francophone in which case the French pronunciation is sometimes used.
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