that dang language barrier

Japanese. Korean. Chinese. Indonesian. German. They’re all foreign to me. I barely know a word of any of the languages. Perhaps I could understand one word in a typical conversation. This would be only because the word is a cognate. I just don’t know enough foreign languages.

Today, I took the bus from the U of O to downtown Eugene. During that short seven to ten minute trip, I sat next to two people from Asia. Unfortunately, because of my ignorance about Asian cultures, I couldn’t even tell you where they were from or what language they were speaking. It made me sad.

While I was sitting there, I was writing in my journal. I stopped when I heard a word I thought I understood. I honestly believe they may have been talking about how no one understood them when they spoke on the bus. I heard, “they learn English in grade school, English in middle school, and English in high school.” And then there was laughter. Okay, so I’m not sure they were saying this, but as I’ve said before, I’m a tid-bit narcissistic and suffer from a slight case of Truman Syndrome and thus believe everyone is always talking or thinking about me.

As I sat there in ignorance, I was transported back to Ukraine. My friends and I used to visit Kyiv every few months. When we got together on the Metro, we were always loud. I tried to shut us up; I hated to be an obnoxious American, but it didn’t matter. We were loud. We dressed funny. And we always stuck out on the Metro.

One of the reasons I learned Ukrainian so well was to abolish the isolation I felt for being a foreigner. I think it’s important to learn and see other cultures. Learning the language of the other culture is an essential part of this.

Here’s the summer goal: No matter where I am this summer, I’m going to work on my Spanish. It’s important. A good chunk of our population in the Pacific Northwest grew up with Spanish as its primary language. It’s about time I step up to the plate and communicate effectively with my friends and neighbors. ☺