Speaking Lao

Lately I've been getting a taste of what it must be like for the thousands of refugees and new immigrants who come to Canada each year and must learn a brand new language, our language. I've reached a place in my study of the Lao language where I can understand other people well and I even have quite a wide vocabulary myself. The problem comes when I open my mouth. I know I'm saying the right words (at least most of the time) but I also know that I'm saying many of them incorrectly. My accent looms thick and heavy over me and it can be embarrassing to talk sometimes, particularly if it involves long and detailed explanation.

I mentioned this to Happy at the primary school this afternoon, how frustrating it's been lately to know that I'm saying things wrong and yet have to go on speaking as best I can anyways. What must everyone else be thinking of me! "That's why the children and volunteers are shy about speaking to you in English," he told me. "They're afraid of making mistakes. And they're embarrassed by their accents. But if they don't practice they will never learn! And Jessie it was harder for me when I was an IVEPer in B.C., because I had to speak English, there was no other choice!".

I thought back to a comment an MCC colleague of mine made at a recent international NGO conference, "why is it that your language is known all over the world and no one knows mine?". Yes we are very lucky as native English speakers to be born into a language that others all over the world spend endless time and money to acquire.

So maybe I will never truly experience the language frustrations that new immigrants go through when they come to Canada, but here in Laos, I'm getting a little taste of humble pie.