"How do you say..?"

I wanted to write a story about visiting another country and meeting new people. I wanted to talk about how I didn’t really speak the same language as those people, but we still formed friendships and connections. When I went to my penpal’s house we used Google Translate, and broken sentences to communicate mostly, but we still had a lot of fun. I was scared to meet everyone at first, but her parents treated us as close friends, and were super nice. I learned that even though language is important to communicate, you can connect with people in other ways. In Trevor Noah’s book he talks about how much language can connect people, and how much it helped him in life. And I do think that’s true. But my time in Costa Rica with Karina showed that a shared experience can bond people even if you don’t really speak the same language. It showed that you can form a friendship with language barriers, and make connections. I tried to incorporate a little bit of humor, like telling a story of awkward interactions we had. One inspiration I took from Trevor Noah was how he laughed even when it wasn’t appropriate. When Karina told us her cat died I didn’t know how to process it. It was out of the blue, and having your cat be run over by a car is not an everyday occurrence. I, and many people, process some things with laughter, even when it’s not funny, it releases tension. Trevor does that in his book; he’d gone through so much in his life, but he incorporates humor into the storytelling. There were so many awkward experiences when we were having trouble communicating, or didn’t know what to say, but we would always end up laughing. We were laughing at ourselves, and our lack of communication. The laughter released our tension. But we were also laughing because we were having a good time. Trevor Noah explained his many cultures in his memoir, he was an outsider, and insider, and an insider as an outsider. But in my story I am the outsider. I was in a different country, with people who I didn’t speak the same language as. But if I could explain the culture from my experience as an outsider, I would say it’s very open. It’s kind, and welcoming. I was so scared to meet everyone, I didn’t know what to say or do. But when I went to Karina’s house, her family let us in with open arms, and made us feel welcome. I learned that even though barriers and awkward interactions can be painful, they bring people closer together, and help them to form strong connections.