The Hills Roll On

Oh, Spain is lovely, the people are gracious and welcoming…I won’t disgrace myself by trying to find something to pity myself about. I will be honest though, the honeymoon is over. It’s ironically fitting that just as the proverbial honeymoon is ending, so the season is changing from blue sky days and warm breezes, to the wet gray cold.

We are really feeling it( culture stress more than culture shock) in the area of language. It is SOOO frustrating to know EXACTLY what you wanna say in English but being less than kindergarden level in Spanish. It is so easy to talk to our language instructor, but then you go outside and you meet people who have thick local accents, talk ridiculously fast,or on some rare occasions are so drunk they sound as though they have marbles in their mouth. Most days your motivation for language studies goes completely out the window and you are left pacing the apartment trying to find anything to do other than studying Spanish.

So what have we learned in these surreal 4 weeks of immersion in an entirely new culture? Here are some gems from the Hills…

REMEMBER: Don’t rely on your wife/intern partner/someone else to bring/be the dictionary. 

PLAN AHEAD: Plan your conversation ahead of time and if it veers off course claim ignorance or stupidity, because it’s true.

PLAYTIME: Admit you are in kindergarden again. And what was the best part of kindergarden PLAYING!!. Play fun games (like ‘I Never’, ‘Pictionary’, or whatnot) or invent games. Award prizes to yourself.

ONE OUT OF A HUNDRED AIN’T BAD: Recognize the achievements you DO make (like the one word in that whole conversation that you actually recognized and understood). Smile and indicate that you don’t get it but enjoyed the convo.

JUST DO IT: Don’t ask your wife/intern partner/someone else to do talk to the repairman/clerk/waiter/etc just cuz it’s easier for you. Make a fool out of your own self. 

KIDS: They LOVE playing teacher don’t want to talk with big words anyway. (Tara learned all the colours this way!)

RELAX: it’s a genuine bonifide language AND culture encounter to go to the cafe and have a nice cuppa…or two!

LAUGH: after 1 week of introducing myself as "Tah-rah" I found out that pronunication in Spain is the same word as ‘retarded or defective person’. Everyone was too polite to tell us! Finally someone told our supervisor. We laughed SO hard when we found out. So now I introduce myself as "Teh-rah" instead. My english pronunciation, Tear-ah, is a little too tricky for the Spanish tongue. I did check what ‘Teh-rah’ meant first though, just in case it was a swear word. It still cracks me up as we write this.

And finally on a deeper note, when you know it’s ALL going over your head and your tempted to start planning dinner in your head rather than paying attention to the Bible study, ask the Holy Spirit to do in you what He intends for that moment. God doesn’t waste time, so trust that He has a purpose in that moment that is GOOD.

Lotsa lubb,
The Hills

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 at 8:18 am and is filed under Latest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.