Excuse me?
Living is another country can often be embarrassing. Especially if you donLt speak the language. Since I moved to Cuenca 4 weeks ago, ILve had many situations in which I felt embarrassed because of my poor language. Sometimes shopkeepers and waiters laugh at me when I canLt say what I want.
English and Spanish are often very similar. If I donLt know a word in Spanish, I just say the word in English and try to make it sound Spanish. For example if I want to say positive as in ,hILm feeling very positive lately,h I say positivo. If I want to say qualifications as in ,hWhat are your qualifications for the job,h I can say cualificaciones. This works well about 80% of the time. However, sometimes this method can lead to trouble. I enrolled in a Spanish class. After the first class I was very happy and excited. I decided to tell the teacher my feelings. Much to my surprise, everyone started to laugh loudly. I had said , gSoy exitado.h This means gI am feeling sexually excited.h
Sometimes you can get into trouble because you forget words, because it takes you too long to think of them, or because you just get confused. Yesterday I was walking to the swimming pool. As I was walking ,I was studying some cards with the irregualar Spanish verbs on them. By the time I arrived at the pool, my head was full of Spanish verbs. When I got to the counter where they sell the tickets, I said without thinking, gQuiero bailar.h (I want to dance. ) I had meant to say gQuiero nadarh ( I want to swim). Needless to say, the poor woman was somewhat surprised. Perhaps she thought I was crazy or very lonely.
After living in another country for 4 weeks I really can appreciate how hard it is to learn a new language. I have a lot more sympathy for my students and a lot more respect for people who can speak more than 1 language well.
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