Story Telling Truth

The problem with truth is that it can be said in so many different ways.  One root of cultural misunderstandings is when we fail to get our meaning across.  We speak from the angle in which we best understand the issue, rather than speak from the angle in which the other person can best understand it.

Good story telling finds a way around this.  If you visit the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, you will find in the gift store a collection of "Cinderella Stories" gathered from around the world.  Each book is steeped in the motifs and values of each culture, but the essential story is the same.* 

Here are some story telling tips that can help us make our point across cultural differences:

KNOW YOUR ESSENTIAL MEANING

Know the point you are trying to get across.  Once you know your picture is of Monet's lily pads, it doesn't matter whether you frame it with baroque gilt or wooden boards.  It will still be Monet's lily pads no matter how you frame it.  It is the same when you try to make a point.  If you know exactly what you are trying to say, you'll have many options on how to say it.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

If you can say the same thing many different ways, then say it in the way your audience can best understand.  This means knowing and understanding your audience.  There are two key ways of doing this.  One way is to research your audience, reading articles or bios, scanning websites, meeting test groups or going out in the community and experiencing it.  The other way is to pay attention to how your audience reacts while you are speaking.  Did they laugh at your joke or are they falling asleep?  Should you try explaining it a different way?  Master storytellers will do a bit of both: they will know what sort of people they will likely be talking to (young children? Nostalgic adults?), and they will continually adapt their material as they go depending on the reactions they get.

USE EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE

Relate your point to the everyday experiences of your audience.  If you are trying to convey a sense of loss, telling a Maasai herder about your friend who had to give up her summer home in Costa Rica wouldn't be effective.  Nor would it be effective to tell your friend who lost her summer home about your Maasai friend who had to sell his last goat.  (Unless you are trying to make a different sort of point.)  You cannot expect everyone to know where you are coming from and what that means to you, especially if you are living in another culture.  It is easier to get your point across if you relate your experiences to the everyday experiences of the people around you and what that means to them.

USE MEANINGFUL SYMBOLS, IMAGES AND MOTIFS

We are all impacted by images, symbols and catch phrases.  If you don't believe me, look at a swastika and notice how you feel.  Then think of the phrase, "I have a dream . . . " and notice how you feel.  Many symbols find meaning in culture and experience, and invoke that meaning with a brief mention or a glance.  A great source for meaningful symbols and motifs is both in traditional and contemporary culture (and by culture here, I mean folk tales, television, music, art, etc.).  If you are talking to an older Chinese couple about the values of wisdom, you may mention the carp (a fish with long "wiskers").  If you are talking to younger people, you may instead mention Professor Dumbledore.  In both cases, you will add a strong emphasis to the concept of "wisdom" by tapping into strong cultural images of "wisdom".

Next time you are struggling to get your point across with someone else, note what it is you are trying to say, and who you are saying it to.  Sometimes it is worth being less literal to your own explanations of the truth, and allowing the truth to be explained in a more fluid and adaptive way.  This is not compromising the truth.  A poorly explained and poorly understood truth is already compromised.

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*Essentially, a Cinderella story is about a poor child who is good natured but mistreated by her or his family, he or she looses a uniquely sized piece of clothing which a rich noble finds, and when the child is reunited with that piece of clothing (and the rich noble), they live happily ever after.  There is usually magic and talking animals involved.