Leave Your Embarrassment at Home
When I first learned that I would be traveling to Peru this summer as a Borlaug-Ruan Intern, I was ecstatic. Over the moon! Just ask all of my peers that looked on with genuine concern as I jumped around the parking lot at my high school with complete elation one afternoon in April. Seriously. I don’t think I stopped smiling the rest of the week.
Armed with four years of high school Spanish and feeling somewhat proficient in my language skills, I was more than excited to try my hand at navigating a new place with my fairly newly acquired language. What I didn’t account for was the speed and accent that my colleges and different people I encountered would speak with. The first few weeks were spent with the semi-permanent expression of “I have no idea what is happening” on my face along with the same sentiment running through my head.
It was during this time that I received sage advice from a program director at CIP: Leave your embarrassment at home. What he meant by this was when you truly make an effort to speak and learn a new language, people will do anything to meet you halfway and they will appreciate the effort more than you will ever know.
“We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”
― Kató Lomb, Polyglot: How I Learn Languages
Apologetic smiles and interpretive hand gestures were the syntax with which we communicated for what seemed like an eternity. Then, before I knew it, I was following along in conversation and even offering a few responses of my own here and there! After six weeks, I am happy to report: a lot of awkward laughter and google translate searches later, my Spanish communication is coming along nicely.
¡Hasta pronto!
Kaci
