Language classes

Ok so maybe it's time I learned a little Arabic. Who knows, it couldn't hurt could it?

There are a lot of people here who speak English well and some who only speak a very little bit of English, but I speak no Arabic and I am living in an Arab Country, so when someone doesn't clue me in to all of the details I might need to accomplish a particular task then I become frustrated. They speak English don't they? They should tell me everything I need to know ahead of time so that I won't encounter any potential problems. right? Wrong...

I find myself falling into this trap because there are so many people who speak English and there are signs and menus and information in English, but when something isn't spelled out for me then it is like someone else is falling short of the mark instead of me not being able to ask the right questions and to double check everything before I assume all is well.

Today, I take what I belive to be my residence card for Kuwait to the Western Union to wire some money home. The guy smiles and shows me his residence card which is different and tells me I need one like his. I don't know how to get one like his, and by the way, what is wrong with mine? He's pretty tolerant but tells me in his limited English that I have to come back and bring my passport with my work visa or wait until I get a card like his before I can wire money.

So I leave the mall trying to figure out what my id really is. For all I know it is an Insurance card or a fishing license or knows what, because it is all in Arabic and I can't read it.

You really find out what trouble making assumptions can get you into when language barriers are in place. Anyway, the guy at Western Union is probably still laughing because I show up with some ridiculous form of ID and think I am completely official and will be able to accomplish anything I wish to accomplish.

These are the trials and tribulations of living in another culture. Sometimes I am aghast at what I believe to be insensitivities on the part of someone else, but relizing that maybe I myself have been insensitive without even knowing it. I have had to reassess and realize just how grateful I am to that person who went out of his or her way to help me out when they didn't have to, or to the little girl in the mall who seemed to be interested in watching me and rewards me with a big smile amidst a sea of neutral expressions, and the young muslim, girl who strikes up a conversation with me to discover that we have very similar histories, and interests and values, or to the grandmother probably my age, playing with her grandchildren who connects and gives me a nod and a smile, and the cab driver from Bangladesh who tells you over and over America and Americans very good, very nice. You find that you become extremely grateful for these seemingly smallest gestures of kindness. You see you are a stranger in a strange land and it is very important to find the common threads that we share, and focus on experiences that make things ok.

It's probably not a bad thing to remember when people from other places come to my home and my country and they are at a loss for how to navigate the newness of an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar language, and unfamiliar culture. A smile, a kind act are small gestures, but they have huge importance at least for me.