bizMe

It’s OK. They speak English here. Along with French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

When I left Illinois to work in Washington, DC last summer, my best friend said to me, “It’s OK. They speak English there. You’re fine, I promise.” While it was a completely off the wall statement, it was true. They do speak English. It was familiar and comfortable. I learned to fit in and belong. Each time I became worried or stressed, my friend reminded me again that they speak English. It became my mantra for two months.

But when it came time for me to live and work in Belgium for four months, she couldn’t say those comforting words. Instead, she said, “It’s OK. They speak English . . . they speak English right? Do they speak English?”

While English is one of many languages spoken here in Belgium, it is not one of the official languages. Working in an international office, I hear more languages than I could ever imagine. The languages vary from room to room, from conversation to conversation. It shocked me to be greeted in French, a language I don’t quite understand. My heart seemed to stop beating for a moment and I wondered to myself, “What did I get myself into?” I must have looked as uneasy as I felt because they laughed and quickly switched to English.

As I settled into my new desk, a slew of languages surrounded me. People shouted between rooms in French, told jokes in Italian, answered phone calls in German and asked me questions in English. I was unprepared, I had not been listening–my brain was too overloaded to understand.

Not having one consistent language spoken in the office has led to several problems I’ve never faced before. For instance, what do you do when you answer the phone and the person on the other end speaks German to you? My first reaction was to drop it and pick it up and practically throw it at my boss. This was not a smart reaction. I was lucky it was not a client, but a wrong number. My boss laughed, but it easily could have been a more important call. Now, I’ve learned to calmly ask people to wait while I transfer them to someone who can help. These situations are frustrating. I cannot solve the problem, when I don’t speak the language. How do you respond when you are being yelled at in a foreign language? When someone is crying and using words you don’t understand? What is the solution? I do my best. I just smile and nod, and look for someone that I know can help the situation.

Speaking English around the office can also be difficult. For instance, nobody has heard of the ‘coat check,’ and people were quite confused when I created signs for one. I had to change the signs so that they read ‘cloakroom.’

As days go by, the language barrier has become less of an issue. I work to listen and understand the French they speak, and once in a while I try to respond, usually with some degree of success. It gets easier each day, but I still enjoy returning to my flat, where all my roommates speak my English. Indeed, while in the midst of an ever-changing flow of languages, hearing the American accent is one of the most comforting to me.