One seemingly familiar English word may have multiplicity of meaning, depending on the context and place it is spoken. Although I’ve had confusions in my travels to the world’s major English-speaking countries – meaning Australia, England, India and Unites States – I did not anticipate that my maiden trip to Canada would have its share of a funny mistake because of my misinterpretation with the word ‘band’.

I went to Vancouver towards late summer of August 2001.  Vancouver is of course known as a bustling west coast seaport in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia. Aside from being an ethnically-diverse city, Vancouver is likewise known for its urban scenery that include thriving theaters, arts and music scenes. Among these sceneries is the picturesque and highly popular English Bay in the downtown area (Figure 1).  A rather close friend and former Filipino co-worker who was then a doctorate student at Simon Fraser University, Dr. Melvin B. Carlos, graciously picked me up at the airport. (Dr. Carlos is currently the Deputy Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development whose daughter Anna shared the photos I used here.)

I participated and presented a paper at an international conference on fisheries titled Putting Fishers Knowledge to Work (27-30 August 2001). My paper presentation was an extract from my 2000 doctoral dissertation from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Fortunately, my paper was accepted as part of the conference proceedings (Figure 2).

The above global scientific event was held at the University of British Columbia or UBC (Figure 3). UBC is a prestigious public university that is ranked among the top 20 academic institutions worldwide. The UBC conference organizers graciously sponsored my entire trip as a presenting researcher. My sharing, however, has nothing to do with the conference proper and/or paper presentation.

Instead, my ‘language mishap’ story actually happened on the conference’s penultimate day. A bearded and middle-age looking local participant gave an excellent slide presentation about Canada’s salmon fisheries from an indigenous people’s perspective. I was truly impressed with his PowerPoint materials.

After the tea break, I approached him and sincerely congratulated him for his paper presentation. While he was expounding a point regarding the modes of participation of indigenous peoples in salmon fisheries, I noticed that his conference ID had the word ‘Band’ as part of his institutional affiliation underneath his name. I thought that for a musician in a local musical band, his knowledge of fisheries management was rather extraordinary (Figure 4).

As he was about to leave after half an hour of informal but animated chat, I casually asked him rather innocently the kind of musical instrument that he played. His eyebrows raised – as if he heard an abomination – and told me that he did not fully understand what I was asking about. I clarified while pointing to his ID that since he belongs to a musical band, I simply wished to know if he was a guitarist, a drummer, or a key board player.

Although his reply was courteous, I was stunned nonetheless when he said these paraphrased sentences: “I’m sorry man but I play no musical instrument. The word ‘band’ in my ID signifies that I belong to a specific indigenous tribe. Hence, the term ‘band’ is not related in any way to a musical group!”

Bingo! I was profusely embarrassed as he slowly turned back, and cautiously walked away. What a dumb action – if not a near fatal misinterpretation on my part given my knowledge of the English language. Lesson learned: it’s better to keep silent when in doubt. After all, I could have easily asked other colleagues what the ‘band’ really means in that particular Canadian context.

Copyright © 2019 Michael D Pido