Saturday, August 23, 2008

Saturday Soapbox: Language Barrier

I used to work at a retail clothing store in my early years and would come in contact with many tourists from different countries. They would speak slowly and have a heavy accent that garbled their sentences. They seemed uneducated. My associates would grow impatient and rudely rush them on. I’m not saying that I never fell pray to the “Ugly American” persona, but more often than not, I played role of the spectator. Having the opportunity to live in different countries where my mother taught English as a side job, I knew how hard it was for others to learn our language (something I’m still trying to do too!).

The experience that brought this home for me was when I participated in a study abroad to central/meso-America. This was an awkward match for me- being a Frenchie and all, and knowing very VERY little Spanish. I had a Spanish speaking friend with me or my Spanish booklet on me at all times. I was very surprised how patient and kind the natives treated me, even when I slaughtered my requests for the bathroom. They were always impressed with my effort to learn their language.
The struggle I went through with improper verb conjugations and poor wording made me respect foreign tourists for how much they DID know and how brave they were to speak. Even though this happened years ago, I still want others to know of my experience, and to take away the same message I did: empathy.

5 comments:

Guillermo López said...

thank you for your comment but he got the title that is a road to a place called... little hell it´s fun.
I hope you'll continue visiting my blog and i saw yours blog is very interesting
we will be in comunication

KP said...

Hey Mandy! I am so glad i found your blog!! Haven't seen or talked to you in forever, but blogging is so fun because you can keep in touch even better than facebook I think! Anyway, I hope life is going great...keep updating! :)

Sarah Eve said...

I find this post truly insightful and uplifting. You should get on your soapbox more often!

Nancy said...

I know what you mean... when I was in Costa Rica, the locals were so kind and permitting of my attempts to speak spanish. I could get along decently, but it helps me to understand how others feel here in the US. My hardest thing is when people who have moved here make no efforts to learn English. I can understand if your travelling, but living here...

Mandy said...

yeah- AJ thinks the same thing. I know America's all a big melting pot- but English is the national language, and if others want to live here- they should at least make an effort. It's like moving to Germany and not having respect enough for their culture to learn their language.