Tuesday, June 7
Everytime I find myself in a foreign country not knowing any of the language, I find myself desperately wishing to learn it as fast as possible. Especially after having grown up in a bilingual home, where my parents speak much more Korean than English and I speak much more English than Korean, the frustrating inability to communicate due to a language barrier is familiar, but no less aggravating. Whether it's in a taxi, or in a cafe, or even when trying to specify that I want my coffee black, without milk or sugar, at the workplace, I find myself struggling to communicate my thoughts or desires across to the other party. And it is so, so frustrating. I've looked up a few websites that teach Arabic and have begun learning the alphabet, so at least I can become familiar with the script and the sounds - figure out how the sounds are strung together, but it's rather difficult not to become too impatient as I want to learn everyday vocabulary rather than painstakingly making my way through the basics. Also, whenever I'm in the car with an Arabic speaker, I ask them to teach me phrases and words, making them repeat it until I can reproduce the sound that means something in this particular country.
But it's so difficult. The words slip out of my memory as soon as I place them in, and especially since I am not signed up for classes and am too cheap to hire a private tutor, I feel like it's a hopeless cause. I want to learn, but this is the first time I've found myself in a situation where my vocabulary numbers less than the fingers on my two hands. Ironically, I find myself veering towards Spanish. Whenever there is a very simple word that I should know (e.g., "and", "but", and even "no"), my tongue instinctively reaches for "y", "pero" and "no" even as my brain tells it that those are not Arabic words. Ironically, my Spanish skills came into use the other day when I needed to contact the mayor of Madrid in order to confirm his mailing address. I ended up getting the information from an administrative contact, but I was a bit ashamed of myself, because I was too afraid to attempt to communicate directly in Spanish. Instead, as soon as the first person picked up, I asked "Hay alguien que hable Inglés?" ("Is there someone that speaks English?") Needless to say, I know some of my friends would be disappointed in me.
It is so tempting to find solace in the English speakers around here - especially as they are so friendly and willing to help and show me around the place - I'm tempted to tell myself, why bother learning the local language? I'm only going to be here for two months, and besides, the Omani dialect (really, more like a language unto itself) is not going to come in useful in any other Arabic-speaking context, seeing as how even the words are different from Egyptian, or Syrian, or Palestinian. Is it a hopeless cause?
Everytime I find myself in a foreign country not knowing any of the language, I find myself desperately wishing to learn it as fast as possible. Especially after having grown up in a bilingual home, where my parents speak much more Korean than English and I speak much more English than Korean, the frustrating inability to communicate due to a language barrier is familiar, but no less aggravating. Whether it's in a taxi, or in a cafe, or even when trying to specify that I want my coffee black, without milk or sugar, at the workplace, I find myself struggling to communicate my thoughts or desires across to the other party. And it is so, so frustrating. I've looked up a few websites that teach Arabic and have begun learning the alphabet, so at least I can become familiar with the script and the sounds - figure out how the sounds are strung together, but it's rather difficult not to become too impatient as I want to learn everyday vocabulary rather than painstakingly making my way through the basics. Also, whenever I'm in the car with an Arabic speaker, I ask them to teach me phrases and words, making them repeat it until I can reproduce the sound that means something in this particular country.
But it's so difficult. The words slip out of my memory as soon as I place them in, and especially since I am not signed up for classes and am too cheap to hire a private tutor, I feel like it's a hopeless cause. I want to learn, but this is the first time I've found myself in a situation where my vocabulary numbers less than the fingers on my two hands. Ironically, I find myself veering towards Spanish. Whenever there is a very simple word that I should know (e.g., "and", "but", and even "no"), my tongue instinctively reaches for "y", "pero" and "no" even as my brain tells it that those are not Arabic words. Ironically, my Spanish skills came into use the other day when I needed to contact the mayor of Madrid in order to confirm his mailing address. I ended up getting the information from an administrative contact, but I was a bit ashamed of myself, because I was too afraid to attempt to communicate directly in Spanish. Instead, as soon as the first person picked up, I asked "Hay alguien que hable Inglés?" ("Is there someone that speaks English?") Needless to say, I know some of my friends would be disappointed in me.
It is so tempting to find solace in the English speakers around here - especially as they are so friendly and willing to help and show me around the place - I'm tempted to tell myself, why bother learning the local language? I'm only going to be here for two months, and besides, the Omani dialect (really, more like a language unto itself) is not going to come in useful in any other Arabic-speaking context, seeing as how even the words are different from Egyptian, or Syrian, or Palestinian. Is it a hopeless cause?
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