Making Connections Beyond the Language Barrier
In an age where more and more of our youth find themselves struck with the travel bug, and social media usage is at its peak, we find ourselves with an interesting dilemma. We are all about making new friends and exploring the world around us, but how do we bridge the two whilst we’re abroad? How do we make connections with people around the world when we don’t speak the same language? How do we communicate central ideas and form meaningful bonds with people who express themselves in a different way than we do?
I am fortunate enough to have had a high school experience that prepared me for encounters outside of both my country and my comfort zone. I was taught Spanish up to the highest level through a no-English learning style and was able to hold a meaningful conversation with classmates at my peak. Through those same Spanish teachers I was able to travel to different countries on school trips that presented opportunities for me to practice my language skills on real people who spoke the language natively. Although knowing the language in advance gave me a sense of comfort and a bit of a leg up, it was the patience and personal skills that I eventually realized would help me the most abroad.
On a boat between Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento I got to observe genuine connection building before trying it out for myself. I found myself standing by a window watching the water and eavesdropping on the ladies beside me as they started to form a friendship. They discussed how each of them got to Argentina and where they had come from originally, sharing the details of their home lives and adventures through broken English and a few words of Spanish. They were lucky enough to know little bits of each others language, but even more, were patient enough to work with each other and reason out what the other was trying to tell them.
These ladies learned so much about each other in such a short time, and it left me inspired to want to try it out myself. So when I was approached by a man who thought I was a local and started asking me rapid fire questions in Spanish, I put my nerves aside and seized the opportunity. I told him in my best manageable Spanish that I was from Los Estados Unidos and that I could understand him if he spoke a little bit slower. He laughed and asked me where in the United States I was from and why I was there. We talked about different parts of each of our respective home countries and shared our experiences in both. We used hand gestures, the wrong combinations of words, and lots of laughter to get our messages across to one another.
In an apartment in the nicer area of Barcelona I made friends with a businessman who opened his home up to us for a meal one evening. Switching between Spanish and English, we talked about how he learned each of the languages he knows and how speaking multiple languages has opened the door to so many connections for him. He learned these languages from classes, books, and even TV shows. But the quickest and most impactful way he learned was through conversations with his peers. He learned German by spending a year of school there, forcing him to learn the language in order to succeed in his classes and socially. He made some of his closest friends because of how they managed to communicate whilst he learned to speak a new language.
In addition to these experiences, I just recently heard a story about people from all different parts of the world working together to understand one another on a boat ride in Greece. A friend came back from a family trip beaming about how on a boat ride she was able to make connections with fellow travelers from around the world. Those who spoke multiple languages translated for one another and collectively worked to make sure that not only was everyone involved in the conversation but that everyone truly understood and was able to connect to those around them. Travelers from all over the world, from a variety of different cultures, were able to sit in one place and collectively share in a bonding experience and learn a little bit about each member's part of the world.
Perhaps having a little bit of knowledge of a language can give you an advantage, and can definitely make interactions less intimidating. But the true secret to overcoming the language barrier is the desire to make a connection with other people and the patience to work with one another. With a passionate and patient mindset, bounds of new friends will await you wherever you end up next.