Say what now?

 

We are getting up on a year in this country and I still can't have a normal conversation if the topic is remotely complex, or if the person talks fast, or if I feel nervous, etc, etc.  It's okay in class, our teachers are trained to be patient. They know what we know and how to coax it out of us. Outside of class, even with the teachers, I don't understand quase nada. And for the most part, people don't understand quase nada of what I say either. Carol translates a lot and I get the feeling that people feel sorry for me. The experience is giving me empathy. There are plenty of opportunities for me to meet people who have speech challenges or heavy accents or who are deaf or developmental disabled or new comers to the country. Like me, these people will have things to contribute and a need to make connections. Unlike me, they may not know that someday they will rejoin the conversational mainstream. Those people, my foster siblings in frustrations, deserve to be understood and I hope that when the time comes I have the patience and compassion be a good speaker and listener so that we can understand and get to know each other.