Language Barrier

Lately, I have become frustrated with the language barrier. My Castellano (Spanish) is not very good and I sometimes have trouble understanding and communicating with others. It literally feels like I am attempting to scale a wall; on one side there is me all alone and on the other all the rest of everyone in Argentina who speak Spanish. It has been difficult but I think that I am about half-way there. I can at least understand and follow the general drift of most conversations. None-the-less, it has been interesting getting to this point . Sometimes it seems that my time in Argentina has just been an extended game of charades.

My favorite moment so far has been because of the language barrier so I guess I can't complain too much. Yesterday, we were all sitting around the dinner table and for some reason my host sister was talking about a pigs. At first, I didn't understand what a chancho was so she decided acted it out as she often does when I don't understand. A simple *oink oink* didn't suffice. Oh, no... for her, acting out a pig involved a blood curdling squeal and running around the table with her hands on her nose (the pig's snout as she later explained)! It didn't take me very long to understand what she was talking about. However, while her back was turned, I gave everyone at the dinner table a wink and continued, pretending not to understand. It took her a good 5 minutes before she realized it... oh man, that look of realization was priceless. It's probably does not seem as funny as it actually was at the time.

In any case, my point is that getting over the language barrier can actually be pretty funny.

~ From Argentina with Love