lizzybennet | (no subject)

Chris had tummy trouble today. He spent all morning between the bed and the bathroom. He's feeling much better now, and woke up asking for some KFC. As a result, I took my first independent outing. Well, not quite all alone. I asked Zack to go with me because I just wanted someone to hold my hand :) The KFC is less than a block from our home and we can see it from Zack's bedroom window. Zack and I braved a huge intersection to get there. I was very proud of us. Once we got to KFC, the cashier handed me a picture menu and I simply pointed to what I wanted (I got the bucket meal.) She asked me a question, which turned out to be "For here or to go?" I shrugged and she started to put it on a tray. Then I said "It's to go" and pointed at the door. She and her co-worker repeated to each other "Ah, to-go. To-go."

There is a point to this play-by-play. In my inability to communicate with the locals, it has really made me realize something about my American self. I think back to when I worked at Wal-Mart and would have encounters with people who didn't know English. In my arrogance, I would think "They live in America now, they need to learn English." Yeah, easier said than done! I wonder if I come across as ignorant to the people who try and speak with me. Sometimes they repeat themselves several times, or speak louder, as if that will help me understand them. I wish it was that simple.

risingpheenix, I thought of you today. You made a comment earlier this week about the security guards and how respectable it is that they take their jobs seriously. As we were walking to KFC, I saw the security guards marching in a line down the sidewalk; I suppose they were practicing drills. Most Chinese employees -- of all sort-- that I've encountered take their job seriously. Also, another interesting aspect of the Chinese job market is that most everyone wears colorful uniforms. Not just smocks or tops, but pants as well. We were in an electronics store last week and every employee was dressed in a bright yellow top and blue pants with a paper crown on their head.

I'm very glad that we're going home for Christmas. Sometimes I just yearn for a break from so much unfamiliarity. I'm really looking forward to being home at my parent's and inlaws homes. It will be so nice to be comfortable in my surroundings again. Chris assures me I'll feel more at ease here soon enough, and I know he's right. Still, I know there's no place like Mommy and Daddy's house.

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In my arrogance, I would think "They live in America now, they need to learn English."

Yeah, I hear you there. That's part of why I resisted when my husband wistfully suggested that we look for work in Germany - I'm too chicken to move to a country where I don't speak the language at least fairly fluently. "Oh, but just about everyone in Germany can speak English," people tell me. Yeeah. That won't help much if they start talking to each other rapidly in their native tongue...

I admire you so much, by the way - Chinese has always seemed like one of the most daunting languages to me. I've studied Japanese, but Chinese has always seemed a little too, I don't know, big for me to handle. All the dialects, the complicated writing system... And yet there you are, managing to get along despite the language barrier. I don't think I'll ever manage to travel abroad without taking a ton of language classes first. ~_~;

Actually, Germany is quite easy to get around in. My family lived there for four years. We had a harder time getting around in London than we did in Germany. London they spoke English! But because they knew we spoke English they talked fast, used alot of their British slang that we didn't understand. We asked a couple of women the directions to Harrod's and we ended up thanking them for their time and leaving them to their discussion. We had no idea what they were saying. Kind of like someone from the north moving to the deep south and asking a southerner directions to Wal-Mart. The accents on those two ladies were so strong that we couldn't understand what they were saying at all!

In Germany, the Germans have learned English (it's taught in grade school all the way through to high school) but not the slang. And their accents aren't too terrible. So when they speak to someone who only speaks English they are very considerate and accomodating. We spent all of our non-working/non-school waking time on the German economy shopping, touring the castles, meeting new people.

The cool thing about Germany is that the people are naturally welcoming, considerate and warm.

Can you visit Germany and get a feel for the country before making such a big move?

Well, it's a bit of a moot point now. My husband's first degree was in Foreign Language and International Trade, concentration in German. Now I've got a great job with the U.S. Gov't and he's nearly done with his degree in Mechanical Engineering - so we don't have to leave the country to have a source of income.

And since I've discovered that he refuses to fly to Europe, and I'm not too fond of the idea of traveling by boat, our travel plans have kind of hit a snag...

Yes, you do seem limited on your means of travel *lol*. I wouldn't take a boat across the Atlantic to save my life.

I knew Chinese was a very difficult language before we moved here, but I suppose I figured I could rely on my hubby because he is fluent. However, I'm realizing that he can't be with me all the time, or even most of the time. He really wants me to learn the basics (he was quizzing me on the numbers 1-10 tonight.) Still, I've always wanted to be a world traveler and I can't let language barriers stop me. Otherwise I'd never see anything!

That's really interesting about your hubby's degrees. Is he fluent in German?

I would say yes, he would say no. He tells me that he can't really consider himself "fluent" until he's lived in Germany and spoken the language with native speakers for at least three months. And of course he hasn't been using it much since he got his degree, so he's probably a bit rusty. I have a feeling that if you plopped him down in the middle of the country he could make his way around, though, even if most of the people there didn't know a word of English.