Becoming multilingual is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I wish I could devote more time to improving my languages and learning new ones.
I call myself ‘Forgetful Jones’ because I tend to forget everything – except for languages. When I learn a language, it stays in my head. I feel so lucky because languages are the ultimate door to meeting strange but wonderful, amazingly different people.
With this post I’d like to start a new category, ‘Cultural misunderstandings’, and encourage you to post your anecdotes in the comments, if you wish. I personally have so many stories that I don’t know where to begin. Yesterday I was recalling with friends our trip around the Tatras, in Slovakia, where in many occasions I was faced with the fact that men wouldn’t talk to me, only to my husband, even if I was the one speaking a language they could understand. At first I felt offended for being completely ignored but then I guessed it’s impolite for them to address somebody’s wife in their presence. Or else they were utter sexist bastards. I cannot know because I didn’t stay long enough to ask. (By the way, I’ve just realised I told this very same anecdote in another post, my apologies for this repetition!)
There’s also the wonderful anecdote of an excursion with friends to a tiny remote village in Gran Canaria (Spain), where I ended up helping some of the locals to communicate with a German couple who’d been their neighbours for 15 years but didn’t speak the language. I spent most of the evening translating messages which they had never been able to convey, such as, ‘Tell them I’m sorry I cut their fence but they have to understand that there’s a right of way in that path.’
Eso me pasa pol iglota: I became the local fit-for-all interpreter for many hours instead of enjoying the evening with my friends but I was glad to help them solve misunderstandings which had lingered on for years. It can’t be healthy to hold a grudge for so long – look at what happened in Puerto Hurraco!
Well, I can’t wait to read your anecdotes. I’m sure that learning from your experiences will make a difference in our trips. Cultural misunderstandings suck – by the time one realises it’s happening, it’s usually too late. The more we know about conflict-prone behaviours or words, and how to avoid them, the better!
InTerCleta: agente en bicicleta 