Communication

Learning to communicate effectively emerged as a major component of student’s experiences.  This area was defined to include any task involving language, communication, or the transfer of knowledge. While on the project, students encountered situations that required them to communicate across language barriers, between different cultures, and with people of varying levels of technical knowledge.  Further, this communication was conducted in a wide array of unfamiliar environments.  Students presented at community meetings with over a hundred attendants, met with small groups of influential community members to make decisions regarding the project, and entered homes to conduct interviews.

Students expressed they were unsure of themselves early on but became increasingly more comfortable as time went on.  This development appeared to be the product of observation and practice, and was enhanced by the ability to discuss social nuances with other project members and preparatory team meetings before certain encounters.

Within this category the following subcategories emerged from student reports: working across cultural differences, working across languages, presentation skills, establishment of trust and respect from community members, documentation of data and information, and working across technical levels.

Working across cultural differences

1.  So, that was tough because also the translator wasn’t always sure how to make – the connection, because I think there are a lot of ideas and concepts that we’d have to spend years there to understand in terms of responsibility or feeling indebted to somebody or something, or you know, gratitude, just some very general, more emotional or spiritual concepts that I think we don’t necessarily totally understand – or I did not understand after being there for such a short while. -Cameroon Trip Participant

 2.  The sense of why communication is important both in terms of being able to talk to people, and people just also across cultures; that’s something I think I’m going to carry with me.  – Guatemala Trip Participant

3.  For example, in Spanish they’re more formal and I think I learned how to adapt to different crowds. I got to talk to little kids, to youth, and older people. So knowing how to approach them, I think that’s mainly what I’m taking away also. -Guatemala Trip Participant

4.  We know that we had a really good message, but it can be really hard to communicate that across the cultural barriers.  So I think that’s a big issue that we’ve been having and that you need to be aware of.  We also need to find a better way to express that to our incoming members. Because I don’t think that’s something that comes across as apparently. Because we always think that – as engineers, we always assume that the people there want this technology, but that’s not the case. That’s not an assumption that you can just make. So we need to find ways to basically sell this product. Because we know that it’s going to improve their health, improve their standard of living. We just have to find a way to express that so that they will continue to use this project. –Guatemala Trip Participant

Throughout the course of their trips, students encountered cultural differences that affected their ability to communicate.  This included physically notable differences such as when to shake hands and more subtle differences such as how to show respect or the role of men versus women.  Students noted the additional level of complexity communicating across cultures added to exchanges in various ways as presented in quotes 1, 2, and 3.  Especially when implementing engineering products that often involved bringing new technology to the community, the transfer of knowledge would be pivotal to the project’s success.  Quote 4 shows that students recognized the need to do more than explain the technology to the community, they also had to frame their explanations in a culturally relevant way. 

Working across languages

5.  I think it was harder for some of the students, some of the team, to connect and understand because they didn’t know the language as well. I definitely saw that. There were quite a few people on our team that didn’t really know Spanish. At least like four or five of us. So I think that made it harder for people to connect and really understand the community’s needs. Yeah, I think that connection that you make really helps. -Guatemala Trip Participant

6.  Because his Spanish is even worse than mine, he had to act out a lot of it, but between that and a lot of really bad Spanglish I think everyone got the idea. -Guatemala Trip Participant

7.  The ability to speak Spanish seems to be essential. I was able to communicate my thoughts and those of Tim directly to the construction workers, which allowed for a more open and effective dialogue. -Guatemala Trip Participant 

8.  A big one for me was speaking the language. I didn’t actually get to teach until the very last day, which was not good; I should’ve jumped in sooner, but I don’t know. I just kept trying to speak in Spanish instead of just sitting off in a corner by myself, and I’m definitely glad I did that because it gave me the confidence to actually try to speak to the community members on the last day. And I’m definitely glad that I tried to teach at all, because I think I would’ve been very disappointed if I came back not having even tried. -Guatemala Trip Participant

All students in this study were required to communicate with non-English speakers in some capacity.   In Guatemala students had varying levels of Spanish fluency and would communicate in Spanish to whatever extent was possible, or use other alternative forms of communication as seen in quote 6.  At other locations, students used translators, facial expressions, hand motions, and body language to supplement communication when direct vocal communication was not an option.  However speaking the local language was seen to allow for better communication as quotes 5 and 7 indicate.

For the students who did have some Spanish speaking ability, it appeared to take them a few days of being on-site to begin to feel comfortable using it.  By the end of the trip they all expressed increased confidence and language ability.   Quote 8 expresses one student’s experience overcoming their reservations about speaking a language they were not proficient in.  Students who did not speak the native language recognized the gap it left in their ability to communicate appropriately, even if a translator was present.

