Differences in society

One thing that OTR truck drivers get to see is the differences in the regions in which they travel. This is something that is also easily seen in today's Global business environment. So it is important for people to be able to understand each other.

The English language in the United States alone has over 27 different distinct dialects. When you are driving a truck across this country you can hear the differences almost at every 6 hours of travel. All of these different speech patterns are parts of the unique ethnicity for different regions.

In one 14 day stint of being out I heard the New York, Boston, Chicago, Minnesota, Cajun, Mississippi, Texas and of course South Florida's many different versions of the English language. You have to be able to understand people when talking to them.

When I did customer service at one place of employment, it was amazing to hear the differences during the day. 8:00 am to 9:00 was mostly east coast, with Boston, New York and southern east coast versions. 10:00 to 12:00 I would start hearing Texas, Mississippi, Minnesota, Midwest. 12:00 to the rest of the day was a different time of hearing every different type of English being spoken.

Now add in international calls and you can easily have some misunderstandings. A place that I used to love getting calls from was the UK. Hearing proper English was nice. But there could easily some misunderstanding. The way we say vitamins, and aluminum will sound completely different. When I look at the way it is said in the UK it is the proper way of pronouncing the words.

What makes English in the United States so much different is the unique diversity of the immigrants that came to this country. Many of the styles can be directly traced to the different ethnic groups that would settle in an area. So around the Minnesota area their is a strong Norwegian influence in the speech patterns. Cajun came from the French. Just to name a few of the many different types.

The same thing can be said for many of the differences in food. Look at the simple hot dog. New York, Chicago, Detroit and the Southwest all will have different versions and I have enjoyed them all. This type of diversity should be embraced. The one down side of eating at a truck stop is everything that is served is usually just some industrialized version of food.

When you open yourself to experiencing other society's diversity, you can truly experience what our society has to offer. Thomas Jefferson once said " Traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy." So yes as truck drivers you can see this first hand.