Some thoughts on language ...

WOW. Language learning is hard!

But it's not impossible.

Just think about trying to translate my last sentence, "But it's not impossible."

The language we are learning always (almost...) puts the verb at the end. That little apostrophe in it's is a huge deal to contend with and the word 'not' makes the whole sentence a negative, which of course doesn't actually get translated as 'not'.

I learned Spanish in high school, but I really feel like just the whole process of how to learn a 2nd language is a learning process in itself, besides actually learning the language!

I appreciate the time we are given to learn the language here though. We can already see how much it it helps us connect in ways that we just simply could not if we didn't know how to communicate in their language.

I have to say I was very embarrassed for the girl on Amazing Race that was yelling at the sweet older man in the spice shop in Thailand. Anyone see that? She was yelling at him about which spice drawer to open to find the clue. Then in her interview she said that she loves animals and not people and that she gets frustrated when people don't speak English.

Ummmm... hello ... you're not IN a country that speaks English!

They should be frustrated at YOU for not speaking Thai!

But no, that sweet man was taking her ridiculous behavior instead of kicking her out of his store, like I would have. She also said something in the interview about how she would like to just go and spend time in the forest (or somewhere) with animals ... I say go! She would be great there. good grief!!

Language is a precious part of every culture. English is important, it's the language of commerce. But it's not the only language. When we are guests in another culture we should certainly respect them enough to learn a little bit of their spoken tongue, even if we are just passing through.

So off to go figure out how to conjugate that verb and translate that sentence!!!!