Cultural farts

A missionary who spoke at our church in Kansas City just before we left talked about having "cultural farts."

"A cultural fart is awkward and uncomfortable, but shortly it will pass," she said, explaining that reminding oneself of this funny phrase is a way to cope with annoying, abrasive or awkward situations that inevitably occur when you're integrating into a brand new culture.

I had a cultural fart today.

While interviewing a ministry leader in the Republic of Ireland, I was momentarily confused when the man said that the new young people working for the district were getting involved in three "tines."

In the U.S., sometimes we talk about how a project is two-pronged or three-pronged, meaning it has two or three or more connected but distinct emphases, objectives or whatever. I thought maybe he was using instead the word "tines" such as the tines of a fork, instead of prongs. I asked him, "What are these tines?"

"Bray, Gorey and Roundwood," he said.

Further confused, because Roundwood kind of sounds like Torchwood, which is an anti-alien program, and the other two words were meaningless for me, I persisted, "What does Bray, Gorey and Roundwood mean?"

"They're tines," he repeated.

"What?" I asked again.

"Tines, tines," he said. "I'm sorry, I have a headcold, so I know it's hard to understand. They're tines. T-O-W-N-S."

If we'd been face-to-face instead of on the phone, I'd have wanted to crawl under my chair. It was so embarrassing.

It's somehow more excusable or expected that an American will have difficulty understanding people in another culture when English isn't their first language, or when you're learning their language. It's a lot harder to justify when you don't understand another native English speaker.