Welcome to the 4th installment of the personal story series. If you are new to the series, be sure to check out the others. This week another look at why it is important to say yes to the opportunities offered to you and a unique way to improve your language proficiency in your target language.
As I have previously mentioned, jumping into the deep end with locals is the best way to develop your language abilities quickly. This is easier said than done, but sometimes it leads to the best stories. Between the miscommunication, the broken languages, and the unspoken communication, sometimes not having all the right words is more powerful than saying the perfect thing.
Not only that, but people often remember those conversations where you both struggled to communicate. People are generally kinder than most expect, and I have never come across someone who was unwilling to help me improve my language proficiency. That includes even the Parisians about whom I love to joke. So take risks and go speak to locals, you never know what might happen. I sure didn’t…
Another rainy day in the Costa Rican rainforest. This time, though, we were staying at the base of the Arenal volcano, drinking some local rum and talking to some ticas. While it was raining, the summer air was warm and the humidity had us all sweating. Latin music filled the hotel room and my friend, Kyle, danced with one of the girls in the room, but he was so bad. At one point, he stops everything he’s doing, looks me dead in the eye, and says, “I’m gonna do the worm.” and before I had the opportunity to stop him, he belly flopped directly onto the tile floor. All of us double over in laughter and he sits there, angry at the floor for beating him up.
One of the reasons just going out with locals and speaking your target language in a broken fashion is so great is that laughter needs no translation. Some of the best memories I have are with people who I could barely understand and who could barely understand me laughing at the differences between our languages and the way we communicate. Did you know that animals make different sounds in different languages? When I learned this I laughed with some Germans for hours. Just being around people you will probably end up laughing and the topics that arise will surprise you.
People love to laugh, people have always and will always love to laugh. Sometimes learning some jokes, watching some comedy in your target language is all you need to gain enough confidence to speak with some native speakers. It’s probably best to warn whoever you approach that you are going to tell a joke and that you are learning the language, they will give you more grace, but everyone in every language loves a good dad joke. As funny as it sounds, by learning dad jokes you will simultaneously learn wordplay in your target language. That is one of the better ways to go about meeting people and making friends while you are abroad. It is always fun to defy expectations.
After he had time to recover, we got back to dancing, but it was short lived. We had to get to sleep because we had a big day the next day. This was my first experience waking up after drinking and hiking. What I had failed to realize is that, in order to take a zipline down that is over 1 kilometer (~0.6 miles) in length you must first hike up to it; and we were taking 13 in total which meant there was even more mountain side to climb. By the end of it I could smell the alcohol in my sweat and I was resolved to never drink again, as one might. But then, we got to the top and I stepped up for my turn on the big zipline.
I clipped in, sat back, and let go. At first a drop, then emergence from beneath the rainforest canopy. Miles and miles of green treetops, low clouds misting the tops of the trees and the faces of all those who took this zipline. Ever ill feeling I had completely wiped away over the course of less than two minutes riding down the line. All I wanted at that moment was to go back up and ride down again, but that was out of my control. I was there on an excursion that the program I was studying abroad with had put together. When I talk about saying yes to everything, that includes taking advantage of the opportunities offered to you, even if it means spending some time seeking them out. For those who are interested you can check out the program (I am not affiliated in any way, they just changed my life) called Modern Language Study Abroad.
They were my first taste of living abroad, but one year later I would end up leaving with another program to experience another language. Something about being dropped in another country where it’s sink or swim was always attractive to me. Luckily, when I landed in Germany, I had someone, my best friend, to help me along the way. He spoke perfect English, but most of his friends didn’t and they would speak German to me as if I understood. That’s when I had my first festival experience and ended up in the local newspaper…but more on that next time!