The Language Barrier (4)

It’s really the little things in life that make all the difference… like English.  I have lived my entire life in Nebraska, so I have never really had to experience a language barrier before.  However, once I got here I was in complete shock, as very few people speak English.  That was probably the biggest aspect of culture shock that I had to deal with.  It is so difficult living in a society where you cannot talk to people! You cannot ask for directions when you’re lost, you cannot ask about what is all in a certain food dish, and you cannot really meet any local people because you can’t talk to them! Nonetheless, it has still been a great experience so far over here.  However, if I could change one thing it would definitely be that either they spoke in English or that I could fluently speak Czech.  We have been taking a basic Czech language class while we’re over here.  It’s so difficult!  Czech does not have its roots in Latin, so it is incredibly hard to understand, and many letters make completely different sounds than they do in English.  Some words might even have all consonants, how am I supposed to pronounce a word like that? I have learned some very basic words and phrases, but I have a long way to go before I can be conversational in Czech. So far I have lucked out as I haven’t had any really big issues with the language barrier, with one exception.  Yesterday, I went to the grocery store, called Globus, and I paid with my credit card.  I have used plastic for years now, and have never had any problems using it.  I have never had the back of my cards signed, and have never had any problems with that before.  However, yesterday after I swiped my card I had to sign the receipt, and then the lady wanted my card back so she could compare the signature to that of the one on the card, and since my card hadn’t been signed she was refusing to give me my card back. Thankfully I had a copy of my passport, which had my signature, and finally after showing her that and several other forms of identification she finally let me go with my card.  While I’m sure this incident would have happened regardless of what language we spoke, the fact that we couldn’t speak the same language made it very difficult to navigate through.  So, make sure that you appreciate the smaller things in life, like English, as you never really know how big of a difference the small things can really make.