Yesterday, we went for our founder's day CIP, in which we had to bring the old folks from the new horizon centre around the NTUC supermarket in Jurong point for a short walk. An old lady approximately 80 years old was assigned to me for the walk. I was shocked when I realised that the old lady could not speak English or Mandrain, but could only speak cantonese. As though I could understand what the old lady was saying completely, I had trouble conveying myself to her. I guess that she could have felt that way too. We had short discussion, and I tried to show my concern towards her as and when along the walk. As were about to enter the supermarket, the old lady complained that she had leg pain and needed to stop, hence, we stopped at a bench just outside the supermarket for a rest. We (me and by partner) were told to interact and chat with the old lady to ease her boredom. However, due to the language blockage, we were unable to communicate with her well. In addition to that, I realised I could hardly come up with any topic for the conversation to take place. Hence, we sat there, together with the old lady quite silently. After that, our walk ended.
Through this CIP activity, I realised that working with the senior citizens may not be as easy as we have thought it was. With comparison to little kids, senior citizens have a whole new set of thoughts that we have not been through. This had explained the difficulty in communication. I realised that I had to do a comprehensive preparation before any activity that I am not familiar with such as to avoid such a circumstance from happening again.
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