#5: Hello From The Friendly Outsider

Hello again!

So I've been here for just about 3 weeks now, and much to my personal satisfaction (and my mother's relief) I haven't gotten majorly lost again! I have mastered the train and bus system enough to know how to get to and from school, which isn't much, but hey I'll take it!

Just about every day friends and family have been asking me how I'm doing over here. Everyone is so curious and anxious to hear the top news! To be honest, I've been having the time of my life so far, but there is one detail that has had a bit of hindrance: the language barrier. Everyone here speaks either French or Luxembourgish

Now, in Europe it is very common for people to speak more than one language fluently. With countries being so close together and interacting with each other all the time, it is very important to be able to communicate. In the U.S., not so much. Back home we focus very heavily on English and it's not as common to find someone who speaks another language. I guess I attribute this to the fact that Americans like to cling to their language and still try to fight the "Speak English!" battle. To be honest, I suppose that isn't too bad in itself, but it isn't doing me any favors here!

Sure, there are many people who speak English here and I'm having no problems surviving, but it's just a tad off. The best analogy I can think of is if you lived in the United States but only spoke Spanish. You can get by because many things in the U.S. are captioned in Spanish, and a decent amount of people know basic Spanish, but it makes direct communication a little more difficult.

This hasn't stopped me from enjoying my time beyond belief though. It's just that when I go to the grocery store and check-out lady asks me a question, I tend to give a blank stare and a smile that says "Please help me!". Or when I let a little old lady cut ahead of me in line at a store and she began to talk to me, I just kind of smiled, nodded, and laughed in the appropriate places.

It's not all bad though, I've learned some basic, basic French and my English has been a bit of an ice breaker. As soon as I open my mouth in a public place, people can place my accent and seem more than interested to listen to me. In fact, I've even been having a bit of fun teaching some American slang to my fellow students because it makes them so excited!

My favorite quote thus far: "What are you, American?...What are you doing here?!?"