Language Observations

It's been interesting to watch what my language is doing. The other night I met a man from Spain and asked if he'd understand my Mexican Spanish...but then when I tried to speak, all that would come out was Hebrew! (Which he doesn't speak.) I could not even retrieve the word for "now". I kept re-opening my mouth and over and over saying "achshav". A couple times "hoy" came to mind, but then I said, "Lo, lo hayom..." (No, not 'today'). It's great that more Hebrew is sinking in, though. And I'm sure as I acquire more, the two languages will separate accordingly.

Another funny phenomenon has been to hear my English change. Partially, I'm sure because of tiredness and Hebrew influence, but also because I'm using a lot of "foreigner talk" to the others students from countries that do not speak English. So, I drop conjugation from words, avoid contractions, etc. while talking with them. Then when addressing my friend from Austin, TX regarding leaving her door open or closing it as I left, I asking, "Do you want this stayed open?" I've created many interesting constructions, although that's the only that comes to mind right now. (I know I make these kinds of sentences in the states, too. They're just coming up very regularly here.)

I found a post I began to write last week on the shuttle from the airport to here. It reads:

My brain can't seem to conceive that I will be here long term. I just feel like either I'm just on vacation, or that this isn't really a different country (even though I only understand every twentieth word I hear.) On that note, I’m shocked at how many words I’m hearing that I recognize. Common ones, like “excuse me”, “that’s right”, “of course”, “yes”, and “no”, etc. I’m listening to the radio in the shuttle to the university.

Heard a guy on the phone saying he was in Tel Aviv but on his way home to Haifa (and regardless of the circumstances that helped me understand his Hebrew, I was pretty happy at my comprehension). Then he said a word I recognized but couldn’t quite access the meaning: avanti. Suddenly, a mental image of my hand went up and signed the corresponding Israeli Sign Language sign across my face and my brain then translated from the ISL into English! Whoa. Avanti translates as “I get it” or “I understand”, basically. How interesting to see how my brain found a way to access information hidden somewhere in a remote wrinkle of gray matter.

That’s what I wrote on the shuttle. Now my brain seems to understand I’ll be here until June, but I haven’t yet grasped that the majority of people I am meeting right now are only here for the Ulpan and will leave at the end of August. :-/ But I’m making friends with some who are staying until January, a few till June, and most of my church friends will still be here when I return state-side, so’s all good. :-)

At the store today, I was seeking laundry detergent and softener. When I believed I had picked up one of each, I wanted to double check (since I’m not very literate yet), so I turned to the nice Israeli man my friend was talking with about coffee. I held up the softener and asked in Hebrew, “This is second, right?” That got a confused look. So I held up each in turn and in Hebrew asked, “This is first, and after…this?” Another puzzled look. A third time, I tried, “This is soap, right? And this is…um…softener (using the English word)?” He took the softener and said in English, “Yes, (reading the label) soft-e-ner, but I am not familiar with this.” Finally my friend laughed and said, “He probably doesn’t do his own laundry. You’ll have to ask his wife.” Looking back, I think she was absolutely right! (We may be wrong, and perhaps softener is an American thing, but nevertheless it makes for a funny thought that it was not a communication or cultural breakdown, but a gender/individual paradigm difference.)