MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
“Are you laughing at me?” I would often ask my Moroccan friends and neighbors while living in North Africa.
It didn’t just happen with people I knew, it happened with complete strangers in the corner “hanoute” grocery store, the outdoor market, the doctor’s office, the public school . . . everywhere.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“No, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing with you,” they would usually respond.
With only a slight preposition change in the Arabic language, the meaning changed significantly.
“At least I bring a smile to your face and some laughter in the air!” I always replied.
In any case, it’s not easy to have someone laugh when you are struggling to speak a foreign language. Whether they are laughing AT you, WITH you, or any other way, it’s embarrassing.
It’s humbling.
When learning a foreign language, you often eat “humble pie.”
Struggling
No longer struggling with Arabic, I now struggle with a new language—Spanish. I would like to say that I’m fluent after living in-country for 1 1/2 years, but I’m not. I’m far from it.
This week, I, once again, found myself struggling to communicate—struggling to express what I wanted and needed to say, struggling to be understood.
It seems like making appointments for my son’s allergy shots at the public health center would be easy. Right? Wrong!!
Some people aren’t used to hearing foreign accents, so their ears and brains tell them—from the first word, the first hint of accent—“I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you. I don’t want to try to understand you. Go away. Go back to your country.”
Others don’t have the time or patience to understand. This was clearly the case of the woman wearing strict eyeglasses, behind the plexiglass window, at the health center that day.
After a few moments of back and forth leaps over the very obvious language barrier between us, and “THE MASK,” the woman in front of me turned to her colleague and said, “Su español es fatal!” (translation: “Her Spanish is a disaster—dead, fatal, mortal, lethal, lifeless!”)
I heard. I understood.
My first response was to chuckle and brush it off, “Si, si, mi español es muy fatal!”
However, deep inside, I could feel the frustration, the embarrassment, the anger rise up.
I Wanted to Scream!
I wanted to scream . . . “At least I’m here in Spain trying to learn your language. At least I’m making an effort and not using Google Translate as a crutch. What about you? How many languages do you speak, lady? One? Spanish? Well, I speak four languages! Ok, the fourth one might not be at an advanced level, but at least I’m trying!”
Instead, I prayed for an extra dose of kindness and patience . . . and humility. I nodded at the two women and smiled.
The next time they asked me a question, I quickly pulled out my phone to find my good, ‘ole, trusted friend, Google Translate. If SHE (Yes, Google Translate must surely be an outrageously intelligent woman who speaks all the languages of the world fluently!) made a mistake, at least these women’s irritability, mockery, and impatience would be directed at my held-up phone screen and not at my face.
Thankfully, God gave me the self control and discipline to keep my mouth shut that day. Well, not completely, I opened up my mouth just enough for these women to serve me a nice, big piece of “humble pie”!
Yummy! I think this one was cherry!
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
LET’S WEAVE CULTURES!
Have you ever learned a foreign language? What were some of the challenges you faced? If people laughed at you, what was that experience like? How did you digest your “humble pie”?
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.
