I'd had a full week and was dead tired. All I looked forwarded to was 5 pm, a few beers and the weekend. Teaching young Emirati/Arab ladies about human resources and business communication in English was always going to be a challenge given their varying levels of English comprehension. Trying to find a meeting of minds with anyone can be a challenge, let alone those who speak English as a second language. But occasionally I knew I was getting my message across and that these ladies would benefit from the knowledge and skills they were learning. Most of our classes had a touch of humour and fun, some good teamwork with those with a better command of English helping their colleagues pick up the nub of my messages, and a good rapport between us, me as the expatriate Australian who had come to help (and brought with him a strange accent); them as the willing learners. We took time to do some serious learning, but have a bit of fun in the process. The last day of the week is a low key day. We revise what we have covered in the previous week and set the scene for the coming week. Everyone was tired, but somehow we hung in there and got through the final hour. It's very satisfying knowing that you are helping the next generation of people who will make the United Arab Emirates even greater than it is. While I teach them human resources, they covertly teach me about the fortitude it takes to come back day after day and struggle to learn unfamiliar topics in a language that they only partially understand. Each has developed coping mechanisms. It takes a special type of courage and dedication that I have come to admire very much. I often wonder whether I could do it. Anyway, we had been discussing SMS messaging and how it might, or might not be used in business; when it was appropriate and when it wasn't. They are all adept at anything to do with mobile phones and modern technology generally, but the intricacies of appropriate business communication we had to cover. At the end of the lesson they bade me "have a nice weekend sir", and I returned to my desk to complete the last bit of paperwork, prepare for next week and enter attendances before leaving. Although I had managed to get through the last lesson, I stil felt stuffed. For some reason or other I went straight to my mobile phone, which I leave in my desk set to 'silent' while in the classroom. Usually I forget to check it until hours later in the evening. But today, I decided to check my messages. And there it was. No. It wasn't notification of a huge lottery win. It was much better. My daughter in Australia had sent me an SMS message that simply said, "I love you dad". Nothing else, just "I love you dad". I was puzzled. Nobody ever tells me they love me. As I fought back tears (unsucessfully), I reflected on how very lucky I am to have a lovely daughter who, for some reason or other, had decided on the spur of the moment to tell me what she feels. It mattered not to me why she said it, only that she said it. I thought, "I love you too", switched the mobile back to "loud" and finished up the remaining work before driving home. My tiredness remarkably, had vanished. I felt elated, like a million dollars ... I was The King of the World and everything was wonderful. That's the Power of Love. Mix it with the immediacy of an SMS message and you have a powerful combination. All of us want to love and be loved. It's part of the human condition. With the power of SMS messages and the written word, you can change lives. When was the last time you told someone you love them? Copyright 2006 Robin Henry | First Published March 2006 |
