Language

Languages
03-14-05

Today my friend Stefania called, she is back in Georgia from Italy. Our common language is french, but I couldn’t even find the most basic words to express hello over the telephone, everything coming out was Georgian!

We made a rendezvous, and her friend Keti came along too. Keti is Georgian and speaks fluent Italian and some english. Over a coffee we had the most bizarre mixed up language conversation. Stefania would speak to me in french, I would respond in Georgian,and Keti would translate into Italian!

The experience made me remember a couple of my language adventures in New Zealand: once in a little hut along a track through a cloud forest on the South Island, I shared the evening with four Germans and two Italians, english being the common language. We had a massive political discussion, and often I had to come up with random words on the spot to help someone make their point. When disagreements happened, I had to mediate, and it just felt so odd being the American and having to do this.

Another time in New Zealand, I was on a trail with my great friend Ovid, who had just finished up his time in the Israeli special forces, and two East Germans from Drezden. One night, we had a drumming circle with spoons and pots in a little tiny three by four meter weather monitoring hut that we broke into to escape the wind. Outside it was the worst weather imaginable: think freezing rain flying up at us from the fjord valley below our ridgeline. Brrr.

Either before or after the drum circle, we had a memorable discussion about the Holocaust, again demanding my english interpretation and mediation. Ovid was all for putting the past behind, but the East Germans carried a deep guilt with them which made it difficult for them to express on the subject.

In Tbilisi, english is the international language among the Expats, and when I go out for drinks sometimes after the foreigner’s choir rehearsal, Spanish, German, French, and Americans try to speak their best english to get the point across.

My french came back incidentally, but it took a good two hours of absolute confusion as my brain backfired every time I tried to say anything. I suppose it’s a good sign for my Georgian, which otherwise seems like it is improving unbelievably slowly.