by Justin Ortman (San Carlos, CA)THE LANGUAGE GAP from Italian to English may not be too difficult to understand, but it can certainly leave a person dazed and stumbling around for the next word, phrase, sentence or hand gesture. I was having a conversation with first Italian buddy and also interviewee for a class project. He speaks decent English, I speak a tiny amount of Spanish, and I’ve attempted to speak Italian for 6 days without having a total successful conversation. I was attempting to ask him what he loved about owning his restaurant, but it really didn’t translate… first attempt he requested I repeat, so I tried again with some Italian mixed in… still he didn’t understand the question; this is where the intercultural flashbang hit… I could hear my ears start ringing and my mind racing as I was trying to phrase a simple question into Italian, but my notes were at home, and my dictionary was with a friend, and my Spanish was returning yet completely useless… at about attempt 5, I think he finally got the idea… ( though I did little to help with that) At the point of feeling completely helpless I realized that it is these miss steps and misspeakings in language that cause us to not focus on anything except that we can’t ask our question or communicate the message. It leaves us dazed, confused, stressed and stumbling around for an answer.
