The New Year is approaching! I wonder who I will get to meet. Each new year brings new friends. It excites me. I enjoy meeting new people. I especially enjoy meeting new people from other countries. It is a learning experience for me to get to chat with others who have different cultural backgrounds and it’s interesting to me.

I would love to learn another language but I don’t feel smart enough to buckle down nor do I feel I have the time on my hands to study enough to learn one.

If I could, however, I think I should learn Arabic because it seems to be the language that is most widely used with the groups of people I work with. Then again, I have encircled myself with a lot of Somali friends. I think they would like it if I learned their language.
Perhaps I can begin to learn some of it so that I can enjoy communicating and relating to my friends a little more. (I actually know several Somali phrases.)

People always ask me how I am able to communicate with my friends from other countries when I cannot speak their language. It’s quite interesting but I manage to do it. I like to believe that their is a friendly, caring, love language that I believe the Lord gives me to help communicate whatever is needed. I have to play charades a lot, draw pictures at times and make a lot of facial expressions. I’m silly looking sometimes and I often make my friends laugh.

I encourage my friends not to give up on me if I don’t understand something they are trying to say, but to keep trying to express themselves. When our refugee friends are very new to the US they are often shy about trying to force communication. It isn’t long after they meet me that I am able to entice them into making small statements in broken English. I love it when they step out of their comfort zone and trust me or Deborah (my coworker) to work hard to try to understand them.

I must say, it’s hardest to understand my refugee friends on the telephone. Sometimes texting with them helps. Deborah has gotten good at crossing language barriers too. We try to be very patient with our friends, especially our new friends. Carefully watching their body language and listening to them is key. Secretly, I think Deborah and I enjoy the challenge.