Chapter 109 The Empathy Experiment

• Emma's preschool faced its initial serious cross-cultural communication problem when a new student came who spoke no English. Kenji, a five-year-old who had recently moved from Japan with his family, was secluded during most classroom activities due to his low English vocabulary.
• Emma's first attempts to incorporate Kenji were based on her customary method of detailed verbal explanation, which only added to his perplexity and her own irritation when communication failed altogether.
• "Emma discovered that her usual strategy of talking through problems doesn't work when the other person can't understand her words," Grace observed as the girls attempted to connect during pickup time. "She's having to develop entirely new communication methods."