Language Barrier

My blog assignment was due in de week of my Darija exams. Even though I knew from the beginning what I wanted to write about, but I postponed the actual writing. I wish I could look back at my Darija course and say I have learned lots of Darija, but to be honest: Darija is one of the hardest languages I have ever learned and I fail to grasp the basics of the language. During my stay in Morocco, I haven’t only learned some Darija but also some French, and from the two languages I definitely prefer to use the latter. Nevertheless, my Darija has improved and I am able to have conversations, as long as I can mix it with French, English and an occasional Spanish. During my first days in my host family I experienced a huge language barrier and I think this is the perfect subject for a blog in the week of the Darija exams. Come to think of it, I experience less of a language barrier nowadays than before, even though my language skills haven’t improved that significantly. I simply learned to be more creative and not to postpone certain questions…

Suffering from Postponing-syndrome

During the first days in my host family everyone who spoke English was gone, I was the only guest and my French wasn’t good enough to really communicate. This language barrier caused some pretty awkward situations. The worst of them being about how to use the toilet. On first sight, the toilet seemed a normal one but with one big difference, it didn’t have toilet paper. I was worried that it was weird to ask how to use the toilet. At first I tried to google the answers, without success. Since I also didn’t really know how to communicate with my host family, I couldn’t formulate a question so I postponed asking about it (I often postpone things, as you might have noticed). These first few days were all about surviving without having to visit the toilet at home, which really makes you creative. After a few days, I figured that I waited too long to ask for an explanation. They might wonder what I have been doing all these days since I didn’t know how the toilet worked. The opportunity to ask this question had passed. I didn’t want to embarrass myself by admitting to not using the toilet for days.

New communication skillsI guess you could  say I really got myself in an awkward position: To ask or not to ask? Luckily a new student, arrived and I figured I could get him to ask the questions for me and to just casually follow the conversation. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as subtle as I hoped and so I had to tell him the entire embarrassing story. After he was done laughing, my question finally got answered and I have learned one thing: Language barrier or not, some questions should never be postponed. Looking back at this embarrassing moment now makes me realize that even though it feels like I am still at square one, my language skills have slightly improved. And I certainly have become more creative when it comes to keeping myself out of these awkward situations.