My colleague, Tiki, and I decided that every month we would celebrate our completion of the region's monthly newsletter by walking to Schaffhausen for ice cream. This time, however, it was about 40 degrees, windy and spitting rain. So, we drove.
Huddled down in our coats and shielded by umbrellas, we strolled along the cobblestone streets of the old city to the little ice cream stand, determined to enjoy a cold dessert in spite of the wet, freezing weather.
At the ice cream shop counter, the woman who either owns or manages the shop greeted us. Tiki asked the customary, "Sprechen sie English?" When the woman said yes, we asked her what some of the different ice creams were that we were unfamiliar with.
One was called Quitte. The woman tried in her limited English to explain the look and color and texture of this fruit; we played a guessing game of trying to identify what it is called in English. We never did figure it out, but having gotten on a computer later, we realized it is not a fruit that is available in either Australia or America at all.
When we pointed to another one we couldn't translate, she showed us a picture of popped corn. Then she gave us a sample. Sure enough: buttery popcorn flavored ice cream.
In the end, I got a scoop each of macadamia nut and coconut. Tiki ordered the popcorn and a dark chocolate spiced with hot red chilis.
Just as always, I felt badly to approach one of the Swiss or German people and ask her if she would be willing to communicate with me in English. As a resident for one year in this country, I feel it would be respectful and appropriate to learn the language. However, as a one-year volunteer with a very limited budget, it is not possible for Andrew and I to take the very expensive language courses that would be required. In addition, they take about 3 months of full-time class work and studying in the evenings; that would only leave us 9 months for the work we came here to do. Therefore, volunteers who come to Busingen do not usually receive the opportunity to learn German.
Being unable to speak the language results in numerous frustrations, including navigating an unknown city, ordering food and interacting with friendly strangers who stop you on the street to chat. As a missionary to the area, it is doubly frustrating to be unable to build relationships with local people who are not fluent in English. I want so much to speak to them in their language, and have viewed the language difference as a barrier to begin building relationships. Therefore I often do not even try to begin.
However, Tiki showed me a different perspective. Seeing that the ice cream shop was empty of customers, she began peppering the woman with questions about how to say "scoop" and "ice cream" and "cone" and "one please" in German. She had the woman explaining the differences between masculine and feminine, and coaching her in pronunciations of more difficult vowels.
I could tell the woman was enjoying the lesson. Tiki was asking her about her language and showed a genuine interest in getting the pronunciations right and forming a sentence. The interaction resulted in a lot of laughter and gentle correcting.
If we continue in our monthly tradition of trekking to Schaffhausen for our celebratory ice cream, I believe we could develop an ongoing relationship with the woman, as each time we try to perform a little more Swiss-German and find more commonalities to talk about with the ice cream shop lady.
I realized through watching Tiki that language doesn't have to be a barrier to relationships. It can be the open door that we walk through.
That is a great way to learn a language! Just trying to hear and pronounce and speak with someone willing to help you get it. I am sure there are also some fairly inexpensive German language CDs and/or computer programs that you could peruse in your "spare" time :). There are always those "phrase books for the traveler" books that you could find and try some of those on this lady or others willing to listen, correct and laugh with you.
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling! I took a year of German in high school but have forgotten most of it. When I traveled to Austria in '08 it was so frustrating to not be able to really speak with people. Of course, I was only there 9 days, so I got over it :). I did find myself wanting to speak to them in Turkana instead of English. I guess both languages are stored in the foreign spot of my brain so Turkana came out instead of English. German came out when I was first learning Turkana too.
Thanks for your encouragement! I found some language CDs in the office, but it's so hard to spend time doing that without the deadlines and time for actual conversation that a class would afford. But it seems people here are very eager to help anyone who shows an interest in learning their language, so it's time to take advantage of that.
ReplyDeleteGina, I am so happy you got encouraged by the ice cream lady and realized our disappointments are sometimes also a matter of attitude. I can sense how much you want to communicate with people and I wish you time to get the basic of German and the courage to try it out on people! :) Often people are more impressed and happy you try to talk to them in their language than focused on the grammatical mistakes that you might make. Believe me, my Polish is not as perfect as I would like it to be, but I decided to speak it.
ReplyDeleteWish you a great summer, my friend!
Simona