Language barriers can feel as real as any brick wall. How will I manage Berlin if I don’t speak German? Will I be shunned in Paris if I don’t speak French? I would love to go to Spain, but I don’t remember any of my high school Spanish.

There are apparently lots of horror stories about language gaffes. Moments of irredeemable shame that keep us looking at pictures of places rather than being there and taking them ourselves. The very thought of not being able to speak the language keeps us at home.

Communication: A Human Desire

We want to communicate. As humans we have an innate need to communicate. As a result, few things are more frustrating than not being able to do so. How can we even begin to make a connection if we can’t even get the basics across? Language barriers stands between us and information, and that is daunting.

The thought of having to mime our way to a hotel room is both funny and somewhat scary. You might look silly or worse,  you might be misunderstood.

Menus become mine fields (and fodder for far too many B-movie plots) if you have no idea what you ordering. That steak you thought you ordered turns out to be pickled chicken toes.

There are the even more deep-seated fears of being in some sort of trouble. The fear of being injured or lost looms a lot larger if we can’t ask for help or tell someone where it hurts!

Sparkling or Still… what?

My brother Erik has one of the best stories of climbing over a language barrier. It took place in London. Yes, London. Where they speak English, right? Well, a version of it.

It started out as the most mundane of experiences. His first full day in London, happy, excited to be there, taking in all of the new and wonderful sights. Lunch time rolls around and he wanted a sandwich. How hard could it be?

First he had to get around some of the – to him – odder choices. Cheese and pickle? Not so much  Roast beef, a wonderfully cross cultural concoction, was his choice. So he ordered: A roast beef sandwich and water.

Sparkling or still? Erik was lost. Sparkling or still what? It took him a moment to even figure out the words. The woman behind the counter repeated her question, sparkling or still?

That moment of ‘aaaggghhh’ set in; the one that our brain shifts into when we are confronted with something that we know we should understand, but we for some reason we don’t seem able to understand. She asks a third time.

People in line behind him are getting impatient and he can hear the comments. Americans, always causing problems! Sigh. Never occurs to anyone to help, does it? At least it felt that way in the moment.

Erik just blurts out ‘still’ because it feels like the safer choice. He was rewarded with a bottle of water. Hooray! Gathering his sandwich and his water, he heads to a table relieved that the ordeal is over.

Imagination vs.. Reality

I would have been sure that the folks in line behind me were staring daggers at me as they left the shop, but Erik is much less worried about such things.

Yes, the people in line were frustrated. It was lunch time, they were in a hurry. It had very little to do with Erik personally and everything to do with the time of day and the number of people working in the shop.

Too often we inflate the situation in our heads. These people hate me! They think I’m an idiot! I have been in situations where I just want to gather my courage and run out of the place. Odds are that no matter how good that sandwich was, I would have avoided ever going back.

The reality is that once they got their own lunch, no one cared. Erik was forgotten the moment they had what they wanted. Even if he wasn’t, what does it matter? Someone has a story for their friends that evening about the guy who didn’t know what sparkling or still meant, hilarity ensues and they are on to something else..

Climbing Language Barriers

Knowing a little of the local lingo goes a long way to getting over that wall. Learn the ‘polite’ words at a minimum. These are the basics – hello, good-bye, please, and thank you. Those go a long way.

If you are feeling ambitious, expand those a little. Add good morning, how are you, and any other nicety you think you can remember.

Now challenge yourself a bit. Grab something like Duolingo or the tourist oriented BBC Languages and learn a few handy phrases. Arm yourself with a few good climbing tools for getting over those language barriers!

Every word or phrase you learn is going to help you climb the language barrier, but not for the reason you might think. It isn’t that you are fluent or will be thought fluent, it’s that you made the attempt to communicate! You will be amazed at what trying will get you.

A Spanish Teacher in Segovia

I have my own story about  language barriers. In Segovia at a lovely little bookstore Liberbodega Andres, I ran into my own wall.

I wanted a book for my Dad, who was fluent in Spanish. The owner of the store pushed me to try my own limited Spanish. He told me that he spoke very little English, so I floundered about explaining that I wanted a book – history or literature – for my Dad.

By the time I left the store I had managed to have an actual conversation with this lovely gentleman. He was a retired Spanish teacher. My father was a retired English teacher. A bonding point for us!

I learned a bit about the proprietor and his wife, but more importantly I realized that I knew more Spanish than I thought. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t grammatically perfect, or if I stumbled over words. The fact that I tried – really tried – turned into my own wonderful memory.

Imagine what I would have missed if I had gone with my first instinct to bolt. If I had let my fear of looking silly or sounding stupid get the better of me, I wouldn’t have had the moment, and it is a moment I cherish. All because I was willing to get out the spikes and the ropes and climb up the language barrier.

You Get Through

Look, even in English-speaking countries you are bound to run headlong into language barriers. It is almost always frustrating and yes it can be embarrassing. I’ve seen people get angry and ugly over it.

Don’t be that person. Instead, take a deep breath, and plunge a head. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; whether that be repeating the question or asking for an explanation. Forget about the person, or people behind you. If you can, you might even enlist their help!

Trust me, you get through it. You improvise a sign language, you smile a lot, laugh a little at yourself. You get through and you get a great story for later. The time when you made the entire store laugh because you had no idea that word meant…