Several times a week, early in the morning—around 9:30 a.m.—it sounds like the circus is coming to town. Or, perhaps it is the local fish and vegetable vendors announcing what produce they have for sell. Or, perhaps it is the ice cream truck making its early morning rounds in the neighborhood.
In any case, someone is trying to wake everyone up in Spain. Someone is trying to get everyone’s attention.
I observed from the window. It was a large white truck with a blaring intercom attached to the roof. It repeated over and over the same message.
More Language Barriers!
There was a major language barrier standing between me and the speaker’s words, so I wasn’t exactly sure what was being said.
Our family was used to language and cultural barriers—at drive-thrus, in parking lots, at grocery stores, with grandparents, at Dairy Queen . . .
After all, “I Learned My Spanish in Zumba Class,” so I was quite limited in my Spanish language skills!
Having breakfast on our back porch in the early morning hours, Vincent and I were always close to the action—close to the white truck and its blaring speaker.
What was it?
It Sounded Like . . .
It sounded like an announcement for the circus coming to town—declaring loudly that parents and their children needed to buy tickets for the upcoming show.
It sounded like the local fish and vegetable vendors in Morocco who would ride their donkey carts through the neighborhood streets—shouting in Arabic that they had fresh produce ready to be delivered to your front door step. Very handy!
It sounded like the ice cream man—inviting children to come to the truck to choose their favorite flavor of ice cream displayed on the vivid images of the truck’s side panel.
I’m not sure if they still have ice cream trucks in America, but it was certainly one of the highlights of my childhood. I can still remember hearing the bells ringing in the distance. Frantically, I would run through the house trying to round up enough lose change to buy my favorite treat.
I was getting excited and searching for some centimos! Perhaps there were ice cream trucks in Spain. Who can’t eat ice cream at 9:30 a.m.?
In any case, I wondered what this man’s announcement was in Spanish and what in the world was in his large, white truck. It circled around our neighborhood regularly.
A Mystery
It was a mystery.
One day, an expat friend came over for a visit. She had been living in Spain for three years and spoke Spanish. Perfect timing! The truck’s speaker began wailing and calling out to the world.
“What is that?!” I asked my friend. “Is it the circus coming to town, the neighborhood vegetable vendor, or the local ice cream truck?!”
“None of those,” she answered with a chuckle. “It’s a company announcing that they will pick up any household items that you no longer want. It doesn’t matter what condition they are in, they will take them away for you. They fix them up and resell them.”
“Wow!” I said. “What a great community recycling plan! That’s certainly handy. It’s like having the weekly Goodwill or Salvation Army truck come by your house to haul off all your unwanted belongings!”
I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t the circus truck, it wasn’t the fish vendor, and it wasn’t the ice cream man.
In any case, I better get used to the loud speaker announcement. The truck will be coming down the street again in a few days. Maybe I better go through my storage and round up some unwanted and unneeded items for them to haul away!
—The Cultural Story-Weaver
Let’s Weave Cultures!
Have you ever been exposed to something new in a foreign culture that you couldn’t understand because of a language barrier? Did you naturally compare it to something familiar from your own culture? How did you solve the mystery?
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures!” Write about them in the comment box below.
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