We arrived in America when our first born daughter was barely 2 years old. She had just started speaking Swahili our mother tongue. One day we had to catch the bus and we were sitting next to a man who only spoke Cuban. He said something to me and of course I was perplexed as I could not understand him. He then started a conversation with my daughter, they seemed to really hit it off from the word go. They were laughing, pointing, chuckling and using various gestures all the way to my destination. Bear in mind each was speaking a different language.
I found it interesting that they could converse for so long when none of them understood the other’s language. Yet, somehow they communicated, maybe some? Anyway sometimes not being able to understand a local dialect might seem like a handicap to a visitor, but really human beings are pretty innovative and will find other ways of communicating. After all communication is just sending and receiving information. Sometimes the message might be misunderstood, but it is better to express yourself in any manner than to suffer in silence.