Adapting to our new culture

I think adapting to a different culture varies tremendously from person to person. For me, being used to living in or near large urban areas, I feel quite at home with the size and pace of Rosario. It is a good-sized city, a bit more than 1.2 million, but doesn’t seem gigantic. And I’m used to taking public transportation and taxis to get around.

My biggest challenge has been with respect to communication. Over the last decade or so, I feel like I have developed a much deeper sense of the subtleties of language. Small word changes can have huge changes in meaning. I find fascinating, for example, how language changes, morphs and develops to reflect the broader society. For example, do you notice how often we adopt terms from computer technologies in everyday usage (the first image in your mind when you hear “Spam” is no longer the meat product in the can)? I think it’s interesting that we don’t have “problems” anymore, but instead we have “issues.” In any event, I've grown to appreciate the finer points of English.

When you try to use a new language, the finer points of communication go completely out the window, and you’re left with trying to communicate in very basic ways. You speak simply, use the present tense, and often incorporate hand and facial gestures. It’s hard when you are in your late teens to do this. It’s even more difficult for an ol’ Economics professor. I have had, and will continue to have, many situations where I simply don’t understand what people are saying to me and I am not able to express what I want to say. For a word nerd, that’s a hard thing to accept.

But all is not without hope. UCEL has terrific instructors who understand the difficulties we are facing and they are providing us with excellent support. Moreover, because we’re here a full semester, tomorrow is another day, and if today was tough, we can give it another try tomorrow. And I suppose that’s how language is learned – not in a few “aha” moments, but instead a long, series of small advances, with a pinch of movement here and a dash of retreat there.

JP