All of a sudden they were all linked together by one simple language – Spanish. They talked about numerous topics ranging from culture to technology to sexual abuse prevention. The conversations flowed well and everyone was involved. Nobody cared about their previous ethnic background or country of origin, they only cared about communicating with the real human beings that God had created around them. The best part – it wasn’t even difficult to do.
If you haven’t picked up on it already, I was the American in that scenario. It was pretty fun if I do say so myself. I was just amazed at the fact that we all connected so easily and didn’t even have to think about it. Also, if you weren’t aware, Spanish is a second (or third) language for 3 out of those 5 countries. For the Haitian who was in the conversation, Spanish was his third language (Creole and French were his first two…followed by Portuguese and English as his fourth and fifth). For the Brazilian, it was her second language. For me, it was my second language as well.
One thing I noticed really heavily in the conversation is that even though we all grew up in completely different countries, we’re all still the living and creative humans that God made us to be. We had similar beliefs, similar interests, similar social levels, and similar styles of communication. We just had little bits and pieces of our home countries that made us unique. Deep down, though, we are all God’s creation.
I feel that often times back in the United States I subconsciously have the opposite mindset when speaking to someone who doesn’t speak excellent English.
Let me explain.
I realized this early into my journey here on the Race but it really hit home hard when we all had this conversation in the kitchen.
Back in the United States, if I was talking to someone who didn’t speak excellent English, my mind would subconsciously say things like:
“Oh, they’re not as intelligent.”
“Oh, they aren’t as socially developed.”
“Oh, they’re so weird because they can’t communicate.”
“Oh, they’re different.”
I never said these things in my mind intentionally, of course. It’s just how it developed and I feel a lot people develop the same mindset unintentionally. We look down on those who can’t communicate as well as us and we call them lesser in our own mind. When, in reality, they’re beautiful humans that have hearts, minds, souls, opinions, ideas, whatever. They have all of that just like we do. Those of us who live in the United States aren’t some superior people that surpass everyone else in intellect/communication/social interaction/etc. (although we might like to think that sometimes). Everyone around the world can create beautiful conversations and ideas. The only thing that separates us, unfortunately, is language. That doesn’t make any man lesser than his neighbor. Language should never create opinions or ideas that someone is lesser or more because of the words they use to communcate.
As I talked with the other four nations in that kitchen, this was a really deep hit to the heart. I can remember numerous times back in the United States where I’ve talked to individuals from other countries who spoke English as a second language. I remember things like watching them need to think of a “simple” word, use a verb incorrectly, or form a broken sentence. During all of those occurrences, my mind would keep building up this idea that they have the mindset of a small child or mentally undeveloped human. Because things that seem normal and simple to us fluent speakers might be really difficult for those from different countries.
In that kitchen, being the foreigner, speaking someone else’s language in their country, I knew what it was like to be in someone else’s shoes. Thankfully, though, it was a great experience all around with everyone being able to communicate well. I still have struggles with trying to figure out what I want to say sometimes in Spanish because I’m not quite fluent (I’m at about 75% right now, if I’m giving myself an evaluation). Although I had a few moments where I had to rephrase what I wanted to say or maybe work some words around to mean something else (for example – “water that comes from the sky” = “rain”), I didn’t think of myself any lesser because of that. That’s when I realized I shouldn’t think of others like that either, neither subconsciously nor intentionally.
I don’t know, this was just a little something I had fun with and felt like I’d share with everyone. Hope you enjoyed reading it!
Also, as one quick announcement, my entire team is fully funded for the rest of our trip except for one person – Abby Elgard (abbyelgard.theworldrace.org). She is ~$2000 short of her goal that needs to be met by December 31st, 2017. If you could consider donating to her fund (click on the aforementioned blog link), we would all appreciate it so much!
Thank you in advance 🙂
