Spanish Sojourn: Lost in English Translation

Coming to Spain I knew the language barrier would be hard. Trying to communicate ideas when words just don't seem to match the sentiment behind them. Instead, I've relied on hand gestures and vague metaphors to try to get the point across. Don't despair, this translation problem didn't stop me from making good friends, it actually made it a lot more interesting. What also made it more interesting was the fact that the language barrier I'm talking about is between all my english speaking friends...

Jess me and Jessie :)

The english and the irish to be exact. Since two of my roommates are from England, I was thrown into this boiling vat of semantic and lexical confusion from the get go. Picture me just off the 18 hour journey from Boston, lost my first apartment, and now I'm moving in to an entirely new place that very night. My spanish landlord takes me to meet the tenants, "Only two of them are there now, they're from England I think", he says as he opens the front door. I'm thinking, 'This is freaking awesome! It's gonna be like living with Hermione Granger!', says the Harry Potter freak in me thinking all english people sound thee same. We do our introductions. Jess, Jessie and I and I proceed to ask for the wifi password. And this is where it all started...

Me and Jess

Jessie, Rachel, Me, Jess

Annie me and Abbi

Although one may not think an english to american language barrier exists, I can assure you- it does. From the first 'zed' instead of z in the wifi code to how to correctly pronounce aluminum (this one we've settled- a simple spelling difference), it was beyond hilarious. I learned some charming colloquial derby sayings from Jessie, 'Aye up me duck!' and 'Alright youth?', combined with my atrocious mockery of an english accent. Jess adopted some american slang, calling it class instead of uni (aka university), she tries not to admit that one. Abbi greets everyone with an, 'Alrigh' pal?'. We're also still battling the hair style war, they insist the hair cut shorter above your eyebrows is called fringe, I informed them they're called bangs. I don't see a peaceful resolution to this one. Annie and Abbi join in on the fringe-bangs debate as well. They also have mystical things I've never heard before- like chavs, slags, Nandos and Bisto gravy.

Niamh, Me, Annie and Leah

So once I had most of the english sayings mastered I thought I was clear. Then I met the irish. After 4 months every now and then someone will say something and I have absolutely no idea what they mean. Poor Niamh has to translate Geordie Shore for me so I know what the dim witted scantily clad reality stars are saying. They've also got cool names like- Naoise, Cian and Niamh- good luck trying to pronounce those ones. There is a strange dislike for the 'th' sound in Ireland, some kind of phonetic conspiracy- three becomes tree, thirty becomes tirty. It's phoneticide. One day, I was hanging around with Niamh and Annie. Niamh had been calling me a tart all day. Seems weird, it's not a bad insult- it's a dessert. Finally I looked at her and said, 'I don't know why you keep calling me a tart, it doesn't offend me, it's a delicious pastry'. After she recovered from laughing hysterically she had enough composure to tell me she'd been calling me a tard all day.

Niamh and Annie

I blame her accent for that one. Shortly after the tart incident we were sitting around playing Naimh's favorite game, 'Do you have ____ in America?'. This one was the kicker though, she looks at me with the most earnest expression and asks, "Are hillybillys real?". I almost died. Hillbillys Niamh (she'll never live that one down). Leah hails from Donegal, pretty up north there in ireland, and has the greatest accent in the world. If only words could express the way she pronounces my name, alas I can't do it justice. Don't ask any irish person for a flash drive, you'll die before you see your file saved. Try asking for a usb, then suddenly everything makes sense.

It's funny, the number of words and sayings that none of us share but entertaining at the same time. It definitely wouldn't have been the same experience if I hadn't looked like the silly american for the majority of the time I spent with my english and irish friends. They do really great things like....