Common language and new language

Hello my dear friends,

I am working hard.  

It is funny how you start talking the same language after becoming a member of a group. Of course, at work we all speak English and I am quite familiar with the language. But, there are so many technical terms and acronyms working in the UN and the health sector. When I first started a few months ago, it was very hard to keep up with meetings, as so many words that I had no ideas what they meant were flying right and left. But, I am already talking their language.   

I have been working in international development almost for four years, but it’s so different every time I change my job (and sectors, education to health, NGO to the UN etc) and the learning curb is huge.

This time there is an overwhelmingly long list of UN specific (and agency specific too. I realized when I was talking to a friend from a different UN agency) acronyms. I learned enough by now to function ok at work without referring to the acronym list. 

There are some interesting terms that are often used in the UN literature that I was not familiar with, and I am going to share them: 

“Demand creation” This is basically raising awareness in communities. It is to make people aware of their rights and issues, and available services. Even if there are many services in a community, people who do not know the services or do not realize that they have problems, will not likely to access services. There is also “supply side”that is the service delivery.

“Duty bearers” and “rights holders” Quite self-explanatory. The former usually includes police or civil servants whose job is to serve people. The latter is the people, who have rights to be for example assisted in a different situation.         

“Humanitarian” Vs “development” work. Anything not emergency or conflict situations are normal "development" work. 

"Modality" is my favorite. We use it like "funding modality". It basically means arrangement or method or some sort.  

Do they make sense to you??  

I started taking local language lessons from last week, and I am very excited. I am hoping to get to the level where I can complain to taxi drivers at least, when they try to cheat. I want to impress my visitors (if and when they come....) by showing them around in the city with a good command of the language. I love learning a new language. It always amazes me the particularities of each language and how it really reflects the culture. I will write about this some other time. 

Namaste,  

Photo: peach trees in my neighborhood.