10 Way to communicate with children when you don’t know Romanian

1. Smiles

Smile is the universal language. Sometimes just looking into your eyes and smiling you can have an intense connection, much better than a long and boring conversation.

2. Gestures

What would happen if we all lose the voice? You can imagine it? The first thing we would do would be to use our body, to use the movements is a great help when you do not know the language, although you must always take into account cultural differences because not all gestures mean the same in all countries.

Once I heard that our body is a phrase and each part a word, so do not hesitate and let others read your movements.

3. Sounds

The great friend of gestures is sound. Have you ever seen a silent movie? Sounds are important and you can do many! A whisper does not mean the same as a cry, and a cry can have a lot of meanings at the same time (joy, sadness, surprise …).

4. Games

The game is one of the best socialization techniques. When we grow up we forget to play, but there is a child inside all of us and if you listen to that child you will see that it is easier to communicate and you will enjoy more!

5. Music

Do you know how to play an instrument? Use it!

Do you play the drums and you can not take it with you? Create one with other materials!

You do not know anything about instruments? Sing!

Do you hate singing? Ask them to sing for you!

Children love music in all languages. You can sing a song in your language, then you can encourage them to sing a song in their language. You will be surprised that many times we have the same songs.

6. Drawings

Painting is another way of communicating. A child is doing a drawing and suddenly you paint something to continue, the child can have different reactions, maybe he/she smiles and tries to draw the same, maybe paint over your drawing trying to erase it, maybe continue your drawing , etc. Anyway you are communicating sensations, even when the drawing is something abstract that does not seem to make sense.

7. Use your mother tongue

Sometimes words from a different language are similar to other words in our mother tongue. You can train your language skills by looking for synonyms, it does not always work, but when it works it’s great!

8. Jokes.

Do you remember when you were a kid? what was your favorite thing? Surely for many of you the answer is to play! and when you play you laugh, and laughing is essential when you communicate with children. My advice is to lose the fear, learn to be a clown.

9. Origami

When I was a child, I had a teacher at school who loved origami. He considered it very important that we learned to make figures of origami and he taught us many.

When I came to Romania one month ago I only remembered 3 or 4 figures, then we have learned to make several figures and we do with children in hospitals. In my opinion, it is a great way to communicate and it is great to be able to teach that with a sheet of paper and your hands you can create a world.

Now I remember my teacher and I understand better why he taught us origami.

10. Invent a language

It’s time to create! Of course the ideal is to learn to speak Romanian to communicate in the clearest way, but to get a good level you have the opportunity to create a new language that includes all of the above. Create a language with laughs, games, music, jokes … Create a fun language that works for you but also for them. Create!

Clara Quintana Silva in the project Vitamin T17