I was going to write a lot here, but I decided I would just put up the cartoon. Blogger is giving me trouble today with uploading images, so I have less time to do blog, and more time needing to go back to paper. I've decided that sitting in a bad chair for more than 8 hours at a time is a bad idea. Ouchies. Alright, well, I HAVE to go. So, later peeps! I'll write a little more tomorrow, I think.
5 comments:
Hey Brennan,
Well, it's nice to see the language barrier is crumbling!
I don't get it. What happened?
Well, at least you're learning how to load lots of groceries onto what looks like a relatively small bike. That's what really counts in life.
Will, I was going to write something about it, but I hoped it was obvious, but thought it might not be.
You see, even though I can speak three or four words Dutch, that doesn't mean I can speak the whole language. And even though Dutch people can 'come down to my level,' and speak my language (literally), you can almost fit in with a very small amount of common words...but you don't actually fit in unless your on the same level as the people around you linguistically.
The difference between me and the people who live here is approximately two extra languages that they can speak fluently. And although I can feel ok about that, I still feel dumb now and then when I try and talk with people... but it's getting better all the time. An uphill battle, but you feel the pressure of 'not knowing' the local language no matter what. It's like my very wise friend Kristin once said when describing her experiences while on an exchange to Quebec: "I was frustrated with my inability to show how intelligent I was."
And that's approximate to how I feel sometimes. As in the situation where I could understand what someone was talking about, (ie. their bike, the groceries, etc.) but not properly respond or actually know the WORDS that were coming out of their mouths, such a situation is hard for many reasons, but the most interesting (and possibly the hardest to deal with) reason is that racially, I LOOK like I'm from Belgium. It is only when I open my mouth and speak English do people's attitudes towards me change.
And that is what I probably would have written yesterday afterwards if I hadn't run out of time.
YAY! YOU UNDERSTOOD! THANK GOODNESS!
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