Lost in Translation

Today, I was inspired to write a post about my language troubles when an elderly woman asked me directions for how to get out of the metro going a particular way. I knew the answer to the question, but I forgot the word for "straight." Therefore my advice to the old woman was, "don't go left and don't go right, and then go up the escalator." She understood me, and I was proud, but once I got on the metro I realized how absurd that must have sounded. I thought about what I would think if someone said that to me in America. I would have thought that they were some failed poet who could only express themselves through random encounters with strangers. Luckily, I think my strong American accent exposed the real reason for my unconventional speech patterns.

However, the conversation in the metro was one of my more pleasant experiences with language mix ups. The strangest thing is, majority of my problems comes when I try to say words that are the same in English. The place this is most apparent is McDonald's. (I know that I already mentioned McDonald's once, I swear I hardly ever actually eat there.) When I have to say McNuggets eight times it starts to get a little frustrating, but this happens at all restaurants. There are some days that I have no problem and then others where I want to sit down and cry after I order my food.

My new motto is, "If I hear a single person in America complain about people not knowing English when they live in America, I will stab them in the face." I have been learning the lanuage for almost two years, but when someone says something to me outside of a classroom I almost always have to ask them to repeat themselves. The worst thing is how I freak out when people talk to me on the street. Russia isn't the safest counrty in the world, so when I am walking late at night people are most likley saying, "Do you have a light?" and I assume that it is, "I am going to take you behind this building and disembowel you." It may be frustrating, but I am already starting to realize that there are things I say to people that I wouldn't have the confidence to when I got here.

I must give a lot of credit to the Russian side of my dilemma. No one has been outwardly mean or frustated with me. In fact, most of them are intrigued by me and are excited that I am learning thier language. People are really fast to engage me in converstation and help me along. The people I meet in bars and in my Russian-American discussion group are honestly interested and helpful. Unfortunately, I hate to think that they would not get the same treatment upon coming to my home counrty.