English is a language that uses a lot of words and fancy phrases to say something very simple. Oji Cree, on the other hand, uses as few words as possible to get the message across. When I first arrived here I was quite taken aback by how abrupt people are in their conversations. Often requests will seem like orders (when translated from Oji Cree into English) and there won't seem to be much of a solid start or end to conversations.
The perfect example is: "Teacher. Pencil."
This one drove me absolutely crazy in the first few months of living here. Where I come from, it is incredibly rude to address your teacher as "Teacher" suggesting they don't have a name, and you sure as hell don't order them to give you a pencil with one word. You darn well ask for it. I let it go for the first few weeks here, trying to decide if it was, in fact, a cultural difference or just rude behaviour. I eventually decided that I would not respond to students unless they addressed me by my name or put their hand up and they would actually have to phrase it "Can I please have a pencil?" Some might see this as me forcing my ways onto people who have a different set of social rules and way of communicating, but I am an English teacher who is supposed to be preparing the students for post secondary education which would have to be done in the city. Can you imagine the reaction if they walked up to a Professor at a University and simply said: "Grade." They would stare at them and probably just walk away. Myself and the other two high school teachers have worked hard at trying to improve the student's verbal communication skills in English. I'd like to think we have made some headway but I just got "Pencil" request again today. Sigh.
Another slightly irksome thing about communicating here is phone conversations. I answer the phone in my portable "Portable 2, Karen speaking." Short, sweet and gives the pertinent information. Often when I answer it I will hear silence, which is followed by me saying "Hello?? Hello??" and then usually the person will just say the person's name they are looking for. For example: "Joe." If I then say, "Joe is not here, can I take a message?" there is more silence, followed by "where is he?" or "why?" or just the sound of the phone being hung up. Those are always fun.
Even better is when you call someone in the community and they answer the phone "What?" Not hello. What. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I catch you in the middle of your fire juggling act and you don't possibly have time to say 'Hello'? It's only one more letter, I swear!! While I say I have gotten used to it, I guess it still irks me. As does being hung up on when I am still talking to someone, but they are done listening (apparently). And the fact that no one ever says Goodbye! They just say "K" and hang up.
BLARGH!
I understand that if everyone follows the same rules and customs, that it works out fine. The issue I see is teaching the children here that this type of communication is expected, acceptable and universal when it just isn't. I find it odd that the United Arab Emirates is paying several thousand dollars to have me move to their country and teach their students conversational English, so that they can be competitive in a global market. Meanwhile, there are likely thousands of people in Northern Ontario alone, that aren't up to par with conversational English conventions or etiquette, and don't seem to desire to learn it. It's not about having English replace their local language. The local language is incredibly important. It's about bringing the two together in a way that the youth can be successful in the interactions within their own community, as well as in the rest of Canada.
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