Walking with the Washburns

I Can't Speak in English or Spanish

My brain is getting so confused I cannot even speak my native tongue anymore. Just a few days ago Caleb asked me how to spell the word "patient" I said, "P...A...C...I...." - John just looked at me and started laughing. I did not even realize that I was spelling it the Spanish way! Oh dear...

***By the way Caleb's first word he can spell all by himself is, of course, the word "jet". This kid has had airplane/helicopter brain since as he was born!***

Learning a new langauge does horrible things to your mind. Sometimes I cannot remember the English word for things - I consistently forget the English word for "palta" which is avocado. The avocados here are AMAZING- back in the States I could never find ripes ones but here I can choose if I want one for lunch or for later in the week. They always have ripe avocados here, and we are really enjoying them.

I just have to share some of these ridiculous language learning stories. This week for me has been a difficult one with the whole learning Spanish thing but I am slowly learning to laugh at myself - and so is everyone else! During class this week I was describing a scene in my vocab book to my teacher when I said, "The people are eating the duck", when what was really happening was the people were feeding the duck - no big deal right? We got a pretty good laugh out of this one. Oh but it gets better....this week I was trying to explain to John how Hudson's baby blanket smelled like dirt. Let me clarify this - I had just washed his blanket - however it is windy here in Arequipa and when you hang your clothes over night the wind blows all the dirt on the clothes. At least the blanket was cleaner than before it was washed. Anyway, as I was trying to describe that Hudson's blanket smelled like dirt I said, "The blanket sounds like the earth." John looked at me all funny and we both busted up laughing.

Sometimes language learning is hilarious, awkward, and extremely frustrating. The funny thing about this is that I **thought** (which is the key word here) that I pretty much knew Spanish before I got here. HaHAHAAHa! So FUNNY! Everyday I spend my time working on pronunciation, grammar, and just plain stumbling over my words. Spanish is such a beautiful language and it is horrible how I just butcher it every day. Just one more example..I had been here for 5 weeks studying Spanish when on one Sunday I asked my pastor, who is a guy, how his husband was doing?! In my mind I thought, "Did I really just do that?". Yep, I did. Oh brother...

I know that with every week that passes I am getting a little (emphasis on little)  better, but sometimes I wonder if it will ever be enough. One of the hardest things about learning a language is, well, that you actually have to practice speaking - profound right? Well as a mom I think this is really hard. I cannot spend all day integrating myself into the culture or meeting/talking with people well because I have three children who need to eat. In addition to this, every time we go out, we fall into the same pattern as we did in the US - John usually does the talking and I watch the kids. This is especially easy to fall into here since John knows considerably more Spanish than I do - I mean the guy is a genius! They say that some people are left-brained (better at math and science), and some people are right-brained (better at everything else). Well it is obvious to me that John uses both sides of his brain...I mean he is a doctor, and can absorb/speak new languages like no one else I have ever seen. After this evaluation of John, I am beginning to wonder whether I am right-brained, left-brained or just do not have a brain. I will let you know when the verdict is in.

We take for granted just being able to walk into a store and communicate with someone. Yesterday I went to one of my favorite stores here in Arequipa to purchase a few small wooden toys for the kids. They had these beautiful, colorfully-designed little instruments I had been keeping my eye on for a while. When I found out they were on sale I decided to go in and get a few. I spent  a while looking at prices and finally determined what I wanted and went to the register. As the prices began to ring up something was not adding up because it came out to be more than I had intended on paying. I took my receipt back and asked the lady why the price was so high since it said right here it was on sale. She tried to explain the problem to me for a couple of minutes but it was futile. I could not understand what she was saying and more importantly why I had paid so much for something that was supposed to be on sale. I had spent twenty minutes making sure I had everything added up right only to fail miserably. I walked home pouting in disappointment because I just could not understand a word that lady was saying to me. I tried really hard not to break down all the way home because so many people were watching me walk down the street - as I am always a spectacle with the baby. I got home, told John my story, and started crying. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to fully understand Spanish and more importantly have spiritual conversations - or make any sort of impact while I am here.

Everyone here is kind to me when I butcher the very language that so easily rolls off of their tongues. No judgemental words - a little laughter but hey that is just normal. When you learn a language it is like becoming a child all over again except children lack pride. With all of the silly little mistakes I have made lately I am lacking pride too - maybe that is a good thing. Oh Lord help me learn Spanish!

A break from studying Spanish!