Have you ever had those moments when you remember something that you’ve said or done, and you suddenly feel VERY embarrassed for yourself, to yourself? I had one of those recently as I remembered a time, many years ago, when I tried speaking “Espanol” in an El Pollo Loco restaurant-and it didn’t go well. At. All.

Let me give you some background….I took two years of high school Spanish when I went to school in California and did pretty well. (Thanks Sra. Menzies!) After I graduated from high school I moved back to my hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii, and over night, I realized that Spanish was NOT a valuable commodity. 

You see, I worked in a retail store at that time and because Hawaii has such a large volume of tourists from Japan, understanding the Japanese language is hugely helpful …. and necessary! So, over time I learned enough Japanese to get by in a retail environment and could actually hold my own (well, kind of) in a conversation. 

Okay…now back to El Pollo Loco:

One summer after I moved back to Hawaii I attended a convention in the Los Angeles area with a group of people. Since I had my two years of high school Spanish I had the thought that I’d order my combo in Spanish at El Pollo Loco. My brain could hear the words flowing out fluently out of my mouth, like I had spoken Spanish for years. 

Unfortunately, what came out sounded more like Clark W. Griswold. You should have seen the look the woman behind the counter gave me as I tried to speak Spanish. Ouch. 

Here is where it gets worse….she asked me a question I didn’t understand at first, so she had to repeat it again. When I finally understood what she said, I answered …. in JAPANESE! Let that sink in for a bit. I answered in Japanese. #BrainFart

Three Languages-One Major Fail

The good thing is I did acknowledge that there are different languages in the world and I made an honest attempt to speak a different language. Unfortunately, I had NO business trying to speak Spanish and when I tried to do so, it just made it one memorable moment, for all of the wrong reasons. 

The same thing is true in our interactions with the people around us! 

Even though we may not all speak languages other than our primary one, there are other “languages” that we speak every day. As we continue on this journey to healthy, happy and meaningful relationships at work, at home and at play, we’re going to learn about the different relational and communication styles, because how we relate and communicate with others is the first window we offer to others of who we are, and is the window other people offer to us on who they are. 

Over the next few weeks we’re going to talk about the following relational styles I’ve discovered (thanks to Karen Horney, John Eldredge, Craig McConnell, Dan Allender, Dave Mitchell, John Maxwell and other people whose work has strongly influenced my thoughts on this):

• Moving Against
• Moving Towards
• Moving Away

And the two main communication styles:

• Direct Communicators
• Indirect Communicators

Join me next week as we learn about Direct Communicators. Could this be you??