Language Barrier

By far, the biggest stumbling block we've faced is the language barrier. Admittedly, we thought it was going to be less of a problem. Reality is another story. No matter how much you rehearse "the script" in your head, it's a whole different story when you have a living, breathing person in front of you. We try our best to not resort to the "Do you speak English?" game, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

Let's say you go into a bakery. You know you want a loaf of "country-bread" and you have the entire verbal exchange translated and practiced. But then they throw a couple of simple questions at you and your cover is blown. Uhh... "parlez vous anglais?" And then they say, "With cumin or without?" Oh... without, please.

In my job search, I've been told a few times that even if they were hiring at the moment, it would be a problem if I cannot speak Dutch. Sure, I knew that would generally be the case, but because most people have been able to speak English at a rudimentary level at least, my thought/hope was/is that it wouldn't be a problem for long. If I was immersed in it on a daily basis and taking a class, I could pick up Dutch very quickly. And before too long, the amount of English we'd have to speak to each other would be negligable.

People have been very kind and willing to speak English to us. The woman who we dealt with to open our bank account even went as far as apologizing for her English! We kept telling her "No, we are sorry." So, we've been able to get along just fine so far and it will only get better. The only time we had a more serious problem was at the commune office.

The office is open daily between 8 and 11 am. That is the window in which all foreigners can apply for a Belgian ID card and/or register with the commune which is what we were trying to do. There was a big room with many "tellers" and seats for people to wait their turn. But before getting in there, you have to check-in at a booth in the entrance. When we got up to the window, Kristen stated our purpose in French, thinking he would just give us a number and motion us in. Instead, he asked a question. A question neither of us understood. Parlez vous anglais? "No. No English!" He tried the question a couple more times in French, but then we just gave up and got out of the line. Frustrated, we were ready to leave and then try coming back another day with someone who spoke French. However, I watched what other people were doing or being told at the window and I decided we should try again. So, this time I went up to the window and held up our passports with mine on top. He saw that I was an "EU citizen" and then spoke to me in broken English, motioning me around to the side so he could talk to me through the open door instead. "First time?" Yes. "Oh, OK!" Then he took our passports and wrote out a slip for each which states that we have to return on October 10th instead to register. That's what he had been asking for when we first got there!

That's right, we in my hood now!

Hmm... how do you say that in Dutch?

--RP--