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Mar. 10th, 2007
easily misunderstood
Mar. 10th, 2007 11:06 pmWhen I was on my two-week school trip to France that was supposed to immerse me in the culture and make me a fluent speaker, I went to school with my host family's daughter (who stubbornly insisted on only speaking English to me) and I tried to have a conversation with the history teacher. She asked, "Where are you from?" in French and I couldn't figure out how to answer--first, I couldn't figure out what she was asking me without the correct key nouns, then I couldn't figure out what my response was supposed to be. Ohio? Did she know where Ohio was? The US? Wasn't that obvious? And how does one say "Great Lakes region" at 9 am when you're still slammed by jet lag? I felt really ignorant. It was not the best way to start the week at school.
Here, when I can't understand someone they're often a little more forgiving. I was chatting with the great and excellent HR guy at work about the car drama, and the weirdness with insurance when the city temporarily decided the car belonged to them. He said, "What did you get?" From the insurance company? Does he mean what paperwork? What price for the car? No, he was asking after the new car. He takes these brain blips in stride, having long ago learned that although I am a native speaker I am never going to understand him that well.
This week I started investigating childbirth classes--a little late, I know--and got information on one that was highly recommended to us by a couple people. Turns out the class is from 11:30-1 on Sundays, which would put us out of commission on church for several weeks. I go to email the instructor back, and suddenly I'm paralyzed because I am trying to explain that we're both involved in some committees and it's the end of the church year (we take the summers off, mostly) and suddenly it sounds like we're totally overinvolved fundie folks who are going to proselytize her class if only we could break away from church to get there. I'm shy when it comes to talking about religion anyway. Now when we take her course, I'm wary that she will either give us a wide berth because she expects us to get all Jesus-y or come up and start talking to us about the impact Christ has had on her life (neither of which are really appropriate because, umm, Unitarian here, we don't do that). Probably, childbirth-lady is thinking none of these things. But I can't help myself.
***
In moving news, Elwood is rockin' the house on sorting and tossing clutter. His stamina is pretty amazing. I'm following lamely behind, tossing junk from a cabinet or two in his wake. We seem to have a plan for a new place that makes sense. Now we just have to pack. Can anyone recommend some good local movers?
Here, when I can't understand someone they're often a little more forgiving. I was chatting with the great and excellent HR guy at work about the car drama, and the weirdness with insurance when the city temporarily decided the car belonged to them. He said, "What did you get?" From the insurance company? Does he mean what paperwork? What price for the car? No, he was asking after the new car. He takes these brain blips in stride, having long ago learned that although I am a native speaker I am never going to understand him that well.
This week I started investigating childbirth classes--a little late, I know--and got information on one that was highly recommended to us by a couple people. Turns out the class is from 11:30-1 on Sundays, which would put us out of commission on church for several weeks. I go to email the instructor back, and suddenly I'm paralyzed because I am trying to explain that we're both involved in some committees and it's the end of the church year (we take the summers off, mostly) and suddenly it sounds like we're totally overinvolved fundie folks who are going to proselytize her class if only we could break away from church to get there. I'm shy when it comes to talking about religion anyway. Now when we take her course, I'm wary that she will either give us a wide berth because she expects us to get all Jesus-y or come up and start talking to us about the impact Christ has had on her life (neither of which are really appropriate because, umm, Unitarian here, we don't do that). Probably, childbirth-lady is thinking none of these things. But I can't help myself.
***
In moving news, Elwood is rockin' the house on sorting and tossing clutter. His stamina is pretty amazing. I'm following lamely behind, tossing junk from a cabinet or two in his wake. We seem to have a plan for a new place that makes sense. Now we just have to pack. Can anyone recommend some good local movers?