where there is a will, there is a way

Every month I plan to post an interview I made with a person who had decided to live in a foreign country, thus, for whom English as a foreign language is not an abstraction but an everyday reality. Each of them has a story to share, which may serve as an inspiration or a reality check for us language users and global citizens. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our first TEA guest, Danijela from Slovenia, whose beautiful and small home country we so often mistake with Slovakia. Ljubljana = Slovenia. Bratislava = Slovakia!

Hello, Danijela. Thank you for accepting my invitation for a TEA talk.

It's a pleasure.

So, you are from Slovenia originally. Where do you live now?

Now I live in Budapest, Hungary and I must confess I fell in love with this city since I first came here two years ago. It did take me some time to get used to the fact that my new home town is as big as my ex home country, with a population of 2 million. Despite this, bigness did ware off after a while, so much that I stopped feeling like a tourist and already feel comfortable as a local. It is now tourists that stop me for directions. 

How do you feel as an expat?

It feels great! Really, having the chance to observe a new country and participate at the same time. People do still treat me as a foreigner, but with tremendous respect and admiration. I honestly cannot say one single bad thing about being an expat, not next to all the special treatment I have received, be it at the doctor’s office or the work place.

Is language a barrier? Do you manage to communicate with the locals?

Surprisingly enough, I can manage with the language despite the fact that I don’t speak Hungarian. What I learned early on - where there is a will there is a way. Most of the people around me do not speak my native language nor do they speak English, so I was forced to adapt my communication skills. This means I act out my message mostly by using my hands. I have also become an expert on animating conversation with my facial expressions. It’s basically a word guessing game, like charades for example. Physical rather than verbal language proved to be more effective, and even more, a lot of fun!

Share a memorable experience of yours related to language use. 

I have a huge number of those, and they happen daily. Once for example I was involved in a rather unfortunate event when I needed to report two bullies harassing my friend on a train. They kept making sexual verbal remarks to her so I decided to fetch the ticket inspector before it got out of hand. Unfortunately he did not get a single word I was saying in English, which is why I took ‘matters into my own hands’. In order to illustrate the problem, I grabbed the ticket inspector’s butt and pointed to the cabin, which made him realize that there is something inappropriate going on. Thanks to my body language he immediately intervened, stopped the bullying and saved the day. 


What is your experience about Hungarians? 

Hungarians are amazingly open and positive. Sometimes even Hungarians themselves have trouble believing this. It seems they want to believe the stereotype that they are one of the most pessimistic nations. Perhaps this is what hinders them from believing in themselves and expressing their own opinions. When it comes to foreign languages, they are extremely shy. Nice exceptions to the rule are older pensioners I bump into. They don’t worry too much how it sounds, they are happy to practice; even if only with a simple ‘Thank you very much’. 

What advice would you give to someone considering to live abroad?

Free your mind, the rest will follow :)

..Be color blind, don't be so shallow! Thanks for the talk. I hope you enjoyed your tea.

Sure, I did. Tea is en vogue. :-)