Language Barrier

There are thousands of languages  in the world, and each country has an unique language and dialect. I like languages because every language has its own meaning and represents something. English has became the world language in the past few decades. Even though I learned some English in China, I barely used it and forgot it immediately. When I came to United states, language became my biggest challenge. In fact, it made my life more difficult and tough. People said the United States was a free country and I totally agreed, but I couldn’t do what I wanted because of the language limitation. The limitation of language brought me many problems, so it made my nostalgia of the way I lived in China more impressive and stronger.

I used to like to study when I was in school in China because I understood what was going on when I studied. I liked to sit in the front of the classroom and became entranced when my teachers talked in Chinese. Sometimes they made fun of something, and I would laugh. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of that moment. I spent one to two hours daily finishing my homework. However, In the United States, it was hard for me to participate in studying. When I looked at the English book, it made me confused. For example, I read a sentence in the book, and there were only three words that I could understand. I would spend three to four hours to understand the reading. Also, when my English teacher made jokes, sometimes I didn’t even know why students laughed. It realized why  language was so important to study when I was in Chicago.

Besides of studying, communication is one of the most important factors to interact with people because people want to know how others think. Even though it is a simple thing we need to do in daily life, it’s very hard to do it when the language is different. In China, if I go shopping and I find an item that is very expensive, I can talk to the seller and try to bargain. It’s kind of similar to the item discount in the United States, but it’s totally different. I can use my language to bargain with the seller. In the United States, I can not do that because I don’t know how to communicate. The word discount was the first English word I remembered when I came to United States. All of these little daily things have made my life difficult. In general, I miss the ease of communicating with others.

On the other hand, making friends is very strange when two people speak different languages if they don’t have same hobby. For instance, an American classmate told me a joke, but I didn’t get his point and remained silent because I didn’t know what he was talking about. It was an awkward moment for me. That is why I don’t have any native speaker friends in the United States. On the other hand, I had many friends in China, and we could talk about everything and jokes. Sometimes I told jokes with my friends, and I said a word in Chinese dialect that had a hidden meaning. They would understand me immediately. There was a tacit understanding when I spoke my language with my friends. Now that I miss my friends, who can really comprehend me.

In conclusion, my nostalgia for enjoying studying, communicating with confidence, and making friends has been lost in translation since I came to Chicago. However, it has begun to change gradually. I am trying to learn English and the U.S. culture. I am also looking for people who speak English so I can make friends with them. Even though the transition in life is very tough, I believe people always find a new direction and recover what they miss from the past.