At one of the train stations in Italy, I did an action stunt ala Jackie Chan by leaping off a moving train with my suitcase. No damage done to my physical self as I was heavily padded by the coat I had on but was emotionally shakened. I was brought into the station office by an Italian officer who asked me tons of questions in Italian but all I could do was stare at him wide-eyed, unable to recover from the shock plus I could not understand him anyway. He exchanged a few sentences with another lady officer who spoke a little English and was told that they needed to photocopy my passport as they were convinced that I was either trying to commit suicide or was an illegal immigrant! I wished I speak Italian at that moment, honestly! It was a huge misunderstanding due to the lack of verbal communication!
So, for the next week or so in Italy, I tried to learn as much Italian phrases as possible but alas, I got so hooked on Italian that when I bought my Metro ticket in France two weeks later, I blurted out "Grazie" instead of "Merci". This was when non-verbal communication worked for me. I doubt the counter lady could make out the distorted pronounciation of "Grazie" even if she knew Italian but my smile and little goodbye wave made it known to her that I meant "Merci"!
From these two incidents, I realized the importance of both effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills, especially for someone like me who enjoys travelling to different countries. When language barriers exist, flash a smile!
And just in case you may be interested to know, I alighted at the wrong train station which meant I jumped for nothing! ): Here's a picture of a very unhappy me at the said station:
