Gosh, I'm learning a lot this week about running workshops with people who are not comfortable with English as a primary medium of communication. I am being shown up for the games I play and facades I can hide behind in language. Adding to this learning curve is that these folk are not highly educated (and I'm trying desperately not to be condascending in saying so). I'm helping Sonja with workshops in a fairly well-known mining company in South Africa. To a large extent, the process requires a well-honed set of cognitive abilities - a set that seem fairly removed and foreign to these people who lead relatively simple lives.

My crutch though has been that we're using stories as a primary mechanism for gathering information. No matter what the language, there is magic in every story told and a wealth of relevant information regarding the company and the lives of these people.

I also feel like I'm standing on a threshold of sorts. I have a sense that very few people are exploring how narrative is valuable in a different setting - one that is removed from the English-saturated corporate hallways of the economic hubs our country depends on. It is a threshold of a potentially very valuable narrative technique that transcends language and education paradigms.

I'm not entirely sure where this will go (and whether you even understand what I'm talking about). But it's a reflection worth posting.