Do You Speak English?

Hey Readers,

I would like to explore with you a common traveling issue that I underestimated coming into Rome - the language barrier. English is my native tongue and the only language that I speak fluently. I also speak french at an intermediate level, but unfortunately, that doesn't really help me in Italy where the official language is Italian. During the preparation for departure, our class took a class period to learn enough Italian to survive in Italy. However, just like how Rome wasn't built in a day, language acquisition is not achieved in the same amount of time. When I was on the plane, I wondered what it would be like in a city completely out of my comfort zone. I would like to give you two quick stories of my struggle with the language barrier during the first 1/2 of the trip.

Story 1:

While we were in Rome there were many uniformed police and military personnel spread through the city. In the metro stations there are always at least two Italian military soldiers in uniforms holding assault rifles. One morning our group were headed to the Vatican city and we were in a rush. I was bringing up the rear of the group when we were going through the turn stiles. When passing the soldiers I hear one of them yell "STOP". I thought to myself "I wonder whose getting busted today!" Well, the person ended up being me. I was holding a glass bottle juice when I turned around to see who the soldiers were yelling at. I saw them rushing over to me yelling quickly in Italian. After a few sentences he stopped and after all that I learned of Italian in my class all I could muster was "uhhhh...." He then started pointing at my drink which I then put in my pocket. After I put it away he said "Ok, Go Go". After I left to go rejoin my group, my friend Kathleen (our expert in Italian of the group) said "yeah he was telling you to put the drink in your backpack".

Story 2:

The first morning in Rome, I noticed that I left my comb in Kentucky. It took me three days looking for a comb to finally find one (I don't know why Italy lives such a combless life). During the second day of my looking for a comb I stopped by a little super market (super market in Italy can be less than 200 square feet). There was an elderly Asian-Italian man who was sitting at the registrar. I approached him and asked "do you have a comb". He said a similar response as I gave to the soldiers in the previous story: "uhhh...." I knew that he didn't understand what I was saying and probably didn't speak too much English. So I decided to use some charades in my second attempt. I repeated what I said slower and also acted out combing my hair. The man said "Ohh, comb!" he got up and walked over to wall and pointed at a hat and said with confidence "comb!". I said "no, no, that's a hat." Well, at least he tried.

I have learned many things about the language barrier here in Italy. First, the people that I encountered in Italy really enjoyed my attempts to speak Italian to them (with butchered pronunciations and everything). It was my job to be brave and get out of my comfort zone which was not always the easiest. The next lesson that I've learned is the most important. I also got to escape the english centric world that I was used to in America. In Italy, I got to experience what it was like to not know that native tongue of the country and to essentially be a lingual minority. I couldn't read most of the signs, couldn't understand the people around me, and couldn't easily communicate needs that I had. Now I feel as if I have a glimpse of what it is like to be a lingual minority in America. Hopefully I will be able to apply what I have experienced here in Italy when communicating to non-native English speakers in America.