Welcome to
Sacred Heart School of Theology's
English as a Second Language Program
The ESL Times / Spring, 2005
Communicating on the Way to the Top
By: Sergio Rivas, SCJ
(Colombia)
Rock climbing is a whole new experience when you are eighteen feet above the
ground, and your partner is speaking English. I had gone rock climbing before,
but I never realized then that communicating is so important in this sport;
especially when you are not an expert. Anyway, English may usually be clear
and easy, but believe me that it is sometimes not so easy, and of course, some
situations make it worse.
I realized this truth when I was at the top of the wall, At that moment, it was as if all my little knowledge of English was being tested like I was taking a TOEFL exam. For example, if Your partner says “right”, you have to immediately ask yourself if it is the same “derecha” that you are thinking. If Your partner says, “Jump to reach the rock next to you”, and at that moment…you are tempted to think that speaking English has made him experience a hallucination as it sounds so strange!!!
However, this situation did not last forever, after about ten minutes trying to do your will on the wall, you may have a heavenly thought: “Maybe my ‘derecha’ means the same to him…maybe when he says ‘right’, it is the same right that I am thinking!” I also wondered if Maybe there was a rock on the wall that my Spanish eyes could not see and I was supposed to reach for. At moments like this, I realized that I needed to trust. In English or in Spanish, it’s the same thing: communication; and I saw that communication is the best tool for being able to go up the rock face.
It is amazing how much you can learn about climbing a wall with an English speaker, but, thank God, eating lunch afterwards was a much simpler process!
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Sacred Heart School of Theology
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