I have lost track of the amount of times that myself or one of my classmates has had an issue with the language barrier. From very simple things that we laughed amount to moments that caused frustration. I have realized how much I take advantage of being able to communicate with almost everyone around me in America. In Europe most people of the younger generations and many older as well speak their native language as well as English. In this way it is a general language that European countries use to communicate amongst themselves. Something that has really made me feel uneducated while being abroad is the fact that most people here speak 2-3 languages and I took two years of Spanish and I can't even hold a conversation with a native speaker.
Anyways, I fortunately haven’t had any serious issues with communicating while abroad. I have however had a couple of funny issues with ordering ice cream. One time when Sara and I were at Golbus (European Walmart/ Sam's Club, but way bigger!!) I tried to order a double scoop cone with two different flavors. However, I ended up receiving two separate cones, each with one scoop of ice cream on them. Sara and I could not stop laughing at this funny little mistake. Then not to long after that Sara and I went to a little ice cream shop in the upper square of Olomouc. We tried to order just a small ice cream cone, but ended up with a mountain of ice cream. This was seriously the biggest cone I have ever had, with multiple toppings, an extra cone piled on top, and a strawberry garnish! It was quite fun as the man continued to take our cones back from us to add more toppings or ice cream to them! If we wouldn’t have just eaten a large dinner it probably would have been more fun to eat! Haha but the worst part of this experience was the price. This was one situation where our language barrier made us easy targets to take advantage of and probably charge us more than the locals at 300 czk which equals about $13.
A couple of weeks ago Lauren and I took a train on the way to Munich Germany. It was a Friday afternoon so the train was incredibly packed, worse then I have ever seen before. Unfortunately, we had not reserved seats on the train and ended up having to sit in a very small hallway. Several times during our very uncomfortable train ride people walked by us and were saying things to us in Czech. In a situation like this one, it is really had to know if these people are trying to help us out, or if we are getting yelled at for doing something wrong. I always just try to smile and make it clear that I have no idea what they are saying. We made it just fine, but still have no idea what those people were saying. haha
Not speaking the native language presents many challenges on an everyday basis, but one challenge that I had not thought of was going to the doctor. I have been sick with a cough and allergies for about a month now and went to the doctors office a couple weeks ago. I had to have our group director, Tereza, come to the doctor with me to translate for the doctor and I. While this is not a big deal, it does require trust in the translator. I have to trust that she providing me with accurate information about the medicine that I am taking and how I should do so. It also is important for her to be able to accurately describe to the doctor what I am feeling. While I trust Tereza completely, it was weird to have to use a translator at the doctors office.
As I explained in my education blog, I am also taking a Czech language class while studying abroad. It is a very hard language to learn and is even harder to understand when locals are speaking it. They speak so fast and it all just meshes together. However, in contrast to instances where I was not able to communicate with locals, I had one successful occurrence in particular where I was able to communicate to get what I wanted. My friend Alex and I went to a chocolate shop in Olomouc and ordered our chocolate completely in Czech. It was a very proud moment to be able to speak and understand Czech
If you are planning to travel to a foreign country that speaks absolutely no english, all I can say is, GOOD LUCK!!