I have SUCH a new appreciation for people who emigrate to a country where they don't speak the language, particularly if they are older and aren't forced to pick it up in school. Until you live in a place where you don't understand the language, I don't think you can appreciate how isolating it feels to truly be a foreigner. It's like there's an invisible wall around me that I'm constantly aware of. When I'm standing in line and paying at Tesco or just passing someone on the sidewalk, others don't always realize right off the bat that we can't talk to each other, but I am always aware, and that's hard. It's especially ironic considering that, proportionally, there are WAY more white people here than there are in Central Florida. So we all look like we should be able to communicate ;)
I really want to learn Hungarian (well, more of it at least) and I intend to try (currently, I can count to 10, say "I don't speak Hungarian", "Do you speak English?" and "I am an English teacher from Hungary" plus a few other random words and phrases). But with lesson plans and teaching, I have plenty to keep my mind stimulated, so in my down time, learning a language isn't what I ...jump to.
Difficulties aside, the language barrier has created some...interesting and humorous scenarios. Such as: sitting in the teacher's room at my school with all my coworkers speaking Hungarian and hearing them laugh at some joke I am clueless about. Standing up front at a school assembly and being introduced to the entire school and not understanding any of the introduction except "Abigail" and "Angol" (I had to ask the teacher I was standing next to, who speaks English, if the introduction was done...). Having someone try the door when I'm using the "water closet" and realizing that saying "just a minute" will mean nothing (well, except to convey that there is in fact someone inside). Telling my first graders to close their eyes, and having it take about 10 minutes to convey my meaning. Saying to my second graders "Say...such and such" and they repeat me word-for-word...including the "say." Attending a teacher's meeting and leaving the room without the foggiest notion of what was discussed (one of the bi-lingual teachers jokingly told me she was going to give me a quiz on the content of the meeting afterward). And last but not least...today, in one of my second grade classes, I was trying to explain to the kids that we were going to play Pictionary (good game for practicing English vocab...in theory). I wrote the word "dog" on a piece of paper and handed it to the first player. But he didn't seem to grasp the whole "draw don't write" aspect of Pictionary which makes it...Pictionary. Slowly, carefully, and with lovely penmanship he wrote "d-o-g" on the board.
Definitely thinking Pictionary can wait till the 3rd grade....
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