But it smells funny. And it sounds funny too
- Ingrid Lotze
- Jun 8, 2022
- 2 min read
As part of the most epic program they’ve attended in the last 10 years - @MissingLink’s Story to stage the group were recently unpacking how to add humour into a talk. It is a tricky thing because @gavinmoffat and @ingridlotze have experienced first-hand how humour in South Africa does not translate into any other African country visited on a presentation road trip. Neither was it going to land well in the UAE so they had to listen and try to understand what makes people tick in different countries.
Active listening, hearing with our eyes and heart, as well as our ears, becomes a competitive advantage when working with different people from different cultures. And they learned through failure what needed to change – noticing, acknowledging and embracing differences.
In all their travels, which aren’t insignificant, @gavinmoffat and @ingridlotze often find themselves sharing stories with other people about various places visited, and they frequently hear the comment “but Bangkok / Cairo / Dar Es Salaam / Xai Xai etc “ smells funny.
They giggle quietly to themselves every time. It’s such a funny thing to say about a place. If you say Durian smells funny they’d totally agree with you. But different smells, sounds, sights and tastes are to be expected when travelling.
The one thing they did not expect is to experience sugar that sounds funny! Seriously it sounds so weird to that every time either of them make tea or coffee whilst in Kenya they purposefully stab the sugar bowl to hear the sound.
If a sound clip was on a “What sound is that” insert on radio they doubt anyone would guess correctly – except them. Because they now know the sound of Kenyan sugar. If you’re wanting to hear the funny sound of Kenyan sugar head over to 7tshirtseach on instagram or facebook. #ActiveListening #notice
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