I grew up in San Pedro, California, the port of Los Angeles, in a community of multi-lingual people, or polyglots.
My own mother, born in Sicily, spoke Italian as her first language and occasionally explained things to her mother in her native tongue. My family babysitter was from Yugoslavia and routinely argued with her husband in various Slavic languages. I went to school with children who spoke Spanish and could always hear Croatian and other Mediterranean tongues as I wandered through the stores of town.
I eagerly studied languages when I got the chance, and took a linguistics class my first quarter at UCLA. Unfortunately, I never felt confident in Spanish or Italian; I’m always cautious and uncertain and don’t really trust what I think a word means.
This lack of confidence always comes up when I prepare for a trip to a foreign country. I like to know basic words in the native language: si or no; “entschuldigen Sie mich, bitte” (“excuse me please;” German),谢谢 (“thank you”; Chinese), “où est la salle de bains ?” (“where is the restroom?”; French), the numbers in Japanese and so forth.
Of course it’s one thing to ask the question and another to understand the answer, so when I head to a Spanish-speaking country I try to prepare my ear in advance so I at least have a chance of communicating with the natives.
Several years ago, we traveled to Costa Rica and thence to a family wedding in Cali, Colombia. I bought a computer program at Costco and applied myselfto the Spanish lessons, trying to reconnect the synapses that studied Spanish so long ago. I can read just fine, but to listen? I turned to movies instead.
Most American DVDs made recently include alternate language or sub-title ability. French versions are almost universal now; Spanish in about a third of the DVDs. I listened and watched subtitles–learning alternate words in some cases–to movies I knew well. As a result I could say things like “Puede la fuerza contigo” (“May the force be with you”) and, my personal favorite, “Yo creo que veo todo quando yo veo un elephante velando” (“I thought I’d seen everything when I saw an elephant fly”–from Dumbo).
Silly things to say, yes, but native speakers laughed when I explained how I came by the few things I could rattle off in their language.
Laughing, moving my hands and mangling the language have actually made me get along in a foreign country.
It’s amazing how even the French smiled when I tried to speak their language.
I spent some time in Budapest this spring with family members and could say next to nothing in Hungarian. But their hands started to move, their voice raised and it became pure entertainment to watch my sister-in-law’s relatives communicate. I felt like a little girl again, watching and listening to the mysterious code of a different tongue.
(I’ve found Babelfish an excellent program available on the Internet for help with translations.)
We’re headed up a river in Central American soon. I’ve been watching movies again. This time we’re bringing eyeglasses to help folks see, and the Good Book for them to read. I’m excited already to hear murmured words and see communication.
I just hope I can fit a word in edgewise.
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