Good afternoon, dear Sirs, how are you?
Have you ever travelled abroad? How was your travel?
Are you one of those people who would focus only on speaking perfectly in English (because of course, EVERYONE speaks English perfectly and so everyone is going to understand you perfectly)?
Well, it is supposed to be like this because English is supposed to be the international language. Of course, in every country, touristic guides and in a hotel yes they are going to understand you and to speak in English (without any problem).... However, not all people can understand you perfectly.
For example, I know some cases when a couple of people needed some help from some Italians. When they got lost during their trip to Rome, they wanted to get some help and they used English but people did not know English at all and that's why they could not help. Of course, the people who went to the trip got disappointed and angry because they did not get what they wanted. Of course, since English "is spoken everywhere" they taught Italians just wanted to ignore them and then to gossip after some time.
On the other hand, I learned Italian before my trip to Rome. It took me about 1 year to reach B1 level, by starting from A0 level. Ok, I admit, I was already lucky enough in the sense I was an advanced Spanish speaker, so I learned Italian relatively quickly (I studied too much hard - all afternoon, evening and night long...only Italian and sometimes I would use some other languages - in order not to forget them). Later, I kept studying it until I did not reach the level I wanted.
I went to Italy in 2016 when my level was between B2-C1 level, I guess... and I was so happy I was able to use the language. I used to speak in Italian with salespeople, a taxi driver, one policeman (because at one moment I was lost and I needed some help).
Everyone were more than happy with my level. The salesperson spoke too much about his painting to convince me buy it. It was too much information for me, some words were a bit challenging to understand but at the end I got the point. That was a very good language practice for me.
The taxi driver used to make me too many questions about Serbian sport , especially about tennis. Talking to him was a nice experience.
When I talked to a policeman, I was under the stress. That is why I did my best to memorize his words the fastest I could so I could get my friend and myself out of an area and come back to our hotel. The policeman was very kind and he explained me so well, so I did not have any problem in finding the address.
The cultural shock was the next thing:
In the afternoon, I wanted to drink some cup of coffee (and I did not want an espresso, I wanted a cappuccino since in Serbia we can drink it whenever we want and there is nothing wrong with that) and my friend from Naples ordered 3 cups of espresso coffee. I asked him with the disapproval tone and facial expression "Who on the Earth told you we'd like espresso"
He said: "But, you said you wanted a cup of coffee"
and I said "Yes, but not espresso. I wanted cappuccino. "
The barmen understood everything and he gave us cappuccino and my friend had the same "disapproval" face and he started to give me a lecture about this. My friend felt some small tension between us, so the poor guy pored the glass of water around the table. Since, my mind was thinking completely in Italian, I talked to him in Italian so he did not touch anything. Thank God the barman cleaned everything without criticizing us. Then I simply decided to embrace this small change, as a part of their culture (because I wanted to enjoy my trip and to be happy).
So, despite of this culture shock, I really felt like "at home" because the people were very polite, kind, positive and everything was so awesome. Also, my friend from Rome gave us a ride and we visited also some other parts of Italy (suburb areas - where I was able to see some beautiful gardens, parks, ... ) and when we went to the dinner with this friend, I did not let him order for me, and I spoke so much in Italian language. I suppose even the waiter was very satisficed because a foreigner was able to speak Italian.
In conclusion, don't make the same mistakes like me or like people I mentioned above. Why?
if you are not open minded - you're not going to accept other opinions/habits
If you judge from your own culture perspective, it means you are not ready for something new and you are not able to see the pros and coins of other culture in the right way.
If you master a language, it'll be your perfect guide how to do the previous two activities. Otherwise, there'll always be some lack of resources, information ....
If you come up with any other idea how to get rid of your language barer, just let me know by writing in the comments.
If you need to learn Italian, you can book a lesson right here:
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