North America is filled with a variety of people from all over the world. While Derek’s family has lived in his hometown for generations , Derek’s boyfriend Marcus has recently emigrated from Europe and Marcus’s extended family is still learning the local language . Although Derek likes Marcus’s family quite a bit, he feels a little left out because of not knowing exactly what they are saying . Plus , there was “the incident . ” Last time he visited the house, Derek used the restroom and ran out of toilet pap3r . Coming out from the bathroom and realizing his own boyfriend had taken a quick trip to the store, Derek had a heck of a time trying to get another roll without having a shared language system . Although he was able to eventually get them to figure it out , Marcus confides that his family still makes some odd gestures every time Derek’s name comes up. Aside from being one of the more awkward moments of his life, Derek feels like an outsider as he navigates his boyfriend’s life . Recently , his best friend Sadie encouraged him to think about all the nonnative English speakers that he interacts with daily, immigrants and new citizens who don’t have his considerable English speaking skills. Derek realized that he himself has been complicit in making others feel badly when they don’t embrace the majority language, even to the point of dismissing them as people without relevant opinions or feelings
1. What is our obligation when communicating with diverse others?
2. Does that obligation change when we don’t share a common language?
Nonverbal communication is often described as a “universal language.”
3. Does that idea of universality impact our opinion at all when realizing that we can, in fact, send messages to one anotherand have had that shared nonverbal language system since our earliest years as a child ?