Language Barriers

Languages have never been my strong suit. After having spent some of my childhood in the Middle East, my Arabic was far better than my English when I was young. Almost 20 years later, it's  enough to make my relatives laugh.

On a bus ride out of town, the bus filled up very quickly
and I found myself sitting up front with Carlos the bus
drive for two hours. He was very friendly. It took me a
while to realize that he is way too friendly.

My Arabic professor once looked at me apologetically and said, "I understand what you're saying, but where did you learn to speak like that? It sounds like four different dialects--we're going to have to start over." And suddenly I was learning how to say things like "I want" all over again.

My French is not much better. It's enough to get a furrowed brow and a stereotypically Parisian pretentious, "so you speak English, right?"

After about a week of catching myself saying "oui" instead of "si," my Spanish is finally coming along. But not without at least a few hiccups first.

Like the other day when I went to a nearby shop in need of new clothes. (Turns out my sister was justified when she threw up her arms and said "are you even a woman?" when she had to convince me to take a second suitcase for my nine month stay in Ecuador.)

Generally speaking, I am fine with conducting day to day tasks in Spanish. Generally speaking, I know how to conjugate verbs.

But when I stepped out of the change room, in need of another size, and turned to a woman who looked like she might have worked there and said "trabajo aqui?" (instead of "trabajas acqui?") she and my friend snickered.

"What?"

 "You just asked her if you work here."

Or like the time I stepped into the kitchen to grab a glass of water while the cook was making lunch and I told her it smells delicious and intended to say "yo tengo hambre" ("I'm  hungry" or literally "I have hunger.")  Instead, I said "yo tengo hombre": I have man.

Good thing I'm starting formal Spanish lessons tomorrow...