Language is Life
This is a post I've thought about writing for a long time., but ironically, I could never find the right words.
In my lifetime, I have taken 12 years of Spanish classes -- today I can *maybe* say 12 Spanish words.
Yet since coming here in September 2006, 2 years ago, I am now fluent in Romanian. That's right, I said fluent - no exageration. I work in Romanian, shop in Romanian, express myself in Romanian, get directions in Romanian, argue in Romanian, write my weekly newspaper article in Romanian, dream in Romanian, talk to myself in Romanian, and now even, think in Romanian.
I noticed that last month when I went home for Cathy and Brian's wedding. (weirdest thing about being in America - hearing people speak English all around me, as background noise. I'm used to recognizing every voice that speaks English). I would be talking to a group of people, and in my head I would be translating my response from Romanian to English. (I know you can't believe it, I couldn't either). My "cruise control" has become Romanian.
The filler words I use while speaking English in Moldova are Romanian words, because let's face it - the large majority of the people I speak to here, in Moldova, in English, are other Peace Corps volunteers, who know the Romanian and therefore give me the freedom to switch in and out when the time is appropriate.
And that's true, sometimes the words are just better in one language or another. Some things just don't translate. Or they lose the meaning. Like for example, my host family generally speaks Romanian, but there are some Russian words they use daily because they just fit the bill better.
In Russian, after one takes a shower, you are to tell them (spelled phonetically) "sloo-kiim pahrum", which if you translate it word for word it's "good vapors." What it really means is something to the extent of "Happy awesome feeling you got from just showering." Maybe it's not the most necessary of words, like "help" or "water", but it's definitely a nice idea - to recognize and congratulate people on the nice feeling of taking a shower. Why didn't we think of that in America?
On the other hand, there are the funny situations of idioms that show up in both cultures. We have cat nap. In Romanian they have "little chicken nap." But while I can't explain why flying butter is an insect, or the meaning of the word "raincheck," Moldovan's can't explain to me why you describe a smart person as "having a chair on his head," or "cutting leaves at the dog" means doing nothing. In English we say someone is "on the phone" or ask what is "on tv" - yet when I use the same sentence structure in Romanian, my host mom laughs at me, and responds with her tried-and-true come back of "if they are on the phone, than the phone must be broken."
In Russian, the word for "red" is the same as the root word for "beautiful". Think about it. In Romanian, there are different words for "road" and "paved road." Cheeky in English is "cheeky" in Romainan - the same meaning of fresh and then some, but formed with the Romanian word for cheek of course. In Romanian, as well as in Russian, to give someone a nickname, you usually end up making their name longer -adding ita or uta or duta to the ending.
Dictionaries can often be hopeless - sending you in circles inside of more circles with their translations. The best thing, I have found, was to infer meaning from context (although that can get you in trouble, a lot). My host mom always comments that my Russian accent (the little Russian I speak) is better than my Romanian one. Why? Because I learned Romanian out of a book, with 5 other Americans trying to learn Romanian. I learned Russian by mimicking people in the street, in the piata, on the phone. My intonation is simply a reflection of theirs, not my mastering of any grammar rules whatsoever.
An interesting thing for me is to look at the different vocabulary of various Peace Corps volunteers. We start off with the same basic vocabulary - but then, depending on job, site placement, host family, the friends we make, the people we interact with - we meet again after 3 months of being at site, alone, and have completely different vocabularies. My friend Andrea can name 4 different kind of cattle. I can talk you in circles about fairy tales, pirates and monsters. Ben can tell you about banking, fixed loans and credit.
Yet even if we don't have the same vocabularies, we always understand each other - because we are non-native speakers of Romanian, and all native speakers of English. So while one volunteer is presenting something to a room full of confused Moldovans, we might be in the back nodding along - because we understand what he is trying to say, because we understand how he constructed the sentence - using English thought, but filling in Romanian words.
Yes, it is easier to learn a language when you are forced to learn it, as I was in the Peace Corps. But is it easy? No. It's frustrating, and tiring -very tiring. Even more so when you know you are saying the right word, just pronouncing it wrong, and the person in front of you does not understand you. Context clues people! Yes, maybe I'm putting the accent on the wrong part of the word - but if we are in a store and I am pointing at a bag of pretzels, you can assume the word that sort of sounds like pretzels is pretzels, and not machine gun (if that word also sounds like pretzels). I still talk around words a lot, it's not as efficient, but I can get my point across.
Even with the frustrations, learning a foreign language has been very rewarding, especially in Moldova - where language is so politicized. I look like a foreigner, and when I open my mouth and speak Romanian - people drop theirs. They congratulate you, tell you how glad they are you are speaking "their" language, how surprised they are - and then they go on to rant about so or so group that has been living in Romanian for such and such and amount of years and has refused to learn Romanian. Slackers. It makes you feel good.
I've also learned how much can be communicated without language. Not only normal "I have to go to the bathroom" or "I'm lost" body language, but as we have the thumbs up and the come here, Moldova has their own hand gestures - one for "let's have a drink" and one for "you're not behaving honestly (honestly isn't the right word - I can't think of the right word in English. It's like - 'shame on you' or something to that extent).
How long will I remember Romanian? Let's see. I'd like to say forever, because I will miss speaking in two languages. But I doubt it. In my short trip to America I already lost so much. I am afraid of not having people to speak it with and then loosing it -- I can see that happening, and it makes me sad. I'm sure my American friends and relatives will ask me the ever-popular question "say something in Romanian?!" but surely that is not enough.... :)
Right now, I am sitting here, thinking about once again expressing myself in English. And thinking about what will come with it - confidence, vocabulary, respect (as in, I now no longer sound like a 12 year old). I am also worried about the confused looks, waiting for me in America, as I try to re-train myself to speak clean English.
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 2:01 PM.