Presentation skills

9. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to large crowds ever in my life, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to do this. So one thing I definitely took, because I talked to a bunch of people, is maybe I don’t have that fear anymore. I feel more comfortable talking to larger crowds. -Guatemala Trip Participant

10. It’s important to use a lot of different ways to explain the same thing. So, in the community we only had the written word; in the classroom, a lot of people only use PowerPoint, which drives me nuts because we were able to communicate an idea totally orally, to people who didn’t even understand engineering, and they were able to have a vague idea of what was going on, or at least we think, because they were asking good questions about the system.  -Cameroon Trip Participant

11. Today I attempted to teach a section of the presentation.  It did not go very well as my Spanish is still not very good, but I learned to push my comfort zone.  I am glad I attempted to teach part of it because I had felt like I was not really contributing to the education section previously without interacting with the community members. -Guatemala Trip Participant

Students often needed to address groups of the community while on-site which gave them the opportunity to develop their presentation skills in a new environment.  This helped one student overcome their fear of public speaking (quote 9).  Students had to present in Spanish or to community members who did not speak English through the use of a translator.  They noted the lack of the presentation tools such as PowerPoint and microphones developed their presentation skills even further by forcing problem solving and having to overcome presenting discomfort. Quote 10 shows that even without these tools, they were able to make an effective presentation.  Students expressed that after having their comfort levels pushed on these trips they returned home more confident and comfortable speaking in front of people, or at least having tried (quote 11).

Establishment of trust and respect with community members

12. I think Pastor James is the invaluable guide, host, and connection between the community and us. And I think we couldn’t do a lot of what we’ve done without him, or it would be a lot more difficult without him assisting us, guiding us through the project. -Cameroon Trip Participant 

13. Student 1:  Have you changed the education technique in any way to respond to that kind of unexpected distrust, or of people not believing you?

Student 2: I wasn’t expecting needing to go into quite as much detail about the water being contaminated and why that’s so important. I sort of knew that was going to happen. It’s just – it’s always so much more complicated, because some people use wells, some people, you know, they all have different ways that they’re using their water. And pretty much everybody always says that they boil their water, but that’s probably not true. And you always get answers, but I don’t think they’re always true. So, we definitely just keep emphasizing points over and over again. -Guatemala Trip Participant

14. The parents generally do admit that their children have had problems with their stomach or with diarrhea, but the children always say, “No, we haven’t gotten sick. No, I always wash my hands five times a day.” You know, like stuff like that. It’s sort of an interesting response.  -Guatemala Trip Participant

Some students explicitly acknowledged the need to establish trust and respect with community members while others alluded to it (quote 12).  In order to work effectively in the community they needed to develop relationships that allowed for open communication, which often did not happen to the degree it needed.  Students noticed behavior from community members that indicated a lack of trust or uncomfortability being honest with them.  When working with community members on education outreach students had a hard time knowing whether or not the locals comprehended their instruction (quote 13).  In other situations students talked about the shift that occurred once they had the buy-in of certain individuals in the community.  Multiple times students noted that local community members seemed wary of the work being done by the travel team.  This is seen through quote 14. 

Documentation of data and information

15. The type of information we’re getting can’t even necessarily be written down or – I mean, it can be written down. -Cameroon Trip Participant

Much of information acquired while on-site is stored in the memories of the student participants.  This includes qualitative data, observations, and an understanding of the project environment.  Students recognized the importance of documenting this knowledge in a way that it can be shared with other project members.  Acquiring this unique set of inside information was also seen to carry responsibility as quote 16 indicates.  Students who had returned from their travel expressed that they wished they had been able to document information better but often its not until returning, and sometimes months later, that they would realize what information they should have documented.  However it poses a challenge because much of the information cannot be written down easily (quote 15).

Working across technical levels

 17. I think it’s kind of difficult to explain the concept of the filter to them when they haven’t actually got the filter in front of them, because, I mean, it’s just – like it’s something – I don’t know if they’ve seen it before. I don’t think they’ve used it – and I think to respond to this, we’ve been focusing more on the basic hygiene and sanitation and why it’s important to have clean water at this point. And then, hopefully as the project progresses, the social workers can continue to work with the community members to emphasize how the filters work and stuff like that. And just go over it again once they actually are able to see the filter. -Guatemala Trip Participant

18. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get their attention when I was talking to them about hygiene and use of the filter. But they actually paid attention and I was really pleased with that. And they also stayed to ask questions, and I was really surprised. It was a good outcome. -Guatemala Trip Participant 

19. A lot of that was us talking to them about how they build it [the biosand filters]. So, in terms of that, what we learned from that was you have to communicate with them, and they have to be responsive to whatever you say. When they do follow your advice, they kind of have to accept it, if that makes sense, to see you as experts. -Guatemala Trip Participant

Students often needed to discuss their design plans and the technology it included with people of varying levels of technical knowledge.  For example, in Guatemala students were installing biosand filters in people’s homes and needed to explain to the family how to use it and why it would be beneficial to them.  Students had to gauge which aspects of this technology the families understood, and how to explain the parts they did not.  This task was complex because they were working across language barriers, cultural barriers, and technical levels.  They recruited two social workers to assist in this process but were still struggling with how best to approach this situation. This is discussed in quote 17 and 18.  The need for communicating technical topics was also seen during the construction phase of the project. Quote 19 discusses how the creation of the filters required good communication skills and relationships with the construction workers.

Other related situations included presenting a pipe system design at a community meeting in Cameroon and explaining design decisions to community elders.  Students recognized the challenge this task presented and created a presentation with as much visual demonstration as possible.  Since having the community’s support and understanding of the project is essential, students put a good deal of emphasis on addressing this communication challenge.