Mixed emotions ran through Aditya as he set foot in Tokyo, Japan. He was far away from home. Although Aditya was very excited to join the head office of the IT firm he worked for, he was nervous about adapting to a new country, food, people, language and society.
A few months had passed since Aditya started working there. But even by then, he had managed to learn only a few words in Japanese, the importance of which he only realised after meeting his new colleague Niko, who had joined the company a few weeks after his arrival. Aditya developed a liking for her from day one. He wanted to talk to her but lacked courage. And on days when courage wasn’t an issue, the language barrier certainly was.
Niko hailed from a small village but harboured big dreams that brought her to Tokyo. She didn’t speak English. If she did, she would have loved to talk to that foreigner who always smiles at her but never says anything. She didn’t know that his name was Aditya, let alone how he felt. But every morning, whenever he smiled, she smiled back.
One evening while taking a walk in the office garden during a break, Aditya saw, Niko sitting on a park bench. Despite his initial hesitation, he walked up to her and sat next to her. He pulled out his phone and typed “Hi, I am Aditya” on Google Translate. And then he bowed. At first, she looked at him with puzzled eyes. But after hearing the translation, she smiled, said her name and bowed back.
What followed was a long-overdue conversation encompassing a wide range of topics such as work, their likes and dislikes, favourite food, movies among others. Thanks to technology, two people who didn’t understand each other’s language had found a way to connect.
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